Venkatmani Manavalan

I started as a young ceramic engineer at Hindware in 2009, fresh out of a B.Tech in Ceramic Technology from Anna University, Chennai. The first thing the plant taught me was that almost nothing I needed to know was written down anywhere I could reach. Colleges teach theory; plants run on practice — and the two barely talk to each other.

Over 17+ years across plants in India, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia, I kept seeing the same thing: the practical knowledge that actually keeps casting benches, glaze lines, and kilns running stays locked inside plants. It lives in a few experienced heads, it leaves when they retire, and every new engineer has to rediscover it the hard way.

CeramicNinja is the resource I wished existed in 2009 — practical ceramic manufacturing knowledge, written from the plant floor, open to anyone in the industry. Articles, test methods, defect guides, jobs, and suppliers, all in one place, serving plants worldwide.