Orlando here we come!

March 23, 2012 by Cathal Wilson

When NPE opens its doors on April 1, Orlando Florida, the Ceramicx Wild Geese, Patrick Wilson and Tadgh Whooley will have flown in and helped set up shop.

Patrick is one of the newest recruits to our team and Tadgh is one of longest standing employees and both have a different set of skills that will complement each other and service the NPE show perfectly.

Patrick’s schooling and education has seen him track the fortunes of the oil and gas industries across three continents and languages are high up in his skill set. It’s most likely that they’ll be needed since this year’s premier American show is expected to see a big upswing of visitors from Central and Southern America.

Brazil recently overtook the UK as the 6th largest world economy. The boom in South American manufacturing is embracing plastics – no doubt about it – and Ceramicx hopes and intends that many such business take advantage of all that our infrared heating solutions have to offer.

The Ceramicx Wild Geese also offer IR applications engineering know-how in depth: Tadgh Whooley, Technical Sales Engineer, and veteran of a number of international shows, most recently the K 2010 in Dusseldorf – will also be on hand for all matters of technology and applications engineering.

Tadgh will be able to advise on heat characteristics and performance parameters for various kinds of plastics – especially in sheet version for thermoforming needs.

Tadgh’s recent work in all aspects of custom built IR applications engineering, including technical certification; system design and installation will also be available for visitors to the US triennial show.

Expert in electrical engineering, AutoCad and other aspects of IR heating system design, Tadgh also oversees all halogen tungsten heater sales for Ceramicx – also available in the US via Weco International.

You can read all about Ceramicx at NPE in this month’s HeatWorks issue. Contact Ceramicx direct to get your free copy.

Posted in ceramicx, Heatworks, infrared heaters, Infrared Heating, Infrared Heating Experts, IR development, Thermoforming, Weco International | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

What a difference a year makes

March 5, 2012 by Frank Wilson

Anyone doubting the ability of US manufacturing to pick itself up and get stuck into business through 2012 could do worse than read our forthcoming edition of HeatWorks magazine where we devote some eight pages to the issue.

Today’s trade winds are a funny thing. Only in the past couple of weeks has it been comfortable to recognise the US situation, come out and name it. That’s how fast things change globally and that’s how sensitive the international trading barometers are set these days.

Putting our US material together has reminded me of the critical importance of that country’s infrared heating needs for Ceramicx. The US remains our number one market and Ceramicx is fortunate enough to have a partner there in Weco International whose watchwords include persistence, determination and integrity. In truth it is these qualities that are now seeing US manufacturing through. That, together with a new leap of imagination that sees US manufacturers finally taking the energy-saving message on board.

This latter news certainly gladdens my heart: If US manufacturing is finally being provoked into realising how much energy it puts through its processes then there surely is hope for the rest of the world. Not measuring, not caring how much your plant spends on energy, is questionable business sense to say the least.

The new agenda sees our infrared heating technology and our energy monitoring systems taking market share and growing in reputation. The triennial Amercian plastics exhibition in Orlando Florida, April 1-5, will give us added opportunities to prove it to that sector. Already we are servicing US plastics thermoformers and blow moulders who have bought new machines but who realise that the energy performance needs to be even better, both for energy monitoring and for energy effectiveness in heat work.
Brett Wehner will therefore lead his Weco/Ceramicx team onto the Orlando Florida showground on April 1 knowing that increased manufacturing optimism; increased demand for quality engineering and increased demand for energy efficiency all point in favour of great business at NPE 2012.

The US market is now ready to buy a quality and efficient heater -  not just on price, but also on performance and energy measurement. There has been a shift in attitude. Infrared heating ideas and solutions are coming up further in the mix. It’s time for capital investment once again, and it’s also time for US manufacturing to invest in its future.

One short year has made all the difference – and Weco/Ceramicx is ready for the business, with IR products and services to match.

Posted in ceramicx, Infrared Heater Manufacturer, infrared heaters, Infrared Heating, Infrared Heating Solutions, Infrared Heating Technology, IR development, Weco International | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

New year – new partnerships – new business

February 17, 2012 by Frank Wilson

Ceramicx is currently in the middle of preparing our marketing materials and strategies for the upcoming big plastics exhibitions in the US and China this April.

left to right, Ted Rosingana ( Weco International ) Bob Davis ( P.C.S. ) Frank Wilson ( Ceramicx ) Brett Wehner ( Weco International )

Every week the count down brings yet more positive and new elements into the mix: This week I want to thank Brett Wehner, Director of our US partner Weco International, who has reached a technology and distribution deal with a very dynamic and enterprising company, Process Control Technologies.

 

 

Thanks to the gentle arts of partnership and negotiation, the US infrared heating market just got a little bigger and better for all of us:

Process Control Solutions (PCS), founded in Portland Maine 34 years ago, is a distributor, manufacturer’s representative and integrator of heaters, controls and sensors.  The PCS team supports sales for New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and its focus is on selling technical products through superior product knowledge, application experience, project management and customer and technical support.

