With the advent of the First Industrial Revolution, porcelain enamel started to be applied to substrates as iron and cast iron. The development of industrial porcelain enamel was so closely linked to the advances in metallurgy and chemistry of the late 18th century that the porcelain enamel industry was attracting the best chemists of the time. Although it is known that in the second half of the 1700s some industries were patenting the first porcelain enamel processes on steel sheets, it was only in 1851 that the first manual on technical porcelain enamel was published. At that time, iron sheets were obtained by the hammering of cast iron to produce the first porcelain enameled plates. Around 1870, the almost total porcelain enamel production was limited to cast iron hollow ware, but in the following years, it was possible to produce high-quality cast iron pans, which were white porcelain enamel both inside and outside.
In the second half of the 19th century, porcelain enamel faced different technical problems, such as the lack of pure raw materials and the development of new production methods for steel, but on the other side, many advancements were achieved, such as the discovery of new production methods for pigments. Probably, one of the most important discoveries in this field was represented, using clay to keep the powdered porcelain enamel in suspension in water: this way allows applying the porcelain enamel simply by painting, spraying, or the immersion method. This way, it was possible to produce more durable porcelain enamel at lower costs.
Around the year 1900, Mr. John C. Reed introduced the machine molding of bath tubes, which boosted the sanitary porcelain enamel industry. In the same years, the introduction of antimony compounds as opacifiers in dry coat porcelain enamel is considered an important achievement. The porcelain enamel industry boomed some years after World War I, in the USA, and the manufacturing of refrigerators, stoves, sanitary ware, and household objects grew very rapidly, but it suddenly stopped with the advent of World War II, when porcelain enameling plants were converted to the treatment of war materials. In 1942, the development of titanium-based white porcelain enamel gave a great boost to the rebirth of the porcelain enamel industry, and new products, such as chimney pipes, dishwashers, cooking hobs, and water heaters started to be porcelain enamel. In the following decades, the porcelain enamel industry continued to evolve, also thanks to the development of new deposition techniques, which made it possible to obtain better quality products in an increasingly efficient way. Nowadays, porcelain enamel is commonly applied to many everyday use objects, but it is also used for the covering of panels for architectural applications.