DPL (Sri Lanka)

Posudmeister has been partners with DPL, a porcelain manufacturing company, for more than twenty years. We’ve been with them longer than with anyone else, and they are our favourite brand. According to our own statistics, the most frequently sold items, both through our stores and online store, are the DPL porcelain ware.

A little bit of history. In the second half of the 20th century, several then top managers of the Japanese company Noritake decided to launch their own enterprise. Sri Lanka – the island known for its endemically clean quartz sand, feldspar, kaolin, porcelain clay, as well as low-cost labour, was chosen as a location for the company’s manufacturing facilities. By that time, one of the Noritake factories had already been successfully operating in Sri Lanka. It took quite a while to organize the complicated manufacturing process. And yet, for over 30 years, DPL, a company with Japanese capital, using advanced technologies and Japanese equipment, has been manufacturing the finest porcelain sold in many countries across the world. Over 60 per cent of the company’s products is exported to the U.S.A. The rest goes to various countries of Europe and Asia.

What makes DPL’s porcelain different from its counterparts and why does it sell so well all around the world?

1. Its excellent quality for everyday use. It’s white, lightweight, and translucent.
2. The porcelain is absolutely environmentally friendly (confirmed by certificates).
3. It’s the best value for money.

Today, good porcelain tableware isn’t particularly hard to find. Luckily, the Soviet times, when there was a shortage of these goods, are a thing of the past. There’s a wide range of porcelain tableware in almost any grocery store, cash & carry store or on the marketplace. Still, how to make the right choice?

A few facts:

1. First of all, you should know that a porcelain body is composed of more than a dozen components, including quartz, kaolin, feldspar, etc. Some heavy metals and rare earth elements (cadmium, cobalt, lead, gold, platinum, mercury, etc.) are used in the production of transfers (decals). Most of these metals and elements, in their pure form, pose a threat to the human health.
2. Under normal conditions, once coated with glaze, porcelain wares are fired at 1,200 degrees Celsius for eight hours. After the wares have been decorated with transfers (decals), they are sent for a second firing at the same temperature.
3. During the firing, all the harmful substances are basically “neutralized” and no longer pose any threat.
4. We didn’t mention “normal conditions” for no reason, since the porcelain-making process may go wrong, in which case the ware, with cadmium and lead washed away during everyday use, turns into “slow poison”.
5. Every DPL shipment is thoroughly tested: the ware is dipped into a special solution for twenty-four hours. Then a spectrophotometric analysis is performed on the solution. The content of cadmium, lead, and mercury in the DPL porcelain ware is 500 times below permitted levels, which only proves the products are absolutely health-friendly.

So, how to make the right choice? How to make sure that the tableware you are about to buy is safe? The process of making porcelain is quite energy-consuming. The ware is fired at 1,200 degrees Celsius for sixteen hours, and for that you need to burn a lot of gas and use megawatts of electricity. And that results in high cost. That’s why fine porcelain is never cheap. So, you’d be well-advised to stick to a simple formula when shopping for porcelain: a single item of safe, high quality porcelain simply can’t cost less than five dollars!

Are you still tempted to buy that low-priced plate at your local store?