Heating solutions for plastic thermoformers will be central to the Ceramicx exhibition at K 2010
Leading international heating systems specialist and manufacturer Ceramicx has finalised its exhibition details with German heating experts Freek for their joint exhibition stand in Hall 11, A-01 at the prestigious K 2010 triennial plastics industry exhibition. K 2010 runs at the Dusseldorf Messe, Germany, from Wednesday October 27th to Wednesday November 3rd.
Ceramicx founder Frank Wilson says that ‘we realise full well that much of the plastics sector has been waiting until K 2010 in order to review the latest that plastics technology can offer. We hope to raise more than a stir in the worldwide plastics thermoforming industries where our infrared heating solutions and machine retrofits in that regard are putting back the profit for thermoforming processors.’
At K 2010 Ceramicx will accordingly provide an extensive range of infrared heaters: And thanks to pioneering work just completed at the company’s main plant, all of these now come supplied with complete traceability and operating information that exceeds anything else available on the market. ‘Every single one of our heaters is now traceable and its performance available for analysis on an individual basis – online, anytime,’ says Wilson. Ceramicx will be demonstrating the power of this traceability and the heating performance data live on screen at the show. All of the company’s products and services will feature in a newly commissioned HD digital film that will be viewable at the show.
Says Wilson, ‘the international character of the K 2010 show always suits us very well. Our visitors are always very pleased to find out that we provide a service and delivery time to anywhere in the world that always exceeds expectations’ Ceramicx is also fast becoming a world leader in providing infrared applications engineering know-how for the largest blue-chip manufacturers in the world down to the smallest ‘heat work’ applications.
K 2010 will see the plastics industry able to purchase a range of ceramic heaters, quartz heaters and, quartz halogen/quartz tungsten heaters from the Ceramicx/Freek stand.
The Ceramicx/Freek stand will also provide visitors with a live materials testing system that will demonstrate the heating effect on different kinds of plastics using different heaters. ‘Ceramicx and Freek challenge anyone with a moulding or thermoforming heat processing issue to come to us – have the material sample worked with - and get the best heatwork advice available.’ says Wilson. ‘Many many plastics processors, for example, have still yet to appreciate the difference that different infrared sources can make to their operations – and many new materials producers – particularly in the new biopolymer area are still searching for optimum processability
Ceramicx’s exhibiting partner Freek will have most heating bases covered when it comes to issues of injection moulding heating, hot runners and other systems. Freek’s extensive product range at K 2010 will include Nozzle Heaters (HotMicroCoils); Cartridge heaters; Tubular heaters; IR elements; flat heating elements (panel heaters) in mica, silicon (incl. drum heaters), polyester and kapton and thermosensors and temparature controlers. Freek also plans to bring its notebook based TIM IR camera system in order to help show off the benefits of heating generally.
Nozzle heating innovation from Friedr Freek at the K 2010 exhibition
Chief among the Freek new products at K 2010 is the company’s revolutionary patent pending nozzle heater design (please see attached picture) .
Freek director Stefan Kaiser explains that ‘our recent patent application here has been necessary in order to emphasise our product difference and superiority to various kinds of rogue copies already on the market. The simplicity and effectiveness of our design will appeal to all of those mould makers or hotrunner manufacturer visiting the K 2010 show. The newest addition to the Freek nozzle heater family is a classic illustration of our development philosophy - “simple is best”.’
Kaiser adds that ‘our innovation principles are testament to the enduring success of our simple reflection tube heating systems. We believe that these still represent the benchmark for the industry – versatile, current and cost-effective.’
Freek will also show some of its work in its shape memory alloys, ThermoLock and ThermoDrive. ‘This is a long term project’ says Kaiser. We want to be totally sure that the alloy keeps its attributes in a steady state under high-temperature working conditions. To gain more security in regard to high-temperature operation we are participating in a funded SMA network bringing together producers, processors, users and research institutes.
