Core markets

Our core market portfolio is diversified and differentiated. Our core markets make up 79% of Group revenues.

In these core markets, we are leading, or are among the market leaders, with strong customer loyalty, a respected brand and deep application expertise.

Industrial

We engineer components which are highly resistant to chemical and physical wear, corrosion and extreme temperatures. These components sit at the heart of many industrial processes.

In the industrial market:

• We are engineering thermal ceramic fibre like Superwool® XTRA to support better energy consumption
• We have produced reduced wear, reliable seals which extend pump life by up to 4x, (compared to spray coated stainless steel rings), resulting in the significant reduction of through life costs
• Our Pyro-Bloc® modules for regenerative thermal oxidisers reduce the number of through-joints between modules, resulting in fewer opportunities for heat loss, and reduced fuel related expenses

Transportation

We make high-performance components and sub-assemblies to exacting standards for aerospace, automotive, marine and rail applications, including carbon brushes for trains, and high-temperature fibre products used for emission control in vehicles.

In aerospace we continue to enable more efficient jet engines through the production of more complex cores for casting turbine blades. Customers come to us for their most demanding applications, for example when they need to hold very fine features on small components. And these demanding applications arise as the next generation engines run hotter to be more efficient. Our cores enable these advances in engine technology.

Our seals and bearings are used in vehicle fuel and thermal management, providing near frictionless running and low wear rates, whilst our fused silica and mullite rollers enable thermal annealing of automotive chassis parts.

Petrochemical & Chemical

We manufacture a range of components ideally suited to the uniquely demanding operating environments found in the global petrochemical and chemical industry.

Our products and materials are routinely chosen to fulfil critical
applications for on- and offshore exploration, drilling and downstream processing owing to their resistance to chemical and physical wear, corrosion and extreme heat.

Our self-lubricating seals and bearings and our ceramic shafts are reducing the energy consumption of pumps in chemical plants.

Security and Defence

We supply precision-engineered materials, components and assemblies to meet the exacting standards of the global defence and security market. Our components for night vision systems enable superior performance. Our ceramic tiles are used to build high-performance body and vehicle armour.

Our advanced ceramic materials offer superior dimensional stability, strength, stiffness and chemical resistance across a wide range of temperatures.

Energy

We manufacture products for power generation from hydroelectric, nuclear and traditional sources and insulation materials for heat management. Our carbon brushes are integral to efficient power generation systems.

Our advanced thermal insulation is being used to insulate heat recovery steam generators in power and industrial plants.