Ceramic Industry articles from April 2007

Ceramic Industry archives from April 2007

Getting a handle on things.(INSIDE CI)
April 1, 2007... While listening to the radio recently, I heard a story about a man who, in 1953, underwent experimental brain surgery in an attempt to alleviate debilitating seizures.* Surgeons removed portions of his medial temporal lobes, the regions of his...

International calendar.(Calendar)
April 1, 2007... April 9-13 2007 MRS Spring Meeting ** San Francisco, Calif., www.mrs.org April 12-13 Energy Efficiency Finance Forum ** New York, N.Y., www.aceee.org * April 16-17 DECO 2007, Hyatt Regency ** Louisville, Ky., www.sgcd.org...

GE discovers pathway to ordered nanostructured ceramics.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of the General Electric Co., has announced a breakthrough in nanotechnology that provides a direct pathway to making nanoceramic materials from polymeric precursors. Led by Patrick R. L....

FuelCell Energy plant to power wastewater treatment facility.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... FuelCell Energy, Inc. recently announced the sale of its DFC150OMA power plant to operate on anaerobic digester gas from a sewage treatment facility serving the southern California city of Riverside. The facility treats 30 million gal of...

Assopiastrelle creates new association.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... At the recent general assembly meeting of Assopiastrelle (the Italian Association of Ceramic Tile and Refractory Manufacturers), the board of directors unanimously decided to join forces with a group of prominent manufacturers of decorative...

Almatis launches new website.(IN THE NEWS)(Website overview)
April 1, 2007... Almatis recently announced the launch of its new website, which features a wide range of useful, value- added information. "We've tailored our website to the demands and requirements of our customers around the world" said Julia ClineSellers,...

Oneida and Waterford Wedgwood announce alliance.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Oneida Global Foodservice recently announced a global marketing and licensing agreement with Waterford Wedgwood plc. The alliance will provide the worldwide hospitality industry with access to a best-in-class luxury brand portfolio, including...

Sunrock Ceramics invests in new kiln.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Sunrock Ceramics Co., LLC, a high-alumina kiln furniture manufacturer that began operations in early 2006, recently announced the commencement of another 1700[degrees]C periodic kiln that will provide the throughput needed to meet the growing...

DOE achieves Energy Savings Assessments goal.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner recently announced the completion of Energy Savings Assessments (ESAs) at 200 of the largest industrial facilities in the nation,...

Millennium Cell develops fuel cartridge manufacturing capability.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Millennium Cell Inc. has established the manufacturing capability for Hydrogen on Demand[R] fuel cartridges, a step that will broaden the company's business model to include commercial sales of standard products. With this development, the...

Jenike & Johanson, Clarkson receive NASA contract.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has specialized needs for the modeling of bulk solid systems, and discrete element modeling (DEM) is a common approach to provide a computer-aided engineering (CAE) tool for designing and...

Air Products to expand production capacity.(IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Air Products recently announced plans to expand its industrial gas production facilities at both its Ashland, Ky., and Reidsville, N.C., locations. The expansions, which are being undertaken to meet market demand from industrial gas customers...

Cevisama sees higher number of foreign visitors.(IN THE NEWS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Final attendance figures for CEVISAMA 07, held February 2-6 in Valencia, Spain, include a total of 97,407 visitors, an increase of 8.2% from the 2005 event, which did not include the Machinery Show. The number of foreign visitors rose by 14.5%,...

TRI burden reduction.(CERAMIC DECORATING)(Toxic Release Inventory)
April 1, 2007... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final burden reduction rule in December 2006 that enables Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)filers to use the simplified Form A (instead of the more complicated Form R) to report annual usage...

Saint-Gobain Abrasives.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Joseph H. Menendez has been appointed president of Saint-Gobain Abrasives, effective immediately. Responsible for all of Saint-Gobain Abrasives' worldwide operations, he maintains offices in Worcester, Mass., and...

LAEIS GmbH.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Ralph Lutz, head of LAEIS GmbH's technical department, and Horst Schmitt, head of the sales department, recently took over management of the company. The new general managers have detailed knowledge of the company, and they have proven their...

AMETEK, Inc.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AMETEK, Inc. has named Rodrigo Rubiano division vice president and business unit manager for EDAX Inc. Rubiano comes to AMETEK from Tyco Electronics, where he most recently served as general manager of its Magnetics...

Almatis.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Martin Laudenbach has been appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Almatis. He succeeds Herve de Carmoy, who, as executive chairman, had been the interim head of the company since the end of November 2006, when...

SYSCON-PlantStar.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)(appointment of David Monroe)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SYSCON-PlantStar recently named David Monroe regional sales manager, covering the states of Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska, Kentucky, Tennessee,...

