News

Poco Graphite Inc. announced today that Chatura Patuwathvithane has been hired as an Applications Engineer.

Mr. Patuwathvithane joins POCO with an extensive background in Physics and materials. His past experience will be an asset as he works with POCO’s diverse product lines, which includes technical materials for semiconductor, biomedical, scientific, semiconductor and general industrial applications.

According to Scott Sirignano, POCO’s General Sales Manager, “We are excited about Chatura joining the POCO team. We are confident that his technical background and work experience will support our vast new business opportunities and result in POCO’s customers realizing our unique solutions.”

Mr. Patuwathvithane received his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Colombo, Sir Lanka. He also holds a MS in Physics and Materials Engineering from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.

The U.S. and European Patent and Trademark Offices have approved the issuance of a patent for the company's manufacturing, method, and design of a dual gas delivery electrode.

In leading edge applications, two gases must be mixed and reacted in a controlled atmosphere at very high temperatures. The ability to keep separation between the two gases with components fabricated from non-reactive materials is a significant obstacle. POCO has utilized their unique conversion and conversion bonding technologies to allow for internal plenums in a monolithic showerhead. This allows separation of gases until you design them to mix.

Another patent was issued by the Australian Patent and Trademark Office for the process of making carbon foam induced by process depressurization.

Carbon foams are a recent developmental area that has resulted in a high level of commercial interest. Pitch based carbon foams are considered to be a network of interconnected ligaments or struts. As such, pitch based carbon foams represent a positive alternative as heat exchangers due to its unique conductivity, being light weight and the ability to be utilized in convection or conductive heating.

Poco Graphite has announced that they have been awarded a major contract from the U.S. Air Force for $3,612,000 to continue work in applying their unique silicon carbide technology for aerospace structures. POCO’s unique chemical vapor conversion manufacturing process has been used to supply components to the semiconductor industry since 1995.

“We’re excited about being able to continue this development work with the Air Force”, says Scott Sirignano, POCO’s General Manager. We believe our exclusive silicon carbide manufacturing process and SUPERSiC® materials system offers a significant opportunity for cost effective mirrors and structures that will be needed for the development of advanced defense systems and space applications.”

In 2003, POCO was awarded their original government contract to explore using silicon carbide as a replacement for beryllium. At that time, the Air Force was determined to find a replacement for beryllium because of its cost and environmental concerns. POCO is currently involved in U.S. government contracts totaling $9.3 Million funding continuing work through 2009.

POCO’s government-supported programs are focused on three areas: optimize the process for aerospace applications; generate design data; and manufacture and deliver full scale hardware for testing.

As a result of these contracts, a significant number of silicon carbide structures have been manufactured and are now entering test programs.

The contracts from this program will help further develop an aerospace structures market, provide spin-off benefits in the commercial optics market and has already expanded the use of silicon carbide in the semiconductor industry.

Poco Graphite is focusing on material improvements in the graphite grades for container glass handling applications. “The container glass market is very competitive and materials that enable container glass manufacturers to increase production by reducing down time to change out worn components goes right to the bottom line,” says Scott Sirignano, General Manager. “As a manufacturer of technical materials, we have the ability to tailor our grades to meet the changing requirements of this industry.”

POCO produces a wide range of graphite grades used in many technical and industrial applications, each with a unique set of physical properties and characteristics. For the glass industry, POCO has targeted graphite grades for improvement or elimination based on cost/performance benchmarks for their intended applications.

CXT has been widely used for lehr stacker pads and transfer paddles. The improved version will launch as CXTX. CXT-Xtra has increased compressive and flexural strengths, higher hardness along with reduced thermal conductivity. This boost in physical properties will allow the graphite parts to resist wear longer, thus increasing the machine up time. The lower thermal conductivity of this improved material will further reduce the possibility of pads checking the glass containers as they are moved toward and into the lehr. CXTX can be used from the sweep out blade to the lehr.

New applications for new CXTX are pads for a new concept sweep out that will be introduced in the third quarter along with a bottle spacer.