06 January, 2014

A Happy and Prosperous New Year – to all our readers!

First and foremost may I wish you – the reader – a very Happy and Prosperous Year ahead for 2014. May recent ‘green shoots’ of manufacturing health continue to sprout – and may we all rise up on the renewed tide together.
At Ceramicx we shall shortly be celebrating some facets of our New Year business in the pages of our next edition of HeatWorks magazine. Looking over the page proofs that are currently being prepared for our eleventh edition puts me in mind of three particular themes; investment, innovation, and internationalization.
Some of our investment stories concern the resources put behind the new Ceramicx Centre for IR heat development and the exciting new work being done by Dr Gerard McGranaghan via our Herschel IR heat measurement system. I am delighted that Gerard and Herschel have already led us to manufacture some new steatite based products – exactly the kind of application that was envisaged from the start. You will be able to read the full case in the magazine by the end of this month.
Innovation puts me in mind of the new work Herschel will also be helping facilitate in the design and manufacture of composite based products (GRP, Reinforced Plastics and related materials and structures). 2014 will see Ceramicx give the composites sector a special boost via the special properties in our IR based heat work; drying and curing these materials, further enabling the cost-effective production of lightweight and strong structures for our modern world; building and construction components; automotive, itransport and aerospace and many other demanding applications.
Internationalism and a global marketplace has always been key to Ceramicx business: HeatWorks 10 magazine sees us reporting further on that glocal growth, including coverage of our successful presence at the K 2013 show exhibition and local reporting on growing markets for Ceramicx technology in Africa, India, Turkey and the Middle East and also in the Far East where for the third year running we shall be exhibiting at Chinaplas (Shanghai edition in late April 2014).
In summary, the New Year finds us with at least as many plates spinning as the old one, which is all to the good. We are grateful for the opportunities and the challenges and, as ever, we look forward to doing good business with you over the coming months.
Once again – a very happy new year!