Auction Enthusiasts? April 14th is Your Date to Expand!

(Image Courtesy of Pressofatlanticcity.com)

This place is up for sale!

A now defunct ceramics manufacturing plant is available in China for any ceramics manufacturers looking to expand in the near future - the auction starts on April 14th! An old Lenox China ceramics manufacturing facility that includes the land as well as the facility and is estimated at around $11 million according to a pressofatlanticcity.com article which also states that the minimum bid for the property is $2.75 million. So, if you have the dough in hand, now is the time to ask yourself, "Are we ready to expand internationally?" Here are some notes from the article:

Lenox China produced ceramics and its renowned china at the plant starting in 1953. The factory was shuttered about five years ago, shortly after Department 56, a Minnesota-based ceramics and collectibles company, bought Lenox.

The plant is a 416,000-square-foot brick warehouse that includes 44,000 square feet of office space. From the outside, there are signs of deterioration, including dislodged bricks from the front steps.

This natural wear and tear should prevent any American-based ceramics manufacturing companies from making a decision on whether or not to buy this excellent piece of property. The time to strike for expansion is now, and with the ceramics engineering field on an upswing in the 21st century, this seems like a no-brainer for those who have the capital and the desire to reach a new market.

To learn more about the property, read this article: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic/auction-for-shuttered-lenox-china-plant-in-galloway-township-set/article_ec726586-4f7e-11e0-8601-001cc4c002e0.html

To learn more about the latest news in the Ceramic Engineering field, checkout Refractron:

www.refractron.com

The Solar Meets Glass 2011 Conference

(Image courtesy of Solarpraxis.de)

The Schedule for the Solar Meets Glass 2011 Conference

Equipment and service providers from across the glass and material sciences industry will be converging in Berlin, Germany in a few weeks to discuss the advancements made in our field regarding the advancement of photovoltaic cells. With the nations of the world beginning to realize that fossil fuels are more of a hindrance than a helping hand, it should come as no surprise that the leading manufacturers of energy technology are looking toward alternative forms of energy. And that is GOOD NEWS for those of us in the ceramics engineering fiels. A quote from www.solarpraxis.de discusses the colloquium:

The "Solar Meets Glass - 2nd Industry Summit for Quality, Logistics and Materials" brings the solar and glass industry together in order to discuss the current issues of both sectors. After a market and technology overview of photovoltaics and glass, the focus will be on the topics of quality, cost reduction and legistics.

According to the summit's main page, solar module manufacturers, equipment suppliers, automatic technology suppliers, solar system integrators, glass and ceramic manufacturers, investors, banks and analysts will all have something to gain from attending/monitoring this event. Regardless of what your role is in the ceramics engineering field, there is no doubt that a shift toward solar energy and the production of components of photovoltaic cells is on the rise. With the future of our industry so evident, it would be a poor decision to not follow the announcements that will come with this summit!

To learn more about the summit itself, visit this link: http://www.solarpraxis.de/en/conferenze/solar-meets-glass/general-information/

To learn more about the latest advancements in the world of ceramics and material engineering, visit Refractron today!

http://www.refractron.com/

SunShot initiative is WinWin for Solar Component Manufacturers!

(Image Courtesy of treehugger.com)

The Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, has recently announce a new government project that will make solar power a feasible alternative to fossil fuels in the near future. This program, rumored to cost around $30 million, will make photovoltaic cells more cost-effective and efficient than they are currently. This will allow more corporations and households to produce the majority of their own power using tax-deductible solar technology. So, for us in the ceramics engineering industry, this means there is a potential up-swing in many of the products that our industry produces that are instrumental in the development of photovoltaic cell technology. A recent article by treehugger.com editorializes,

$27 million in funding is a nice start, and it may sound like a lot - but if we truly want to produce 'moon shot' caliber results (ie, cheap, plentiful clean energy tech un under a decade), Obama's going to have to put his money where his mouth is.

While it is true that the government will need to "put up or shut up" as it were, in order to make the whole project meet its estimations, it's also true that the global ceramic manufacturing community can ultimately benefit from at least the suggestion of this future program. With the way the economic winds are blowing these days, it seems like investing in any component of solar technology is a logical choice; ceramics manufacturers can add this to many other aces in the hole as far as developing client relationships and determining global investment is concerned.

To learn more about the world (and investment opportunities) of industrial ceramics manufacturing, visit Refractron.

To read the full article from treehugger.com, visit: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/02/doe-launches-effort-bring-cost-solar-down-75-2020.php

BGU Has News For You!

(Image Courtesy of paranormal.about.com)

An unstable form of Calcium may finally have been tamed by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). With the goal of finding higher absorption and retention rates than other biological sources presently used for calcium supplements, researchers at BGU have succeeded - and it's all thanks to crustaceans. By using calcium carbonate, which is a huge component of many ceramics manufacturing processes, researchers have developed a way to reduce the chance for osteoporosis and poor blood-clotting in human beings. According to a recent article from azom.com,

"This type of Amorphous Calcium Carbonate (ACC) consists of unstable, nano-sized particles. Several species of crustaceans, including freshwater crayfish, are capable of stabilizing this mineral form so they can efficiently store and rapidly re-use large calcium quantities..."

Current results show that there is up to a forty percent reduction in absorption and retention rates in this compound versus current calcium sources. Based on this data, there may be a new and feasible source of calcium carbonate on the way in the near future. It will not only save lives, but also likely result in a decrease in costs for ceramics manufacturers across the world.

