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Why we choose Chinaplas

The importance of Chinaplas to us and the infrared industry is never underestimated and it’s the only global trade show we never miss. Continuously busy over the four days, the show attracts the industry’s biggest and best from around the world, with over 180,000 visitors and nearly 4,000 exhibitors, and Ceramicx has committed to attending our 7th show.

We see Chinaplas as a fantastic, and sometimes our only opportunity to meet some of our EU distributors face to face on their own stands. But we can also catch up with many of our partners and colleagues in the infrared industry, and of course, meet plenty of new and existing customers.

But one of the key reasons we attend is to lend our support to one of our top partners, and our distributor in China, GSAE. Based in Guangzhou, the team sell significant quantities of our ceramic and quartz elements to their internal market. Chinaplas gives us the chance to not only work alongside them, but to socialise and thank them in person.

What we expect from Chinaplas

We already know the show will be buzzing with activity and the potential for new partnerships and customers – it always is. But Chinaplas has shown that it’s the only expo we’ve been a part of where customers will buy product directly from the stand each day.

They’ll often use the show as an opportunity to consider their options on their infrared requirements, with some customers actively looking to change their supplier as well. Buying individual elements from us, they’re able to test their quality and capabilities for their own applications before making a decision. It’s certainly a tactic that’s worked for us in the past.

As well as that, our GSAE partners will be selling the Ceramicx brand and taking bulk product orders from both new and existing customers alike. Chinaplas is certainly a show that works for selling product – more than any other – so we’re looking forward to more of the same.

And finally…

It’s no surprise that many companies use the captive audience of Chinaplas to launch new or improved product – and Ceramicx is no different. We’re still working on a few new projects which we intend to take with us, but we’ll release more details about those nearer the show.

Manning our 18sq.m stand at this year’s show, together with some of our partners from GSAE, will be our MD, Frank Wilson, and Production Manager, Patrick Wilson. If you’ve seen the floorplan, you’ll know the show is huge, but you can find them in Hall 2.1 as part of the British Pavilion on stand J118.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re making the trip to Shanghai in April, remember to stop by and say hello – it’d be great to see you there!

We hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas.

We are back to work today, office and production.

Last year we dabbled in some new industries and applications using infrared and continued to grow in strength with all our partners and distributors. Some investment in new machinery and forward thinking have set this coming year up to be a good one.

We have many new projects underway, along with exhibiting in Shanghai for Chinaplas 2020 in April.

As the year progresses all will be revealed!

Best Wishes for 2020!

Warmest Christmas Wishes and every happiness in the coming year from the Ceramicx team.

Ceramicx will close for Christmas holidays at 2pm on 20^th December

and re-open at 8am 2^nd January 2020.

 

We started Christmas celebrations this year with our Christmas party in the West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen.

A bit of friendly competition between our employees ensured many laughs on the night with prizes for:

Ceramicx Best Christmas Jumper prize – Rolf Hammerschmidt

Ceramicx Best Christmas Outfit prize – Agata Torba

For more photos from the night visit our Facebook page!

They had an enjoyable week hosting many visitors to the stand from all over the world. Of course, they no doubt missed our presence it seems we were replaced!

This is what Friedr Freek had to say:

“Although we have greatly missed our friends from Ireland, K-show has been a big success. We had more contacts than ever before and among them are many companies which are looking for solutions for specific heat tasks. Furthermore, a new blanket order from our well-established customer Otto Hofstetter AG has been sealed with a handshake and celebrated on our stand together with “Friedrich Otto”, a hotrunner for PET preforms made by Otto Hofstetter AG and equipped with energy efficient nozzle heaters from Friedrich Freek GmbH”

We are happy we could share our stand with “Friedrich Otto” in Düsseldorf for eight days. He was rather quiet but very attractive company.”

If anybody missed their chance to visit the Friedr Freek stand during K, please visit their website https://freek.de/ or email them [email protected] with any queries you may have.