PCS facilities include a new and modern 2,000 square foot office with conference room, 4,500 square feet of warehouse and workshop, a box truck for system deliveries and installations and service vans for on site technical support. PCS also has in house 3D CAD software, fabrication and assembly and even equipment testing and acceptance within our facility.

Like ourselves, and like Brett’s business, Process Control is a family-owned company. I guess that’s partly how the deal goes down quicker. Across the world it sure enough helps the commerce when like minds and like values can speak with like.

One direct consequence of our new set-up is that the expert Process Control know-how will now be a welcome part of the the Weco/Ceramicx range of wares and expertise on show from April 1-5 at the NPE 2012 show.

We’ll tell you all about it in our next issue of HeatWorks magazine, out next month. Our own Patrick Wilson and Tadgh Whooley will be part of the teamwork in Orlando, Florida. We expect good business from all corners.

I said at the beginning of the year that the theme of partnership was already looking like a theme for 2012. Sure enough, the proof of the pudding is coming through already.

Slainte!

Our NPE 2012 preview and USA infrared heating update will be featured HeatWorks magazine – sixth edition – out next month. If you want to get onto the circulation or have a story for our next issue – just order up from Ceramicx direct and get yourself on the mailing list.

Posted in ceramicx, Infrared Heating, Infrared Heating Solutions, Uncategorized, Weco International | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

All points East and West

February 10, 2012 by Cathal Wilson

Small companies such as ourselves who supply to a full variety of global markets have to develop a strong mindset that can cope with being in several places at once.

I haven’t yet run to having the international time zone clock on my desk – but right now it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. East is meeting West more and more frequently in international business these days – particularly as China’s performance and ambitions continue to rise.

For example, no sooner have we finished the preparation and issues relating to our first Ceramicx exhibition stand at Chinaplas, Shanghai (the show begins in late April 2012) than I’m thinking about marketing needs for the USA National Plastics Exposition starting in Orlando Florida three weeks earlier.

At the same the Ceramicx factory floor is seeing the first fruits and benefits from our Innovation Partnership manufacturing research work – conducted with the University of Limerick team.

It’s all good. In fact the cross fertilisation of various markets and marketing needs helps us at Ceramicx to realise the common platform for infrared heating needs worldwide. We get to identify the strongest common denominators in our products and the marketing of the Ceramicx brand. We enhance these elements accordingly and we also get to make the IR heating benefits and applications even clearer.

And our next edition of our HeatWorks magazine will therefore outline and celebrate these issues and markets in a special East/West edition which Ceramicx will publish next month, ahead of these important shows.

In the meantime, what time is it in Beijing?……

Posted in ceramicx, infrared heaters, Infrared Heating, Innovation Partnership, Innovation Partnership Project, IR development | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The power of ideas

January 30, 2012 by Frank Wilson

Sooner or later in business one will stumble over the fact that “an idea doesn’t care who owns it.” Opportunity, conflict and plenty of work for lawyers can all follow on from there.

This free principle of ideas applies of course to both good and bad ideas – and timing is also everything. Some developments are ahead of their time and will alas be still-born while others wait too long, and opportunity then passes them by.

The trick is to have time and tide meet at just the right moment: And, to date, our new Irish Centre for Manufacturing Research (ICMR) is showing all the signs of a successful launch that is steadily gathering steam.

Barry Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer, is steering the ship and our HeatWorks V Magazine issue contains a full interview with him about the goals of the new ICMR organisation and the progress made to date.

What pleases me most about the new ICMR is that is committed to a long overdue awakening of all the natural innovation and manufacturing talent that is already under our noses here in all corners of Ireland: Barry’s terms for this activity include ‘mapping tacit knowledge’ and ‘encouraging translational research’.

In other words, our manufacturing companies ‘know much more than they know’. Our new ICMR project now gives us the opportunity to unleash the power of this know-how and to communicate it to all our manufacturing enterprises, large and small.

As said – an idea really doesn’t care who owns it: Performance metrics and continuous improvement techniques such as Six Sigma, Kaizen, Can-Ban, OTIF, OEE and many others are available for successful translation into businesses at any time. Ceramicx, of course, is a founding member of the ICMR.

In particular we feel we have a clear role and talents to use helping bring the message to small to medium enterprises (SMEs); helping them to understand and apply the power of ideas; some of which will play out in quite a different way to the process in larger enterprises.

It’s a two way street: SMEs are more than capable of generating original first principles and great new ideas that can be of valuable worth to larger organisations. After all, everything started out small once.

Our new ICMR now gives our manufacturers a dedicated place in which to communicate and share the power of ideas to a point of optimum use and take-up. At Ceramicx – the infrared heat consultants – we are committed to advancing this work. Indeed, we look forward to seeing it catch fire over the coming months.

Posted in ceramic heaters, Infrared Heating Consultants, Irish Centre for Manufacturing Research | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment