30 years jubilee – and the moti­va­tion is growing!

We are very happy, but that doesn't mean that we are rest­ing on our laurels, on the contrary:

Our enthu­siasm for new pro­jects of our cus­tomers is as fresh as it was on day one in 2024. In 1994, the deci­sion was made: After work­ing for the Ins­ti­tute of Struc­tures and Design at the German Aero­space Center (DLR) in Stutt­gart, Walter E. C. Pritzkow founded his cur­rent com­pany on the basis of his epony­mous engi­neer­ing office, which had been in exis­tence since 1990. The fol­lowing thirty years of his work were worth the effort. Today, we are a well-coor­di­nated team, look­ing to the future with moti­va­tion.

Perseverance and confi­dence were rewarded.

From the beginning, the goal was to develop and produce a mate­r­ial which, with its ver­sa­tile attrib­utes, could replace com­mon mate­rials and set new bench­marks. It has suc­ceeded.

Winning two awards (Airbus Helicopters Supplier Award / Innovation 2024 and Ralph Huf­schmied Award 2024) is in­creas­ing our con­fi­dence for the coming years, as stand­still of course will not be an option. The devel­opment of our prod­ucts was an on­going pro­cess which required deter­mi­na­tion, flex­i­bil­ity and pre­ci­sion. Our prod­ucts and in­sights are now find­ing a wide range of appli­ca­tions in indus­try and re­search. Oxide Ceramic Matrix Com­pos­ite (O-CMC) is no longer a foreign word. Fiber and fabric are an imp­or­tant raw mate­rial for our prod­ucts and their pro­duc­tion is cur­rently taking off, espe­cially in com­pa­nies with inno­va­tions, world­wide. We are also opti­mistic about this devel­op­ment. 

Cooperation and inter­dis­ci­pli­nary team play

The con­tin­u­ous ex­change with re­searchers and devel­opers as well as pro­jects with our cus­tomers are con­stantly broad­en­ing our hor­izons and enrich our experi­ence.

Seize the right moment ...

In 2013, we were able to move our company head­quar­ters from Stuttgart-Vaihingen to Filderstadt-Sielmingen in order to adapt our growing need for space to the increasing production requirements.

Thirty years of continuity in the devel­opment of com­ponents made of "Keramikblech” resulted in excel­lent prod­uct char­ac­ter­is­tics, which clearly define the unique selling point today.

We thank all of you as con­trib­u­tors for your appre­ci­a­tion.

Loyal customers, employees and col­leagues, part­ners, spon­sors and friends have ac­com­pa­nied us on our jour­ney. Let’s start to­gether into the coming “hot” years with joy, enthu­si­asm for know­ledge and a drive for action!

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As of november 2024


“The first Ralph Hufschmied Award is given to Walter Pritzkow”

This is what the specialist net­work Com­pos­ites United wrote after the award was pre­sented to Dipl.-Ing. Walter E. C. Pritzkow by the chair­man Prof. Dr.-Ing. Diet­mar Koch during a gen­eral meet­ing on March 14, 2024 for parti­cu­larly “out­stand­ing achieve­ments” and his work over the last three decades in the field of OX/OX.

What a joy! We would like to thank every­one in­volved for this award, which could not have been a better impe­tus for the coming years, espe­cially at the begin­ning of our anniver­sary year. These are the most beauti­ful moments when, after many years, all stages of a devel­op­ment are finally lead­ing to the desired re­sults. This honor gives us con­fi­dence for a future with mul­tip­le uses of our oxide / oxide ceramic matrix com­pos­ites.

Unfortunately, the award cer­e­mony took place in the absence of Ralph Huf­schmied, who recently passed away. Ralph Huf­schmied was, among fur­ther achieve­ments, playing a key role in the cre­ation of the Com­pos­ites United spe­cial­ist net­work and was strongly con­nected to his com­pany and the region.
The award bears his name – we appre­ci­ate it very much and will always keep him and this special day in good memory.

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Composites United e. V.
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Composites United e. V. on Linkedin – (German) 
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(As of november 2024)


Airbus Helicopters Supplier Award 2024

The anniversary year showed its sunniest side on Feb­ruary 6, 2024. We were honored with the Airbus Helicopters Supplier Award in the “Inno­va­tion” cate­gory.

The announcement came and we were imme­di­ately blown away – heading towards Mar­seille – Château Saint Hilaire, where the 2024 Airbus Heli­copters Supplier Con­fer­ence took place. A rush of antic­i­pa­tion accom­pa­nied us.
The cer­e­mon­ial start of the event in the pres­ence of numer­ous Airbus exec­u­tives and invited guests cul­mi­na­ted in the festive award cer­e­mony. Prizes were awarded in various cat­e­gories.