1. Infrared energy can be harmful: Myth. Infrared energy is naturally occurring from the sun, travelling to the earth in wavelengths, and absorbed by all objects. Every object emits and absorbs infrared naturally without harmful effects – even us.
2. Infrared radiation is heat: Myth. Infrared radiation is electromagnetic energy that can be used to generate heat.
3. An infrared system is only concerned with heating: Myth. There are three considerations when dealing with infrared: Absorption, Reflection, and Transmission. Infrared systems emit electromagnetic energy and an effective infrared system will deal with these 3 issues as efficiently as possible.
4. To control temperature is to adequately control an infrared emitter: Myth. Radiation is generated by source temperature. The adjustment of temperature changes the infrared wavelength, hence the reason systems operate within a waveband output and not a wavelength output.
5. Infrared absorption of a target material is dictated by a single spectral analysis at ambient e.g. 20ºC: Myth. The spectral analysis and spectral absorption characteristics change as the target material temperature changes. It’s important to consider the use of waveband rather than wavelength to ensure the infrared output from an emitter or system is capable of meeting the spectral absorption characteristics of the material.
6. Emitters can be set at full values without thermocouple watch control: Myth. There’s a significant difference between starting the emitters (heaters) at an ambient temperature e.g. 20ºC and starting emitters in an ambient temperature of 400ºC. Turning on the heater at higher ambient values could result in burn out of the emitter.
7. The design and manufacture of infrared ovens, oven controls, and the application variables are separate, independent, components of an infrared system: Myth. All of these are important elements/components. They’re essential to each other in order to create effective and successful heat work process.
8. Temperature control systems can typically set the performance of infrared systems: Myth. This method of operation is a poor way to control radiation because temperature and % control are not developed with radiation in mind. However, these are the current and typical choices available – but should be used advisedly.
9. Infrared emitters can be used like furnace elements: Myth. The materials used to build effective infrared emitters don’t lend themselves to being used in a furnace-like environment. If used in this way, the transmission, absorption, and reflection, together with the resulting directional qualities, are not being adequately dealt with and will lead to heat up and burn out of the emitters.
10. Radiation can be treated in a similar fashion to conduction and convection: Myth. There are no circumstances where conduction and convection are comparable to radiation. These are three separate methods of heat transfer that do not relate to one another in any way.
11. Environmental conditions, such as weather, have no impact on the use of Infrared: Myth. These have a huge impact. The conditions of the surroundings, such as humidity, will have a big effect on the transfer of infrared radiation.

For further information on our infrared heating products, please contact your local distributor.

Our main distributer in Germany is Friedr. Freek GmbH where detailed information on their infrared heating products can be found.

Ceramicx will be represented by our German Distributor Friedr. Freek at this week’s K-Show. This is the first time in many years Ceramicx will not be sharing the stand with Freek. We encourage you to visit their stand and discuss any enquires you may have about infrared heating.

Freek with novelties at K 2019

German-based heating element specialist Friedr. Freek presents three novelties at K-Show from 16. to 23. October in Duesseldorf. Their square cartridge heaters, alternative nozzle heaters as well as their systematic selection and optimization procedure for IR heat work applications convince by numerous mechanical, economic and ecological advantages (hall 11 / A01).

Energy savings through systematically selected infrared heaters and optimized heat work set-ups

Energy efficiency is a particularly important topic for infrared emitters. If an unsuitable emitter is selected, zoning is not appropriate or distance to target material too far a large part of the energy input could easily left untapped, hence be wasted.

To thoroughly understand the significant influence those and other parameters have on the effectiveness of infrared heat work, IR heating specialist and long-term Freek partner Ceramicx back in 2015 developed and utilizes their unique IR test robot HERSCHEL, besides other useful test rigs. How such a selection and optimization procedure is gone through and which further adjusting screws Ceramicx has discovered in their scientifically accompanied IR research and what’s more, how all this found its way into Ceramicx’ products, Freek is happy to show and demonstrate by the example of products and test reports on their K show stand, hall 11, A01.

We wish them a successful and enjoyable exhibition!

Please contact Freek or visit their website for more information on their stand and team.

In the last issue of our in-house magazine, Heatworks 20, we told you all about our newly constructed facilities here at Ceramicx. While they’ll keep us at the forefront of the advancement of infrared heating, our update and expansion plans continue as we get ready to launch our new look website and logo.

Giving a clear identity

Over the last 25 years, our logo has evolved with us, and we’re now ready to add a new version. But as we’ve been working on the website, logo, and general refresh of our online presence, we’ve made the distinction between our customer and market differences.

As our infrared heating solutions become a more prevalent part of our business, we want to share more of our engineering and infrared capabilities, together with case studies of our systems. Just as importantly, we also want to continue to be your one stop shop for all infrared components, parts, and systems well into the future.

As such, we’re launching two new websites with new logos and fresh straplines, giving both a clear identity: Ceramicx infrared for industry with its green logo, and Ceramicx infrared industrial solutions with its red counterpart.

Brand evolution.

The site and logo changes now give a clear distinction between the core areas of our business. But they also show our brand evolution and growth as a company and underline our commitment to giving customer satisfaction in every area.

Of course, we couldn’t have done it all on our own. Working alongside our in-house design and marketing team, the team at D2 Creative design agency did a fantastic job for us. Together with the websites, you’ll also see all the new branding online and offline in our advertising, packaging, and everything Ceramicx related over the next few months.

The main purpose for this post is to tell you about the new changes, so you won’t be too surprised when the websites look a little different on your browser. We’re really pleased with the results and we hope you like them as much as we do.

A day that started with rain and fog turned into blue skies once Abacus Catering arrived to set up.

By 1 o’clock everyone in the factory gathered outside in the sun for a feast of burgers, chicken, salads and of course a sneaky bit of apple tart.

While some opted to sit in the shade (near the drinks conveniently) others enjoyed the heat of the sun sitting at the table long enough to rival The Last Supper.

Patsy Bear kept an eye on the proceedings hoping between the drinks in the shade and the leftovers in Abacus’s van before finally settling by the speakers to digest his food.

Thanks to Frank and Gráinne for a lovely afternoon!