In-line moisture-content measurement of ceramic materials in ceramic article manufacturing

An in-line method of measuring a moisture content of a substantially dry log formed from ceramic material and having a surface with a shape, and used to form a ceramic article, comprising:

• generating at least one radio-frequency (RF) field using at least one RF sensor arranged relative to the log so that the at least one RF field resides substantially entirely within the log;
• in response to the at least one RF field interacting with the ceramic material in the log, measuring with the at least one RF sensor a corresponding at least one response signal representative of a raw moisture-content measurement in the log;
• generating calibration data by performing RF moisture-content measurements on log samples made of the same ceramic material but having different known moisture contents;
• and
• using the calibration data and said at least one response signal to form at least one calibrated moisture-content measurement for the log.

An in-line system for measuring within an extrusion system a moisture content of ceramic material with a surface and used to form ceramic articles, comprising:

• at least one radio-frequency (RF) sensor system having an RF antenna and arranged relative to the extrusion system, the least one RF sensor configured to generate an RF field through the RF antenna and substantially entirely within the ceramic material so as to generate a response signal SM that contains raw moisture-content information;
• a computer-readable medium connected to or included within the at least one RF sensor and configured to store the raw moisture-content calibration information and to store calibration data obtained by performing RF moisture-content measurements on samples of the ceramic material having different known moisture contents;
• and
• a processor operably coupled to the computer readable medium and configured to execute instructions that cause the processor to calculate a calibrated moisture-content measurement based on the response signal SM and the calibration data stored in the computer-readable medium.