Is incinerator manufacturing an art or a science? It is agreed that while art is subjective, science is objective. When we talk about art, we talk about skill – innate or acquired - and knowledge acquired from both studies and experience.  We also know the art form improves from time to time, based on responses to its current form and the changes in the perspective of the artist. The original art form continues to be precious, though.  When it comes to science, it has to be precise and hence objective. However, science is subject to constant review, improvement and total revamp, making in the process, previous things obsolete!

In the light of the above, we considered a strange request from one of our prospective clients asking for information regarding the earliest working Haat incinerator.

This set us thinking and made us do a survey of some of our incinerators still working for nearly two decades. We sent emails to a few of our oldest customers within the country and abroad.

We sent mails to a dozen customers and received responses from seven. There were three from South India, two from North and two from Far East. The age of these incinerators was in the range of 12 to 17 years. The others did not respond either because some of them were no longer in their positions or some may have changed their mail ids.

To our surprise, almost each of the users confirmed that the incinerator manufactured and supplied by Haat many many years ago was still in operation and in good condition. These machines required some refractory patch work and painting but were otherwise in perfect working condition. A few of them wanted to know if the incinerator models in their possession have undergone any change. When we gave them brochures of the new-look incinerators, we received orders from at least two of them.

We are, therefore, justified in coming to the conclusion that “incinerator manufacturing is both an art and science!”