Furnace Products and Services, Inc.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Bob Zloty was recently appointed Furnace Products and Services, Inc.'s newest outside sales representative. He has over 20 years of experience in the refractories industry, with extensive knowledge of furnace design and installation.

Basic Machinery Co., Inc.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Basic Machinery Co., Inc. recently appointed Ray Rogers its Southwest regional sales manager. Rogers comes to Basic with 35 years of application engineering and sales experience in robotics and materials handling.

GranitiFiandre.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] GranitiFiandre recently announced the promotion of Jeanne Nichols to vice president--sales and marketing, and Marcello Sassi to vice president--national accounts, effective immediately. Most recently, both Nichols...

Diamond America Corp.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Jeffery P. Schweizer was recently appointed chief executive officer of Diamond America Corp. With 25 years of extrusion experience with The Bonnot Co., Schweizer held positions in management, research and development, and engineering. His...

Ferro Corp.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Ferro Corp. recently announced that it has elected Perry W. Premdas to its board of directors. In addition, Alberto Weisser, a member of Ferro's board of directors since 2000, has informed the company that he will retire from the board, due to...

Vision Engineering.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Vision Engineering recently announced the appointments of Jeffrey Bronson as Western regional manager, Michael Curtis as district manager for Mountain States, Bob Riemer as district manager for Pacific Northwest, and Raymond Mark as district...

Sarah Kurtz and Jerry Olson, solar power innovators at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), will share this year's $1 million Dan David Future Prize with NASA climate scientist James Hansen.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Sarah Kurtz and Jerry Olson, solar power innovators at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), will share this year's $1 million Dan David Future Prize with NASA climate scientist James Hansen. The prizes...

Materials Research Society.(PEOPLE IN THE NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Elected by the general membership in 2006, Alan Hurd, director of the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has assumed the role of president of the Materials Research Society (MRS). Hurd's emphasis for the year...

Good reef: artificial ceramic reefs deliver many of the biological, ecological and physical conditions necessary for normal reef ecosystem function.(CERAMIC innovations)
April 1, 2007... EcoReefs[R] is an artifical reef specifically designed to rehabilitate damaged coral reefs. Installations create complex reef habitats over large areas using mass-produced ceramic modules that mimic branching corals. The ceramic is a non-toxic,...

Moving in a vacuum: a new line of vacuum conveyors can decrease energy consumption and downtime for a number of ceramic materials handling applications.
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Moving raw and processed materials through the production process is a vital aspect of ceramic manufacturing, and problems in materials handling can be crippling. Conveying powders and granules in a dedicated pipe...

Connection lost.(KILN CONNECTION)(Column)
April 1, 2007... The past couple of months were tough for some of my colleagues. One of them lost his job outright, and another's job has all but been eliminated. Unfair trade, which has decimated U.S.-based manufacturing, combined with the slowdown of the...

Zen and the art of WMS software: the warehouse can offer substantial cost savings, efficiency improvements and reductions in user errors if lean concepts and a Zen flow are adopted properly.
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although most of us tend to think of manufacturing when we hear the word lean, and of Mahayana Buddhism when we hear the word Zen, the primary principles of both translate directly to successful adoptions of...

Tailor made: advances in doped ceria properties, processing and quality control are enabling the material's application in solid oxide fuel cells and electrochemical oxygen generators.(special section: advanced ceramics)(Cover story)
April 1, 2007... Doped cerium oxide materials, long valued and mass produced for catalysis, are now being applied to solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and other electrochemical devices like electrochemical oxygen generators (ECOGs). For these new applications,...

AWEA forecasts wind power growth.(SOLAR/WIND ENERGY NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Wind power generating capacity increased by 27% in 2006 and is expected to increase an additional 26% in 2007, according to a recent American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) market forecast. Wind's growth reflects the nation's increasing demand...

Kyocera and H&H solar deliver PV installation.(SOLAR/WIND ENERGY NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Kyocera Solar, Inc. recently announced the completion of a 44.4 kW solar electric system atop Urban Ecology Center (UEC), a neighborhood-based, non-profit community center located in historic Riverside Park, Milwaukee, Wis. The system is the...

PPG, Devold to form joint venture.(SOLAR/WIND ENERGY NEWS)
April 1, 2007... PPG Industries and Devoid AMT AS have signed a letter of intent to form a 50-50 joint venture to manufacture glass-fiber reinforcement fabrics for the North American wind energy turbine market. Multi-axial and unidirectional fabrics are major...

Fiberstars receives funding for Solar R&D.(SOLAR/WIND ENERGY NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Fiberstars, Inc., a global leader in fiber optic righting, recently announced its receipt of $240,000 in funding through the Very High Efficiency Solar Concentrator Consortium (VHESC). Fiberstars was selected to join the consortium in 2006;...

