Capital Refractories Acquires Ceramic Core Supplier

Britain's Capital Refractories is staking out a new area of business for itself, investment casting, with the purchase of Capital Injection Ceramics Ltd. CIC supplies ceramic cores to the global investment casting industry. The acquisition was completed earlier this year. No purchase price has been announced.

"CIC is not just an additional service that Capital can offer its customers," the company states; "there is a synergy between existing Capital products and the work of CIC which make this acquisition a logical addition for the company."

The core supplier, with design and manufacturing operations in Corby, England, is expanding its engineering staff and its production equipment in order to grow its business capabilities. Capital Refractories, Chesterfield, England, adds that the new holding's "customer-specific approach is fresh to the industry," and that it will work to build relationships with customers by working with them "to achieve specific and complex requirements."

Capital supplies refractory products (castables, crucibles, furnace linings, and gas diffusers) to metalcasters producing aerospace, medical, automotive, and other industrial components. It is now working with several customers to identify ways to source ceramic cores through CIC. Capital stresses that there is synergy between its products and those of CIC, making the acquisition a logical growth strategy.

In the few months since the purchase was completed, CIC reportedly has conducted trials and produced cores for more than 10 investment casters, including some very large and complex blades and vanes for aerospace and industrial gas turbine manufacturers, and it is supplying a wide range of cores to many industries on a regular basis.