Capital Refractories Limited is pleased to announce that their subsidiary company, Capital Injection Ceramics Limited, has received a prestigious award from an important customer in recognition of CIC’s ability to react responsively and satisfying their technical and production requirements on some of their most complex core requirements.

In May, CIC attended Doncasters Deritend’s supplier conference where Doncasters Group CEO Eric Lewis discussed the group’s results and highlights of the last 12 months and shared his expectations for Doncasters’ business growth and of the role of suppliers for the company moving forwards. The event concluded with an award ceremony where a handful of suppliers were picked out for special recognition. CIC was presented with an award for New Supplier of the Year. Fraser Strath, Technical Process Manager, received the award on behalf of CIC from Louise Hall of Doncasters.

CIC is delighted and proud to receive this recognition from one of the industry’s leading casting houses. This award not only serves to confirm CIC’s technical capabilities but it shows that CIC is achieving its objectives of setting new standards of customer responsiveness.

CIC has been supplying ceramic cores to Doncasters since 2006 but it is during 2007 that CIC has become involved in a number of key programmes, successfully delivering cores on time, in full in each case.

CIC began working with Doncasters and was able to prove its capabilities on a number of transfer tools during 2006 and into 2007. Since the middle of 2007, Doncasters has begun to commission a number of new tools for CIC for new industrial gas turbine (IGT) programmes.

The company that is now CIC was originally founded in 2005; it became part of the Capital Refractories group at the beginning of 2007 and has benefited from technical, commercial and administrative support as well as financial investment from Capital altogether giving customers the confidence of dealing with a larger, longer established company.

CIC has successfully developed over 120 tools for its ceramic core process. Many of these tools are from customers who already have an established supply relationship with Capital Refractories for products within its existing portfolio i.e. ceramic crucibles, pre-cast ceramic shapes, induction furnace linings, mould repair materials, gas diffusion technology etc.

During the last 12 months alone CIC has received over 50 new and transfer tools. In the case of many transferred IGT tools, CIC has been successful where one or even more core suppliers have been unsuccessful. The large majority of CIC’s current output is complex blades and vanes for IGT although CIC also produces ceramic cores for hardware and medical applications. In addition to Doncasters other customers include AETC, ESCO Turbine Technology, EMA, and Alcoa-Howmet.

In the last year, CIC has more than doubled production and in the same period has tripled floor-space and production capability to ensure sufficient capacity for future growth – current production is using only half of current capacity. Recent capital investments include a new 250 cuft kiln (making 3 kilns in total), 50t injection press (making 5 presses in total), probe CNC machine (making 5 CNC’s in total) and large CMM machine (making 2 CMM’s in total) and wax preparation facilities.

CIC has been accredited to the ISO 9001 standard since 2006, but is pleased to announce that it has launched a program to achieve the rigorous aerospace standard ASI 9100 by March 2009.