• Joint venture partners Owens-Illinois Inc., Berli Jucker Public Company and Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Company have announced the opening of a glass container manufacturing plant in My Xuan A Industrial Park, Ba Ria Vung Tau province, Vietnam.

• A new venture has been announced between Corning and Samsung, which introduces a new glass substrate technology, called ‘Lotus‘. The glass will form a high-quality substrate for organic light-emitting diode panels, with enhanced dimensional stability even when exposed to the high temperatures required for OLED production.

• As part of the company´s continuing efforts to enhance flexibility and become more customer centric, Owens-Illinois Inc., announced plans to create an integrated supply chain operation and a new technology group that aligns the company´s engineering expertise with its R&D capabilities.

• The board of the NSG Group has approved a program of actions designed to improve the profitability of the company. The measures are intended to protect the business in the short term and also to re-establish profit growth from fiscal year 2013 onwards.

• Workers at the Bennu Glass plant have chiseled away tons hardened glass from the crippled melter of the wine bottle plant here, and a new furnace and 100 employees should be ready to restart the shuttered plant in July, company officials say.

• The A.P. Green firebrick plant announced it would close its doors in Mexico (Missouri) on March 31, putting 80-110 workers out of a job. RHI Refractories, which owned the plant, was in deep debt of $1 billion caused by asbestos lawsuit claims.

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Mitsubishi i-MIEV battery electric vehicle was rated highest in latest environmental rankings provided by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. See story below. Credit: Mitsubishi.

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DOE to launch new Energy Innovation Hub focused on advanced batteries and energy storage

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid. Letters of Intent to apply are due on March 1, 2012 with full applications due on May 31, 2012. Universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms are eligible to compete and are encouraged to form partnerships when submitting their proposals. The award selection is expected this summer.

Commission clears acquisition of joint control of Maxam by Advent, investors

The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of joint control of the Spanish company MaxamCorp Holding S.L. by US-based Advent International Corp. and approximately 110 individuals including Maxam’s current managers, technical experts, other employees and co-investors. The Commission examined the vertical links created by the proposed transaction and concluded that the merged entity would continue to face sufficient competition. Advent manages a number of investment funds. It also controls H.C. Starck GmbH, which is active mainly in refractory metals and advanced ceramics, and OXEA S.a.r.l., which primarily produces chemicals.

Hot news on advanced materials from Harper

We’ve launched on Twitter! Follow our feed to stay up to date on news in advanced materials including research developments, emerging applications, hot topics, as well as updates on Harper’s upcoming events, press releases, and more. Everyday, we’re helping customers create the next generation of materials for tomorrow’s applications. Get your updates from the world’s leading thermal processing experts at @HarperIntl.

Nanocerox redesigns new analytical lab (pdf)

Nanocerox recently invested in a new analytical lab at its corporate headquarters located in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Nanocerox continues to invest internally in our infrastructure to ensure the quality of our nanopowders,” says Todd Stefanik, vice president of technology. “As a result of our recent construction of a cleanroom facility for processing nanopowders into transparent ceramic parts, we realized significant improvements in the optical quality of optical parts produced at Nanocerox. With this redesign of our analytical laboratories, we allow ourselves to measure ceramic powder, slurry and transparent part characteristics to ensure consistent production of high optical quality laser, window and scintillator components.”

Webcast of Ceradyne Inc. presentation at Cowen and Company’s 33rd Annual Aerospace/Defense Conference available

Ceradyne CEO Joel P. Moskowitz spoke at Cowen and Company’s 33rd Annual Aerospace/Defense Conference in New York on Feb. 8, 2012. He addressed the company’s business fundamentals and growth strategies. Ceradyne develops, manufactures, and markets advanced technical ceramic products and components for defense, industrial, automotive/diesel, and commercial applications. In many high performance applications, products made of advanced technical ceramics meet specifications that similar products made of metals, plastics or traditional ceramics cannot achieve.

U.S. Silica goes public after 111 years

Shares of U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. started trading Feb. 1, 2012, as the mining firm with roots going back more than a century raised $200 million in its initial public offering. The producer of silica used in hydraulic fracturing and solar panels was acquired in 2008 by affiliates of Golden Gate Private Equity Inc. It ranks as the second-largest producer in the United States after Unimin, a unit of Belgium-based Sibelco Group. The company originated in West Virginia as a supplier of raw material for glass used in the manufacturing sector in Pittsburgh, before it moved to its current headquarters in Frederick, Md. The company’s growth prospects are tied partially to the rise in domestic shale oil and gas production, which uses sand to break up rock underground to free-up fossil fuel in the hydraulic fracturing process, also known as fracking.

