Morgan Advanced Materials highlights fire protection, wear and chemical corrosion resistant materials for offshore oil & gas applications at OTC 2013
Morgan Advanced Materials announces that it will be showcasing a broad range of its products for the oil and gas production and exploration industries at the 2013 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. Morgan will be displaying a wide range of products and solutions, including fire protection, brazed assemblies, piezoelectric ceramic components, CVD Diamond and DLC coatings, and carbon and silicon carbide seals and bearings. The group’s new FireMaster Rigid Enclosure System will be on display. The system uses high-efficiency insulation materials providing a robust, weather protective enclosure solution for all equipment requiring jet fire protection, especially those with very low critical temperature limits. Also on display will be a variety of materials ideal for ceramic liner sleeves in large diameter tubes used in downhole drilling. Morgan’s alumina and Halsic-R recrystallized silicon carbide materials are ideally suited for highly demanding and harsh wear applications. Halsic-R features high thermal conductivity, thermal shock resistance, and good mechanical strength at high temperatures. While Morgan’s Alsint 997 alumina material provides good mechanical strength and electrical resistivity, operates at high temperatures, and is resistant to chemical attack.
PANalytical cosponsors event for female students and professionals on high-tech future
Did you choose a technical study or have you worked in the high-tech industry in Twente or abroad? Do not miss the event ‘High-tech future for women in Twente’ on Tuesday, May 14 in Rabotheater Hengelo, Netherlands. This special event is organized by high-tech companies PANalytical, DEMCON and Thales. It will be a day entirely devoted to the high-tech woman. Together we discuss the many opportunities and challenges we face in the technical world and it will be a day full of inspiring speakers, stimulating debates and surprising twists. Watch a short video of whom you might meet on May 14.
Resodyn Acoustic Mixers adds regional demonstration dates MN/IL/TX in May
Resodyn Acoustic Mixers has announced the dates for a demonstrations of their line of innovative industrial mixers. Demonstration appointments are available from May 13 though 24 in Minnesota, Illinois, and Texas pharmaceutical, technical, research, and industrial corridors. Resodyn manufactures noninvasive mixers for processing and materials applications in both production and laboratory environments. Demonstrating substantively faster mixing times and exceptionally high levels quality and dispersion, Resodyn sales engineers’ appointments include on-site prrof of technology uses both generic and customer-supplied materials. Demonstration reservations can be made by emailing.
Refractron’s Izory zirconia ceramic high-temperature valve bushings
A bauxite processing facility picked Izory zirconia ceramic trunnion bushings for use in high-temperature trunnion mounted ball valves to improve their longevity. Two years ago, a Texas valve company contacted Refractron to discuss the possibility of making Izory ceramic bushings for high temperature trunnion mounted valves used in the processing of bauxite materials. This valve company manufactures a variety of valves for controlling various fluids in many severe service applications. The valves range in size from ½” to 60″ in diameter. Typical application industries are power generation, oil and gas, refining, chemicals, pulp and paper, gasification, synfuels, mining, steam, and more. For our client, the application required a trunnion bushing that could withstand continuous use at 1,200ºF. The application had very little thermal shock, but had consistent high temperatures. At 1,200ºF, trunnion bushings made of polymer-based materials fatigue and wear; metal trunnion bushings fatigue, corrode, and wear. When the bushings made of polymers and metals suffer failure, it reduces or even stops the ability to open and close the valve properly. This valve failure would cause delays in the manufacturing process, and has the potential to cause injury to people in the area if the valve would crack or break. Trunnion bushings made with Izory Zirconia ceramic have no issue handling the high temperature, corrosion, or wear. Also, the coefficient of thermal expansion of Izory Zirconia ceramic for the trunnion bushing was very close to the expansion rate of the metal trunnion and the mating metal valve housing.
FDA grants premarket approval for new ceramic-on-ceramic total hip system
DePuy Orthopedics Inc. announced that the FDA has granted premarket supplement approval for its Ceramax Total Hip System with Biolox delta ceramic-on-ceramic 36-mm large femoral head. According to a company press release, this premarket supplement approval for the 36-mm size follows the initial PMA approval of the Ceramax Hip 28-mm size in 2010. With the launch of the Ceramax System this summer, the company’s Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System will offer the only FDA approved ceramic-on-ceramic bearing surface with Biolox delta femoral head, a next generation nanocomposite ceramic material with high strength and toughness. The Ceramax Hip System expands the Pinnacle Hip Solutions portfolio of high performance instruments, advanced implants, materials and solutions designed to provide surgeons flexibility in techniques and procedures and provide pain relief and a smooth range of motion for patients. In a clinical study of 264 patients who required hip replacement surgery for non-inflammatory degenerative joint disease, the researchers found no significant differences between the Ceramax System to a ceramic-on-polyethylene hip replacement in adverse events or survivorship. Patients also had similar pain relief and improved function and range of motion.
Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd. £5.0 million (A$7.6 million) fund raising
Further to its announcement on April 30, 2013, Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd., a developer of generators that use fuel-cell technology to convert natural gas into electricity and heat for homes and other buildings, has announced that it has conditionally raised £5.0 million (A$7.6 million). The company has conditionally raised £4.3 million (A$6.5 million) through the issue of secured convertible loan notes to a number of institutional investors and a further £0.7 million (A$1.1 million) through the placing of 32,710,300 new ordinary shares of nil par value in the company. Commenting on the fund raising, CEO Bob Kennett says, “Having proved the commercialization of our technology we are now rapidly moving towards a major increase in the volumes sold by the company. This fund raise will allow us to meet the working capital requirements of the initial phase of this ramp up and the Board considers that it would be in the best interests of shareholders to raise these funds in this manner to allow the company to take advantage of these opportunities.”
Cement industry regulations will clean up air, but could cost jobs
(The Express-Times) An officials with Essroc Cement says the company will comply with stricter environmental regulations by 2015. Delaying new federal environmental regulations on the US cement industry by two years will lead to increased health risks and missed work days due to sickness, environmentalists say. But, imposing those regulations immediately would cripple the cement industry and could cost jobs across the country and in the Lehigh Valley at three local plants, according to at least one lawmaker. The updated rules change the monitoring method and limits for particulate matter: a mixture of extremely small particles and droplets, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The new requirements dramatically reduce the emission of mercury, acid gases, particulate matter and total hydrocarbons from existing cement kilns across the country and ensure that emissions from new kilns remain low, says EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones. The EPA won’t impose the restrictions until 2015 to allow some companies more time to reevaluate their emissions control strategies, Jones says.Cement plant grows greener to be of service
Cement plant grows greener to be of service
(KnoxvilleBiz.com) At the Cemex cement plant in Knoxville, what became a robust sustainability initiative and trend-setting conservation program began simply as an effort to be of service. “Back then, it was an effort to be supportive of the community,” says Antonio DeLuca, the local plant manager. By “back then,” DeLuca means 15 years ago, before many local companies were thinking green. In the late 1990s, as communities were searching for an alternative way to dispose of tires in lieu of open burning and dumping, the Environmental Protection Agency asked Cemex to help investigate a solution. The cement-making process involves a large kiln in which rock mined for the purpose undergoes a thermal reaction process. Fired largely with fossil fuels, Cemex developed a process that utilizes tires. A resulting solid byproduct is also used as an ingredient in the cement. Cemex has burned 986,000 tires since 2010, contributing to a 9 percent reduction in the plant’s fossil fuel requirements. And, company executives continue to seek to turn waste into energy. At a sister plant in Georgia, peanut and pistachio shells provide 100 percent of the fuel for its thermal process. Tests are now underway to determine what type of waste stream might be viable in East Tennessee. One experiment, for example, used discarded items from the recycling sorting process.