1 HANDLING: Never roll crucibles on the floor for transportation. Any damage of the protective surface glaze leads to accelerated oxidation, which in turn, promotes loss of strength and premature failure.

2 PRE-HEATING: Crucible preheating is one of the most important aspects to prolonging crucible life. Many times, damage is done to the crucible during pre-heat that is not evident until well into the crucible /melting campaign. Never fire a crucible while curing the furnace refractories. The varying temperature ranges will oxidize the crucible bonds. Crucible should be brought up to about 200®C for 30 minutes empty. This step is to drive off any moisture that the crucible could have been exposed to. After this crucible should be taken up to 800®C to 900®C as rapidly as the furnace will take it, and then brought down to operating temperature. The crucible then should be charged with metal (ingots /liquid).

3 CHARGING: Place large metal ingots vertically into the crucible. Make sure that there is adequate clearence between metal ingots and crucible wall. Do not wedge cold metal ingots horizontally inside the crucible. During heating, the metal will expand and cause bursting of the crucible. On no account should metal ingots be thrown into the crucible, as this will damage rim and wall of the crucible. Metal ingots or other heavy metal pieces should be placed carefully into the crucible using special tongs.

4 CLEANING: Proper dross removal is very important. The crucible should be thoroughly scrapped after the first heat while still hot. Subsequently, the crucible should be scraped at the end of each day. A proper tool that has rounded edges and a curvature similar to the inner wall of the crucible should be used to clean the crucible. Slag/dross is harmful to crucible life. When heated, slag can expand ten times that of the crucible, causing cracking. Slags also contain flux material and increase the danger of the flux attack. Dross is an insulator. The deposits will cause longer melt times, higher fuel consumption and reduce crucible capacity. This insulation will lead to oxidation and cracking.