Electric car tops out greenest vehicle list

For the first time in the 12-year history of the Greencars.org Greenest Vehicle List, an electric vehicle has topped the list, based on the 14th annual comprehensive environmental rankings provided by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The Mitsubishi i-MIEV battery electric vehicle claimed the top spot from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, which, up until this year, had held the top spot for 8 years running. The i-MIEV scored a high score of 58, the highest Green Score ever awarded since the ACEEE rankings were started back in 1998. The Mitsubishi i-MIEV managed a combined city and highway fuel economy of 112 miles per gallon equivalent.

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• The owner of glass manufacturer Pilkington, Nippon Sheet Glass, has announced that it will close one of its three UK production lines in an effort to cut costs. The job cuts are the second major headcount reduction in two years: In March 2010, the firm cut 6,700 jobs in the wake of the global financial crisis.

• According to reports, approximately 500 tons of molten glass was spilled in an incident on 30th January 2012 at Guardian Industries’ glass manufacturing plant in De Witt, Iowa, US. The glass leak happened during routine maintenance and six fire departments spent approximately five hours pouring cold water on the spill.

• Zimbabwe’s sole glass manufacturer, Zimglass, is set to resume operations in April 2012 after the company secured funding to refurbish its furnaces.

• AGC Glass Company North America has announced that it plans to restart float G1, an idled production line at its Tennessee plant, USA and re-instate 100 jobs once the line becomes operational. The company shut down the production line in 2008 and laid-off approximately 250 people at the time.

• Seeing the promising prospects for container glass, Taiwan Glass Group, Taiwan’s largest glass maker, plans to expand production capacity at its plant in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan by integrating two old production lines and adding a new one.

• Magnezit Group has acquired Panteleymonovka Refractory Plant (town Gorlovka), one of the biggest enterprises in Ukraine for production of magnesia refractories.

Editor’s note: We welcome Italy-based P. Carlo Ratto to our team of bloggers. Ratto is a former council member at GLG and consultant at RHI AG Glass Division - Monofrax & Refel plants and is business development manager, Fused Cast at Vesuvius Group (Monofrax). For more information, readers are urged to consider joining some of the ceramic-related Linked In groups, such as the Ceramic Engineers’ Group and the Friends of Refractories Group.

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Integration of Hanse Chemie Inc. USA, into Evonik Goldschmidt Corp.

As of Jan. 1, 2012, the US Hanse Chemie business of Hanse Chemie AG and Nanoresins AG, has been merged into Evonik Goldschmidt Corp. At the same time, Hanse Chemie Inc. USA has been dissolved as a legal entity. The acquisition of the two firms by Evonik was finalized on May 12, 2011. Both companies are headquartered in Germany and produce raw materials and components for the manufacture of sealants, adhesives, molding and casting compounds, and other products. Most of the Hanse Chemie Inc. business is incorporated into the Interface & Performance business line whose activities surrounding the silicone specialties are directed at a variety of industrial markets. Activities in the paint and coatings industry, especially those concerning nanocomposites, extremely fine-particle silicas, are now part of the Coatings & Additives Business Unit of Evonik.

3M launches high density versions of its embedded capacitance material at DesignCon 2012

3M announced the initial availability of its high-capacitance Embedded Capacitance Material at DesignCon 2012, providing design engineers a new way to improve power integrity and reduce electromagnetic interference. Unlike previous 3M ECM versions, which have a maximum capacitance density of approximately 10 nF per square inch, and some existing commercial competitor offerings, which have a maximum capacitance density of approximately 6 nF per square inch, the 3M ECM high-capacitance density solutions offer a capacitance density range from 20 up to 40 nF per square inch, making it the one of the highest capacitance density, halogen-free ECM solutions on the market. This helps design engineers provide hi-fidelity signals, high-signal-to-noise ratio in radio frequencies and higher speed digital signals in a variety of high-performance applications such as small form factor computer hardware, high-performance RF boards, microphones, integrated circuit packaging and consumer electronics.

Mantec consolidates ceramic activities

Mantec, the British technology group with a portfolio of manufacturing businesses based in Stoke-on-Trent, has announced that with immediate effect the three companies previously operated as subsidiaries of the technical ceramic division have now merged into a single, business - Mantec Technical Ceramics Ltd (www.mantectechnicalceramics.com). The three companies involved are Taylor Tunnicliff, Ceramic Gas Products and Fairey Filtration Systems. They have in any case been operating under common management, from the same premises, for the past four years and so this a logical step to take. While the name of Mantec Technical Ceramics will now be the one associated with all administrative, legal, accounting and sales channels, leading brand names owned and manufactured by the group will naturally be retained.

Surmet: SEM of fracture reveals significant grain boundary weakness in lithium fluoride-doped, vacuum hot-pressed and HIPped transparent magnesia spinel

Polycrystalline ceramics with cubic spinel structure transmit well in the visible and mid IR wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. ALON and magnesia spinel are especially attractive, and are leading lightweight transparent armor candidates for future combat systems. These have enormous performance advantage over glass and justify their rapid development. Surmet achieves full density and transparency using the conventional sinter/hot isostatic Ppress process that includes green body formation and high-temperature sintering, followed by HIPping.

