24 March, 2010

International heating systems specialist and manufacturer Ceramicx is preparing to take its ‘heat work’ expertise to a number of Far Eastern destinations in April, culminating in a two day visit to this year’s Chinaplas, in Shanghai. April 19-22. Founder and Managing Director Frank Wilson says that ‘the areas where East meets West are always interesting places – technically, socially, culturally. At Ceramicx we are looking forward to sharing our European-based infrared heating know-how in a number of manufacturing sectors – and particularly in plastics where our infrared systems for thermoformers have a guaranteed quality for both machine builders and plastics processors.’ Frank’s first April stop will be Korea. ‘Korean manufacturing is still very dynamic - driven on by the likes of Samsung, LG and others. As well as infrared, Ceramicx will be offering its process control know-how to these OEMs and their suppliers.’ Next stop for Ceramicx will be China: ‘The Far Eastern team at Enterprise Ireland have been invaluable in helping the Ceramicx preparation for the outward mission,’ says Wilson. ‘Alan Buckley, Cathy Houlihan and Xiaojing Yue at Enterprise Ireland have all helped us immensely in the desk research and contact work needed for this project. Markets as specific as resin curing, infrared oven drying, thermoforming and others really are of a different scale and structure in China and the Far East.  We have spent a lot of careful time identifying our likely audience – and ways to reach them in China – and at Chinaplas this year. Wilson is clear that a major part of the Ceramicx Far Eastern offering will be the product and component quality and traceability offered by Ceramicx. ‘An advanced process such as infrared heating requires a corresponding guarantee of product quality and assurance – something we believe will have a premium attraction in these markets. As European audiences may know already, we have been working with the University of Limerick on manufacturing systems that not only identify and quality assure infrared heating components – but also make the heating performance of every component supplied available to the customer – online and offline. Wherever they are in the world, all thermoforming machine builders and all our thermoforming processors need the security of this data and also full systems of product traceability.’ Frank Wilson will also use the opportunity of the Far Eastern trip to educate and inform about the potential for infrared heating technology generally. ‘Worldwide, the knowledge gap in industry about infrared and infrared heating is actually very wasteful,’ he says. ‘As far as we can tell – that infrared knowledge gap includes the Far East.  Most new projects for us usually begin with a search for a foothold on some IR expertise within the client company. Then we can create some common ground of understanding – and some solutions.’ After China and Chinaplas, Wilson returns to base via Antwerp where the SPE annual thermoforming conference takes place, from April 22-24. All further details from Frank Wilson, Ceramicx Managing Director. www.Ceramicx.com Tel. +353 2837510 Fax + 353 2837509 frank@ceramicx.com http://twitter.com/ceramicx http://ie.linkedin.com/in/ceramicx