ACerS forms new Manufacturing Division to meet industry needs

ACerS has formed a new Manufacturing Division to address the needs of members and prospective members worldwide who work in the ceramics and glass manufacturing industry and its supply chain. Forming this new Division, plus partnering to launch Ceramics Expo (April 28-30, 2015 in Cleveland, OH), are two major ACerS strategic initiatives designed to bring together and meet the needs of the ceramics and glass manufacturing community.

Bill Carty, Alfred University, will serve as the inaugural chair of the new division. Carty proposed the new division so that manufacturing companies and their employees have a more defined division within the Society to call their home. He and several supportive members from industry began by developing a plan for transforming the inactive Whitewares and Materials Division (WMD) into a new Manufacturing Division (MD), a proposal that the Board of Directors has endorsed.

The new Division will address the information needs of the ceramic and glass manufacturing industry including manufacturers, raw material suppliers, producers of forming and finishing equipment, kilns, furnaces, quality control instrumentation, and all other devices used to manufacture ceramic and glass products. Although the new Manufacturing Division will encompass the former Whitewares and Materials Division, its focus will be on meeting the much broader needs of today’s manufacturers who produce or use ceramic and glass materials, including the entire supply chain. In addition to enhancing networking opportunities, the Manufacturing Division will address new manufacturing processes and techniques, sustainability, and business and environmental issues.

Further, the division plans to provide quality technical information through meeting programming and technical content in ACerS publications. The Division will also develop short courses and workshops to educate industrial personnel in the field of ceramics, and promote recruitment and hiring of engineers into ceramic and glass manufacturing companies.

Carty says “bringing ceramic and glass manufacturing back into the spotlight has been a strategic goal of the Society for a long time. And launching it at the new Ceramics Expo in April was perfect timing since the audience there is primarily from industry. We look forward to pairing the Division and the Expo together for a long time and helping them both grow in size and influence in the ceramics and glass manufacturing community.”

ACerS president Kathleen Richardson echoes Carty’s comments and adds “I see the new Division as a much needed bridge between academia and industry and as a way that the two communities can engage. As both an academic and a business entrepreneur, I see many opportunities for interaction and I encourage all members to get involved in the Manufacturing Division.”

Members of WMD voted on the new name and mission and the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the change. Members of WMD will automatically become members of MD. A new slate of officers was also elected during the vote:

Chair: William Carty, Alfred University
Chair-Elect: Nik Ninos, Calix Ceramic Solutions
Vice-Chair: Ed Reeves, Reeves Consulting
Secretary: Keith DeCarlo, Blasch Precision Ceramics, Inc.

Final Board approval took place on March 25, 2015. The Manufacturing Division executive committee will hold an initial planning meeting at Ceramics Expo in Cleveland on April 29, 2015, and then will kick things off by hosting a small lunch with industry representatives.

Join for free and get involved! Become a member of the Manufacturing Division at no charge for one year and help set the direction during this important inaugural year. Contact Marcia Stout at mstout@ceramics.org or 614-794-5821 to join.