Posts Tagged 'Infrared Heating Experts'

Sustainable Manufacturing – make a date for the Total Exhibition, NEC Birmingham June 4-6

April 9, 2013 by Cathal Wilson

I am delighted to confirm that Ceramicx and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) will be making a joint presentation together at the prestigious Total Processing and Packaging exhibition in Birmingham UK on June 4.

Myself and Dr Tony Robinson are looking forward to talking to a processing and packaging audience about the cost-saving role of effective Infrared heatwork. The exhibition visitors will be given material with special reference to Infrared-based tools and principles with examples drawn from the processing and plastics thermoforming sector of the packaging industry.  Much of this seminar content will be brand new – ahead of the influential K 2013 plastics show in Dusseldorf this October.

IR based heat technology really helps companies walk the talk in relation to energy saving and sustainable manufacturing. Our presentation will aim to open up some of the fundamentals of that world for Total attending companies and practitioners in processing and packaging. Dr Tony and I will give detailed opportunities for increased production control, accuracy and cost savings through effective IR heatwork; its correct application and the understanding of energy content per part. We will also lay out and explain the fundamental ‘trinity’ of Infrared heating values; namely Absorption, Transmission and Reflection.

Bearing in mind our exhibition surroundings, the bulk of our applied examples will draw on international case studies for fast cycling packaging/thermoforming operations and also in the production of cut plastics sheet.

Dr Tony will also unveil what he can on new research on the net influence of infrared heating on target bodies; including key performance metrics such as temperature homogeneity as well as the net target efficiencies.

This IR research is actually essential for industry and our sustainable future since it precisely maps the energy required to perform the required heating of the target body compared with the energy required to produce the heat at the source.

In all walks of life these days an essential War on Waste continues – and no less so than for matters of heating or energy waste. When concluded, this ground-breaking joint work will enable Ceramicx to form a predictive science and method for IR heat measurement and application. These new techniques will be also be applied by Ceramicx in the further design of its products, components and IR systems engineering as supplied to process and packaging companies worldwide.

Do come and see us at this exhibition make a date for the UK’s Total Exhibition and Seminar programme. Our presentation will give you the first findings and implications of this IR heat research work. We also have a number of time slots for one-to-one heat work consultancy at company level. Please contact me directly at Ceramicx for details.

Many thanks again

Cathal Wilson

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Ceramicx and Weco – ready for USA growth, 2013

January 28, 2013 by Frank Wilson

Last week we took the opportunity to make plans with one of our oldest and most valued associates, Weco International, USA.

Brett Wehner, Weco CEO and Owner, stayed some five days with us as we made extensive plans and schedules for our future from the Ceramicx factory. We toasted old times and – better than that – raised a glass to our new horizons together.

Ceramicx is happy to report that the special relationship is, more than ever, very firmly in place. In many ways the USA remains our most important market, and certainly our most challenging.

The ambition and the sheer scale of many of our US manufacturing customers – in food service packaging, in other plastic forming industries; in multi material bonding, in toughened glass and other sectors – has stretched Ceramicx in a very positive way. 2013 now sees us making plans to service an expanded and dynamic Weco International network that is pitching hard for new work and new horizons throughout the US.

Brett has recently recruited into the main Weco Company. His new affiliate campaign was also very successful after Weco exhibited at NPE 2012. Weco is now looking to extend the infrared heating network even further through all the US states and regions. Weco is accordingly looking for likeminded companies and committed heat work practitioners at all points North South East and West of Weco’s Clio Michigan base.

The US timing and synergy is near-perfect for Ceramicx: Uptake and demand across the USA for our Comfort IR heating products and for our industrial infrared heating solutions – particularly for plastics thermoformers -  will find Ceramicx more than ready.

The upcoming issue of our magazine HeatWorks VIII will show you why in more detail.  Our 8th edition of the magazine should be landing on desks within the next couple of weeks. In HeatWorks VIII we share the detail of some of the minutiae involved in our standard product redesign for ceramic elements. We also give a flavour of our collaborative work in both the automotive sector and for the paint drying and curing. The US market is ready for all this and more & we look forward to servicing increased opportunity there from this year.

(Contact us directly to join the circulation of HeatWorks magazine. It’s free to those involved in the industry)

Posted in Comfort IR, Infrared Heating, Infrared Heating Solutions, IR Heating, Plastics Thermoforming, Weco International | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2013 – a year to savour

January 3, 2013 by Cathal Wilson

Firstly – and from all at Ceramicx, may we wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Something tells me that 2013 is definitely going to be one to remember – and for all the right reasons.

Readers will know that Ceramicx has been firing on all fronts and full capacity for some time now – on the shop floor and in infrared heating markets all over the world. Ceramicx core manufacturing and core products – now benchmarked as World Class – are in volume demand, and are subject to our Continuous Improvement (CI) quality process. By these means we intend to ensure that World Class remains World Class.