Molycorp to receive $390M strategic investment from Molymet; Investment slated to fuel growth and pursuit of vertical integration plans

Molycorp Inc. announced that Molibdenos y Metales S.A. (Molymet), the world’s largest processor of the strategic metals molybdenum and rhenium, has agreed to invest approximately $390 million in the company in exchange for 12.5 million shares of Molycorp common stock. The price of the Molycorp shares to be purchased were valued based on the 20-day volume weighted average share price as of the close of trading on Jan. 30, 2012 plus a 10% premium. Molycorp has agreed to appoint to its board of directors upon the closing of the proposed investment a nominee to be designated by Molymet.

Thermablok aerogel insulation strips installed in new ‘green’ US Border Patrol station in Texas

Crews working construction on the environmentally sustainable Fabens US Border Patrol Station in Clint, Texas have just completed installing 21,000 linear feet of Thermablok aerogel insulating strips on studs throughout the 51,000 square foot facility. The strips reduce thermal bridging, the prime cause of energy loss in buildings. When RVK Architects of San Antonio collaborated with Jacobs Engineering Group of Houston to design the eco-friendly structure already years in the planning, they included Thermablok in the original design. The strips went up easily since they have peel and stick adhesive already attached to the back of the product. The facility also is fitted with solar heaters, sky lights, glazed windows and energy efficient equipment for a low-carbon footprint.

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Kyocera’s 315-watt, 80-cell solar module launches in the US

Kyocera Solar Inc. has announced the launch of its highest-output solar module, the 80-cell KD 315. The new module is ideal for large-scale installations like solar-covered parking, and is now available for US customers. Designed for high output, safety and ease of installation, the UL-certified KD 315 modules feature a UV stabilized, aesthetically pleasing black anodized frame; easily accessible ground points; proven junction box technology with 12 AWG PV wire to work with transformerless inverters and quality locking plug-in connectors for quick connections.

Morgan Thermal Ceramics showcases insulation and fire protection materials at AHR Expo 2012

MTC announces that it will be showcasing its FireMaster FastDoor and FastWrap material for HVAC and grease ducts, along with its Superwool Plus material for boilers, water heaters and boiler flues, at the AHR Expo 2012. MTC will also be showcasing its FireMaster FastDoor and FastWrap XL material for HVAC and grease ducts. FireMaster FastWrap XL is a flexible blanket composed of high temperature fibers classified for applications to 2,192°F (1,200°C) and is supplied fully encapsulated in durable glass fiber reinforced foil facing for easy handling and installation. It is a component in various UL firestop designs for fire resistance rated floors, ceilings and walls.

PPG glass helps health office earn first LEED Platinum certification in Tennessee

The Upper Cumberland Regional Health Facility in Cookeville has become the first building in Tennessee to earn LEED-NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-New Construction) certification at the platinum level, in part because of its use of Solarban 70XL and Solarban 60 solar control, low-emissivity (low-e) glasses by PPG Industries. Brian Templeton, a principal with Upland Design Group, the architect of record for the facility, said Solarban 70XL glass was specified for the structure’s large, translucent, daylighting panels, while Solarban 60 was selected as the vision glass for the entryway, work spaces and other surface-level applications.

The week in solar stocks: Impossible Germany

In the past week, “Germany to Kill Solar!” headlines hit the wires. This was, notably, one week after the “Germany Saves Solar!” headlines led solar stocks higher. To recap: German demand in the fourth quarter of 2011 wildly surpassed expectations, with a demand frenzy ahead of 2012 annual subsidy cuts and cheaper-than-ever solar panel prices leading to what would be a few years’ worth of installations for much of the world in a few months in Germany. That in turn led to bullish calls from Wall Street that the left-for-dead solar sector was back, and in Wall Street parlance, the shares oversold. And that’s not all.

Mantec Group Limited consolidates three specialist technical ceramics companies into one business

In January 2012, the businesses of Ceramic Gas Products Ltd. and Taylor Tunnicliff Ltd. were consolidated into Fairey Filtration Systems Ltd. Fairey Filtration Systems Ltd. was subsequently renamed Mantec Technical Ceramics Ltd. The three specialist technical ceramics companies have for many years had shared the same facilities and management. The strategic changes will help to maintain competitiveness and create a stronger business to help secure a profitable future.

Transforming old into new: The relaunch of the Fritsch homepage

During the times of the Web 2.0 era, today is yesterday and a constant optimization of an internet presence is a must. Besides “visible” constant updates and optimizations, Fritsch has worked simultaneously on the relaunch of our homepage. Now it is comprehensively designed and revised, and this in multiple regards: The tried and proven was upgraded and new features implemented. User friendliness was a must, so now there is a noticeably improved navigation on the entry page that assists visitors and new customers to quickly obtain the desired information or to specifically contact us. New and interesting topic areas with important information for Fritsch customers were also created, such as information centered on the topic of particle sizing and mechanochemistry.

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