Advantages and Disadvantages
of pottery

Advantages

High Electrical Resistance

Ceramics have a high electrical resistance compared to other materials like steel or plastic. They are often used as electrical insulators. Ceramic materials are largely used in electronics, since they may be either semiconducting, superconducting, ferroelectric, or an insulator depending on their composition.

Extremely High Melting Point

Having a high melting point means that pottery is heat resistance. This property of pottery makes it perfectly well for tableware or cookware. By using pottery dishes as containers, you can cook food on the stove, microwave, or oven.

High Hardness

Since potteries have a high hardness, it means that it has less abrasion, thus can be used for a longer time compared to other materials.

High Compressive Strength

Compressive strength refers to the resistance of a material to breaking under compression. Therefore, having a high compressive strength cause less deformation in potteries and makes it less breakable.

Disadvantages

Easily Cracked When Hit Harder Materials

Pottery fractures can result from a sudden and strong applied force on the item or by uneven alignment of particles. Like when pottery dishes fall onto the floor, it will definitely break and fall apart. When it breaks, it is basically impossible to repair into what it originally looked like. Since pottery can be easily cracked when hit harder materials, it is also hard to carry along, which makes it not as convenient as plastic boxes or materials made out of metal.

Expensive

Although clay can be easily bought, the process of making pottery requires a lot of effort and time. Almost all of the potteries are handcraft, and as you can see in the previous sections, making one pottery piece involves stages from planning, shaping, burning, and more. And it is also hard to produce a flawless pottery every single time.

Sensitive to Thermal Shock

A thermal shock is when the temperature changes suddenly and causes stress in an object. Potteries have poor thermal shock resistance. They can crack when undergo a thermal shock, like after burning the pottery at an extreme high temperature, then suddenly moves it to a cooling area where there is a huge temperature gap between the two.