And this means, for example, that our trade mission to Chinaplas, Gaunghzhou, in May 2013 will be even more packed with infrared know and solutions than our ground-breaking presence at the show last year. Our 2012 feet on the street approach to China’s hunger for quality engineering saw us sow a unique approach to that market.

2013 will see us raise our service to China up to another level and will also help prepare for the special Ceramicx showing for our date in Dusseldorf at the K 2013 triennial plastics exhibition, October 16-23. These exhibition days in Germany see Ceramicx take a quantum shift forward – both for the company and for the science of infrared heating in the service of plastics-based manufacturing. Dr Tony Robinson of Trinity College, Dublin, will join us at the show, primarily to demonstrate how our new IR heat work – and prototype test equipment – is going to push the future envelope for manufacturers and producers worldwide.

Meantime you will for sure be able to read more about these topics in this blog and in the forthcoming issues of HeatWorks magazine. The next edition will be our eighth such issue. At Ceramicx we are proud of our commitment and abilities in communicating these matters of heat technology. Among other things HeatWorks magazine continues to help provide the proof of an ever expanding and prosperous infrared heating sector throughout the world.

Please don’t hesitate to join the HeatWorks circulation and to communicate with us on any matter of infrared heating.

Enjoy the year!

Many thanks

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Happy Christmas!

December 21, 2012 by Frank Wilson

Looking back, it has been quite a year. Too jam-packed in fact to try and recreate it all again here.

Suffice it to say that – as Ceramicx heads into its financial year-end – we are once again confident of comfortably beating last year’s sales figures and profit margins. Everything tells us that we are on the right track – technical – production – sales and marketing. We renewed our mission with a successful two day strategy meeting last month and we are very happy to be rolling out the plan.

Speaking of which, and looking ahead to 2013 I am fairly confident that – contrary to many doom-Sayers– the world will not actually be coming to an end on December 22nd.

This is great news since Ceramicx has even more to do in the next twelve months. For example, new systems and new infrared heating products are being lined up for launch in the first three to four months of 2013. We then straightaway return to Chinaplas as exhibitors before preparing for our fourth K plastics show, Dusseldorf, October 16-23. In between we have continuing expansion at the main factory plant and a host of IR heating R&D initiatives to manage and progress with academe.

The next edition of HeatWorks magazine – out in January – is quite a bumper edition and will reveal many facets of the current Ceramicx activity mix: We have new IR clam shell products to show you; applications engineering for IR heating in the paint industry; new designs of ceramic-based boss fittings to illustrate and explain as well as reports on a new thermal heating consultancy; our distributors in Germany and Turkey and much else. (Simply contact us direct at Ceramicx for your free copy)

Meantime, there is a festive season to enjoy. I hope that you succeed in making the time to do so and may I wish your business all success and prosperity for the coming year.

At Ceramicx we look forward to welcoming you back on this page in 2013,

Many thanks again.

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The benefits of (thermal) consulting

November 27, 2012 by Frank Wilson

Consultants have had a bad press down the years and often rightly so: As the old saying goes – a ‘consultant’ often shows up as someone who borrows your watch just to tell you the time.

However, an expert consultant with specialist knowhow can often drop one wise word that can save thousands in debottlenecking and wasted blind alleys and cul de sacs.

At Ceramicx, for example, our customers know that we make all our Infrared heating products ourselves and to a world-class standard. That state of affairs is non-negotiable and we would not dream of having anyone else tell us how to conduct this business.

On the other hand, when it comes to support functions such as Computing, IT, Software packages and so forth, it makes no sense at all for Ceramicx to try and invent these ourselves:  Instead we go out and find expert contractors who then deliver the optimum solution on our doorstep to our specification and cost.

Similarly, Ceramicx customers are the same when it comes to heating and infrared know-how. These companies don’t have the time, inclination or resources to pursue learning that might involve two or three people and a two-year programme of thermal study and practice. Rather, Ceramicx clients need an expert heating solution already scoped out – with all attendant technical and commercial benefits – and delivered to a deadline; sometimes yesterday.

Over the coming months Ceramicx will showing how this heatwork consulting process is a vital part of our work. A full and proper engagement at the consulting stage not only helps the hardware and system design, it also makes for great benefits down-the-line, repeatable ease-of-manufacture and increased profits for the client company.

As many of you may know Ceramicx is already working with the team led by Dr Tony Robinson, Trinity College Dublin on an applied research project supported by Enterprise Ireland.

Tony’s thermal dynamics consultancy launches in the next week or two and Ceramicx is also pleased to be involved in supporting the work of the consultancy and its outreach.

Our next issue of HeatWorks magazine – publishing early January – will feature a ‘curtain raiser’ article on the kinds of heating projects that Tony and the team can tackle – across a great variety of industries and consumers.

In the meantime, please contact us directly for any heat consulting needs and/or to join our HeatWorks magazine circulation. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted in Frankly Speaking, Heatworks, Infrared Heating, Infrared Heating Consultants, Infrared Heating Experts, IR development, IR Heating | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment