Kanthal has opened a new service centre in the US to meet the growing demand for high temperature heating solutions.
Located in North Carolina, Kanthal has expanded its Globar silicon carbide heating element manufacturing capacity at the facility in Concord.
The heating elements enable electrification of heating processes of up to 2,950°F and can replace fossil fuel heating solutions.
This enables customers to reduce CO2 emissions in their production and to make it more energy efficient, clean, safe and improve process control. The aim is to capture market growth with a local production footprint in the U.S. and support long-term product and application development.
Combustion emissions from the manufacturing sector accounts for 573 MMT (million metric tonne), or 75 per cent of the sectors’ total emissions, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
By electrifying the heating processes, these emissions could be reduced significantly.
Kanthal president, Robert Stål, said the company has served the US market since the 1930s.
"We are already supporting our customers from Concord with a broad portfolio, and adding Globar to the mix allows us to leverage existing infrastructure,” he said.
“The opening of our Concord service centre is the next step in strengthening our local presence in the region which is experiencing a surge in advanced manufacturing.”
The service centre is part of a $US11 million investment which includes expanding the company’s main site for production of Globar silicon carbide heating elements in Perth, Scotland, with an additional 19,000 square feet manufacturing area, as well as new equipment, a new layout, and additional warehouse.
Both locations are now fully operational and will increase production capacity by approximately 40 per cent.
President of Kanthal’s business unit heating systems, Simon Lile , said the company has implemented technology improvements in Concord that allow Kanthal to adapt product configurations based on customer furnace setups and order cycles.
“The result is a more responsive operation, faster to quote, faster to ship, and better aligned with US customer needs,” Lile said.
In 2022, Kanthal consolidated production from three US locations into one large state-of-the-art manufacturing and distribution centre in Concord, North Carolina, equipped with the latest technology to improve efficiency and lead times.