Both Ceramicx and Freek are well aware that K 2010 is going to be remembered for its focus on energy efficiency and for ecological processing solutions. Frank Wilson of Ceramicx says that ‘this is an inevitable direction in manufacturing worldwide. The companies that Ceramicx wants to meet at K 2010 are those that see energy-useage and monitoring as a major factor in equipment construction of any kind. Ceramicx is right at home with the low carbon future. We promote the ideas through the measurement of energy content in our own work and also through the encouragement of energy monitoring ideas throughout thermoforming – including measuring part-energy content.’ The differences in energy savings between the ceramicx product and other similar/competing products on the market, ceramic products in particular are significant.
For its part, Freek is firstly looking forward to greeting the hotrunner manufacturers visiting K 2010. Says Kaiser, ‘they need heating solutions from back to front: bushing heaters, channel heaters and nozzle heaters – especially the latter. The injection moulders themselves are also a key audience. Part of the appeal of the K exhibition is the great diversity of industries and applications that use process heat. Within polymers – and in addition to thermoforming and injection moulding – there are a multitude of heat processes, such as sealing, welding, labelling, drying who could all find solutions on the stand we share with Ceramicx.’
Both companies are optimistic about the future of plastics processing and about the centrality of the K exhibition in driving the industry forward. Ceramicx has seen a general surge in demand for its quality-based infrared engineering and products. Freek also has posted growth figures this year and sees the general expansion for plastics continuing. Freek characterises the low-carbon industrial future as one of “resource saving” – ‘a mega trend,’ says Kaiser, ‘that focuses on both energy and materials. It also explains the miniaturization trend in our industry. Miniaturization has been one of two major impacting developments at Freek. The other has been what we call “Xtreme Development”. Examples include: Hotcoil heaters for 400V supply, Hotcoil heaters 1250V load tested and HighPower Hotcoils 1800 mm long.
Freek’s latest miniature heating production includes a tubular heater of diameter. 3,3 mm and 3×3 mm. ‘This product was presented at the end of last year’s Fakuma show,’ says Kaiser, ‘yet is also a high potential product in our this years K show exhibition. It’s available in stainless steel and nickel and made for miniature hotrunner channels.’ Kaiser says that ‘Freek still makes the smallest compact heating available in the market – and with appealing price-performance ratios to match. The Freek Microcoil dia. 1,3 mm and the 1,0×1,6 mm are now produced with the same process routine and reliability as the bigger size standard dia. 1,8 mm resp. 1,3×2,3 mm. significantly.
Wilson and Kaiser agree that the industry has much to look forward to in Dusseldorf in late October. ‘For anyone involved in processing and heat work,’ says Wilson, ‘our joint stand will be big on practicality and provability: Between both companies there isn’t much that we don’t know about the heat forming of plastics – and we hope to show those skills in depth to the visitors at K 2010 in Dusseldorf this year, October 27-November 3.
For further information on Ceramicx and Freek at the K Show please see www.kshow2010.com
All further details from Ceramicx, Frank Wilson, Managing Director.
www.ceramicx.com , Tel. +353 28 37510, Fax + 353 28 37509, frank@ceramicx.com
All further details from Freek, Stefan Düllmann, Marketing & Development.
www.freek.de Tel +49 2373 9590-16, Fax +49 2373 959030, s.duellmann@freek.de
The 18th K international plastics exhibition takes place in Dusseldorf, Germany from October 27 to November 3, daily from 10.00am to 6.30pm. Ceramicx and Freek will be jointly exhibiting in Hall 11 – Stand A-01.
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.
Once upon a time – perhaps twenty years ago – plastics manufacturing began to pay some attention to the cost of running machines. Buyers saw energy monitoring and efficiency as a ‘nice-to-have’ extra for production. The function was mainly to provide production information for management.
GCAE stands for Guangzhou Cerami Automatic Equipment and is located in Guangzhou city, the economic centre of South China’s coastal areas. GCAE now has a special remit to promote Ceramicx in China and with ambitious plans to become Ceramicx’s biggest worldwide agent/distributor.