To learn more about ceramics manufacturing, visit Refractron.

To read the article from AZOM, follow this link: http://www.azom.com/news.asp?NewsID=27993

CC me on Ceramics China: 2011

(Image Courtesy of ceramicschina.com)

The annual Ceramic China expo is coming up again in May, and will be the home to professionals in the ceramic engineering and raw materials communities from across the globe from May 26th to May 29th. As we discussed in an earlier blog, China is currently running the rare earth metals scene, so it should come as no surprise that the country's upcoming expo will involve the top players in the ceramics manufacturing game, the latest news in the industry, and a lot of speculation. To help you wade through what is important versus what is ancillary, the Ceramics Engineering Blog has assembled some of the information that will be very relevant at the expo coming up in May.

According to PRLog.org, Ceramics China 2011 will include:

"Attendance [exceeding] 46,497 from 72 countries and regions in 2010... The total showspace of 67,000 square meters, 4,000 booths and 609 exhibitors from 16 countries including Italy, UK, Korea, Germany, Spain, Thailand, Brazil, Mainland China, Hong Kong & Taiwan..."

Ceramics engineers from across the globe will be converging on the China Import and Export Fair Complex in Guangzhou, China for three days of networking, discussion and debate regarding the future of materials processing not only in China, but across the globe. News regarding the expo and a brief itinerary are already available at the Ceramics China 2011 Expo website, and the venue is still open to all dedicated ceramics engineering professionals who wish to partake in the event, rub elbows with like-minded individuals and learn more about the rapidly-advancing world of ceramics manufacturing.

To learn more about ceramics manufacturing, please feel free to visit us at Refractron.

To learn more about the Ceramics China 2011 expo, visit their homepage at http://www.ceramicschina.com.cn/En/main/

Yttrium-Stabilized Zirconia: A Mouthful at Mach Speed

(Image source: ceramics.org)

A paper published as an "Early View" article by the Journal of the American Society shows that yttrium-stablized zirconia can be sintered to full density in a matter of seconds at 850 degrees Celsius. The key is subjecting the process to a dc electrical field above the critical threshold. Traditional YSZ sintering would require hours at 1450 degrees Celsius. The paper was written by Marco Cologna, Rishi Raj and Boriana Rashkova, who are in the process of testing other materials that they hope to be able to report on to the ceramic manufacturing community soon. An article from ceramics.org covers the story. Here's an excerpt:

"The trio's technique was fairly straightforward. They made dog-biscuit shaped samples from 3 mol% nanograin YSZ. They then sintered samples in a vertical tubular furnace, applying a constant dc voltage, varying temperature and voltage. In the stages of their tests, they encountered a phenomenon I have written about before: accelerated sintering speeds at lower temperatures, dubbed field-assisted sintering or "FAST". In fact Raj, Di Yang and Hans Conrad had recently published another paper about how low (20 V/cm) dc electric dields could speed sintering and slow grain growth."

With many radical advances taking place in the field of ceramics engineering since the end of the century, it should come as no surprise that a leap-forward in sintering technology is nigh on the horizon. While the process has not been perfected yet, and the reports are only preliminary at this point, those in our industry would do well to look forward to a more detailed report coming from this team in the coming months.

To learn more about ceramics engineering, check out Refractron:

www.refractron.com

To read the article from ceramics.org, following this link:

http://ceramics.org/ceramictechtoday/materials-innovations/sintering-in-a-flash-researchers-show-its-possible-to-do-it-in-seconds-with-nanograin-ysz-heat-and-dc-electric-field/

In Honor of C. Jeffrey Brinker

(Image Source: The National Center for Design of Biomimetic Semiconductors)

At the Materials Science and Technology 2010 Conference & Exhibition, there will be a symposium organized to commemorate the work of C. Jeffrey Brinkley, who recently won the 2010 Robert B. Sosman award. According to the American Ceramic Society webpage, the Robert B. Sosman award is the highest recognition of scientific accomplishment given by the Basic Science Division and is given in recognition of outstanding achievement in basic science of an area that result in a significant impact on the field of ceramics. The awardee presents a plenary lecture at the ACerS Annual Meeting, and receives a certificate commemorating the event and a piece of glassware. The lecture is given each year by the awardee who has been deemed by the award committee to have made the most significant contribution to the field of ceramics.

According to the MS&T '10 website, "For his work, [Brinkley] is recognized around the world as a foremost expert in the field. He has contributed to our fundamental understanding of sol-gel processing, including kinetics of reactions, kinetics of growth and fractal structure of the solider clusters formed in solution, and the pore structure, surface chemistry, and densification behavior of the dried gel. The symposium will focus on sol-gel science and applications. The talks in this half-day symposium will be by invitation only and will feature recent investigations on the chemistry of sol-gel processing, fundamental behavior of hels, and recent materials developed by this technique."

So this week, the Ceramic Engineering Blog honors C. Jeffrey Brinkley for his advancements in sol-gel technology and his dedication to the field of ceramics engineering.

To learn more about ceramics engineering, check out Refractron:

www.refractron.com

To read the article regarding the MS&T '10 conference, click here:

http://matscitech.org/program/technical-program/ceramic-and-glass-materials/

And to visit the ACerS site to learn more about their awards and commendations, hit this link:

http://ceramics.org/acers-community/award-winners-resources/