GE to supply 300 wind turbines for New York State projects.(SOLAR/WIND ENERGY NEWS)
April 1, 2007... GE Energy will supply 300 of its 1.5-MW wind turbines to Noble Environmental Power for 2007 and 2008 projects that will increase New York State's wind power capacity by 450 MW. Based in Essex, Conn., Noble Environmental Power is a leader in the...

BP plans construction of five U.S. wind projects in 2007.(SOLAR/WIND ENERGY NEWS)
April 1, 2007... BP Alternative Energy North America Inc. recently announced that it expects to begin construction on five wind power generation projects in the U.S. in 2007. Located in four states (California, Colorado, North Dakota and Texas), the projects...

Boeing Spectrolab solar cell surpasses 40% efficiency.(SOLAR/WIND ENERGY NEWS)
April 1, 2007... Boeing recently announced that Spectrolab, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, has achieved a new world record in terrestrial concentrator solar cell efficiency. Using concentrated sunlight, Spectrolab demonstrated the ability of a photovoltaic...

Creating indelible images: short-run custom imprinting can be achieved on a variety of ceramic and glass substrates through ink jet heat transfer sublimation.(special section: decorating)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The dye sublimation transfer process begins with a computer image that, for the purposes of the ceramic and related industries, is printed to an ink jet printer using special inks and paper. The image can then be...

A low-temp decal alternative: low-temperature open stock decals provide a cost-saving and convenient alternative for decorators of ceramic and glass.(special section: decorating)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Open stock decals have been available for many years and are unique and valuable resources that can help ceramic and glass decorators expand, experiment and reach for new possibilities. Most importantly, they can...

Refractory/precast mixer.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... EZ Grout Corp. This company recently introduced its latest product line, the Mud Hog[|R] refractory/precast mixer, which is available in three models, RMHE29, RMHE20 and RMH10. The RMHE29, or the "Big Mixer" was developed with a 2000-lb...

Attritor.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Union Process, Inc. Three QL-100 circulation attritors have been produced for the milling of specialty inks. The QL-100 is the largest and newest model of the series and is specially designed with an ASME-coded vessel that will withstand...

Internet-based batching system.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Ingredient Masters A new batching system has been introduced that features Internet-based programming, monitoring and diagnostics capabilities. The fully automated, self-contained system is customized to the application. It uses an...

Multi-frequency rectangular screeners.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Kroosh Technologies and Elcan Industries A new line of multi-frequency rectangular screeners contains the same multi-frequency technology as the round Krooshers, and is designed for high-efficiency separation of dry materials, slurries and...

Laboratory grinder.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Retsch Inc. This laboratory mortar grinder has been completely redesigned to improve both ease of use and functionality for diverse applications. New features include convenient setting of pestle pressure and scraper position, push fit...

Low-profile sifter.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Kason Corp. A new low-profile Flo-Thru sifter features a gap-free screen frame with quick-disconnect damps and a crevice-free interior finished to cGMP, 3-A, USDA and FDA standards, allowing rapid and thorough wash-down. The low-profile...

Deck cart.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Kinetic Technologies, Inc. This designer/manufacturer of material handling equipment and accessories has launched a new LOBOY[TM] ultra-low ground clearance cart that offers flexibility to complement forklift-free manufacturing or...

Continuous feeders.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Metalfab, Inc. Better-Weigh[R] continuous feeders for gravimetric feeding of dry bulk materials are available in seven models with feed rates from 1-550 cu ft/hr (larger sizes available). The feeders are designed to provide feeding in...

Bulk bag unloader.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Cyclonaire Corp. New PortoVeyor[TM] bulk bag unloaders provide efficient pneumatic transfer of material from bulk bags into silos that are normally serviced by pneumatic trailers or railcars. When normal trailer and rail service is...

Drum-filling system.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Bulk Equipment Systems Technology (B.E.S.T.), Inc. According to the company, its drum-filling system with vibratory feeder provides clean, accurately weighed end product. Equipped with a 12 x 36-in. twin-motor vibratory screener-feeder, the...

Online belt safety training.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Flexible Steel Lacing Co. (Flexco) This company has introduced a comprehensive, interactive training program devoted exclusively to worker safety. Called the Flexco Safe[TM] Online Training Center, the program features 19 training modules,...

Insertion weigh belt module.(Materials Handling Equipment roundup)
April 1, 2007... Thayer Scale-Hyler Industries The SI Series insertion weigh belt module has been designed to easily fit into an existing belt or vibratory conveyor line. The SI is available in either scale over or scale under design. A short support...