It is with great sadness that the Board of Directors announces the death of our Chairman and Founder, Dr. Ralph Iley, after a long illness.

Ralph has been a strong supporter of our technology from the outset and his mission to grow the business through customer service and innovation has driven the Company forward. We honour his passing by re–affirming our commitment to all customers, suppliers and staff to work ceaselessly to pursue his mission.

International Syalons (Newcastle) Limited has great pleasure in announcing that it has successfully been assessed by Lloyds Register of Quality Assurance against the revised international quality standard ISO 9001:2008. This Quality Management System applies to the manufacture of advanced ceramic powders and products.

In achieving the ISO 9001:2008 certification our goal is to continually improve every aspect in the manufacture and supply of our advanced ceramics. This includes maintaining detailed records, reacting to customer feedback, regularly reviewing our processes and monitoring the quality system itself for its effectiveness.

The Company was one of the first companies in the UK to achieve the ISO 9001:2000 standard and subsequently the latest 2008 standard.

This award has resulted from much hard work by everyone at the Company, particularly the Quality Department, and demonstrates our commitment to providing a first class service to our customers.

The Directors of International Syalons (Newcastle) Limited have great pleasure in announcing that Mr. Ian Denton and Mr. Nick Fecitt have been appointed Directors of the Company with immediate effect.

Ian, who joins the Board as Operations Director, started his career in research. He was appointed as Quality Manager when the Company was formed and was responsible for the Company becoming one of the first in the UK to achieve ISO 9001 status. He was appointed Operations Manager in 2005 and has been instrumental in driving the Company forward and establishing its present position of leadership in sialon ceramic engineering, through continually improving standards and customer service. Ian will continue to be responsible for all aspects of sales and production.

Nick, who joins the Board as Technical Director, is another founder member of the Company's staff and, leading his research and development team, has been highly successful in developing the Company's wide range of Syalon ceramics through material technology and process design. He is internationally recognised as one of the world's leading experts on sialon ceramics and maintains relationships with a number of prestigious research establishments, so as to maintain the Company's position in the forefront of advanced ceramic engineering.

Managing Director, Tony Mitchell, says "We are extremely fortunate to have Ian and Nick on the Board to continue the Company's growth through innovation and customer service. Most of our customers are already aware of and benefit from the problem-solving skills that are available through Ian, Nick and their respective teams. This is our way forward."

International Syalons (Newcastle) Limited will be exhibiting at ALUMINIUM 2008 in Essen, Germany. This is the world's premier meeting for the aluminium industry and we will be showing our range of Syalon foundry products.

The exhibition runs from September 23-25, 2008 at the Messe Essen and we will be located in Hall 1, Booth 1E55. Please visit us there and see some of our foundry products made from advanced Syalon ceramics, including 2 metre long thermocouple protection sheaths.

Syalon 101 uniquely combines outstanding corrosion resistance to aluminium and its alloys, thermal shock resistance and high strength. In addition, Syalon is non-wetted by aluminium making it resistant to build up of dross. These features give Syalon 101 foundry products a significantly better service life over competitive products such as chill cast iron, silicon carbide and aluminium titanate.

For more information on our foundry products and how they may help you, please take the opportunity to speak with us at ALUMINIUM 2008 or contact us conventionally.

International Syalons (Newcastle) Limited have recently installed and commissioned a new, large, state of the art sintering furnace, which significantly extends our sintering capacity.

The furnace, built by Vacuum Furnace Engineering Ltd (VFE) of Halesowen, West Midlands, UK, allows us to manufacture sialon parts up to 2m in length, significantly longer than our previous maximum length of 1.5m. Thermocouple protection sheaths for molten metal handling, are now available in this new length at a diameter of 28mm.

In addition, the extra capacity, 6 times our previous capacity, will allow us to manufacture parts up to 600mm in diameter, far larger than the previous maximum diameter of 200mm.

For more information on our on the products we manufacture, please contact us.

International Syalons (Newcastle) Limited are the UK's leading manufacturer of advanced nitride ceramics. We are a small but fast–growing, well–established manufacturing company supplying advanced ceramics to industries such as oil and gas, automotive and molten metal handling.

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century and caused no excitement among the engineering fraternity of the day. The problem was that Si3N4 does not lend itself to ease of fabrication.

Over the next century two principle routes for fabricating Si3N4 ceramics were developed: hot pressing and reaction bonding.

Hot pressed Si3N4 (HPSN), was made by adding a flux (usually magnesia, MgO) to a fine Si3N4 powder and then pressing the powder in a graphite die at high pressure and temperature. The resultant HPSN body, although fully dense and extremely strong, could only be made in to simple shapes which would then require expensive diamond grinding to obtain the desired profile.