The moment of the award­ing in the cat­e­gory “In­no­va­tion” to “Walter E. C. Pritzkow Special Ceramics” sparked enth­usi­asm in us. This will probably stay with us for a while and inspire new ideas, espe­cially for the aero­space indus­try.

“Many thanks to the Airbus exec­u­tives for the trust you have placed in us.”

Airbus has been honor­ing regional and inter­na­tional sup­pli­ers with a Sup­plier Award since 2015. Prer­eq­ui­sites in­clude shar­ing Airbus values, sup­port­ing Airbus' com­petitive­ness in a com­plex envi­ron­ment, as well as demon­strat­ing a proven track record of indus­tri­al matur­ity, inno­va­tion, creativ­ity and reli­a­bil­ity.

This is a gratifying recog­ni­tion of Walter Pritzkow's except­ional achieve­ments over the last thirty years, the trust­ing coop­er­a­tion and his product “Keramik­blech”.

The day flew by – the inspiration remains.
 

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(As of november 2024)


CMC types: the „hot all-rounders“

Composites World cur­rently describes the devel­op­ment as the begin­ning of “a new era for ceramic matrix composites“.

In fact, the use and further de­vel­op­ment of CMC has accel­e­rated sig­nif­icantly since the 1970s. This ma­te­ri­al has now become indi­spen­sa­ble in many seg­ments of indu­stry and research.

But the goals are ambi­tious, because in order to develop more sus­tainable prod­ucts in the required variety, tem­pe­ra­ture resist­ance is just one of the nume­rous re­quire­ments. Mo­ti­va­tion and con­fi­dence have grown on all sides, es­pe­cially as the suc­cesses reveal the sought-after CMC and OCMC types in their en­tire­ty as true all-rounders.

Industrial oxide fiber pro­duc­tion in Europe kicks off.

In Denken­dorf, the DITF conducts exten­sive research on new “recipes” and the opti­mization of man­u­fac­turing pro­cesses for oxidic fibers through to fur­ther pro­cess­ing. In the near future an in­dus­tri­al pro­duc­tion with their part­ner Saint-Gobain could be suc­cess­ful for the first time and sig­nif­i­cantly im­prove the prof­i­ta­bility of the end prod­ucts through lower fiber costs.

Our tests in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the DITF, whose oxide fibers could prove their high qual­i­ty in uni­direc­tional and woven fabrics during a project with BASF, were suc­cess­ful. DITF fabrics were fur­ther pro­cessed in-house (in Siel­mingen) into finished OCMC demon­stra­tion objects.

The editors of Composites World have contacted key players in CMC's research, devel­opment and pro­duc­tion sectors, (including us). The result is an ex­cel­lently researched article which provides a global over­view and increases the ex­cite­ment because:
“Everything below 1000 °C leaves us cold.”

Read the original article:

Related Links, more topics:

“DITF Denkendorf advances sustainable carbon fibers, oxide fibers for CMC and more”

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(As of november 2023)


A durable lightweight:
the charging racks made of Keramikblech®

Thin-walled frame con­struc­tions made of sheet ceramic, (Keramik­blech), have proven to be robust after more than 400 success­ful cycles. The ma­terial proper­ties, weight and mechan­i­cal strength were ex­pli­citly adapt­ed to the extreme chal­lenges at the site of appli­ca­tion.

Charging racks made of Keramik­blech offer special ad­van­tages for long-­term appli­ca­tions up to 1000 °C, not only due to their low thermal ex­pan­sion (approx. 50 % of steel), their ther­mal shock resist­ance, but also due to their stabil­ity and light­ness.

The material reli­abil­ity also enables ex­cellent service life. There are hardly any limits to the variety of shapes.
 

Case studies “Keramikblech”: "An enabler under demanding conditions"
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(As of february 2022)


The homo­geneous bending strength level of iso­tropic CMC materials makes them suitable for multiple appli­cations.

Bending tests of iso­tropic and aniso­tropic CMC plates provide new view into the inter­action of fiber and matrix.

The samples of the material FW12 have been tested in 7 direc­tions: 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90°. Sig­nif­i­cant dif­fe­rences in the bending behav­iour of iso­tropic and aniso­tropic material samples could be found:
 

Bending strength behaviour of the aniso­propic plate:
 

  • Maximum loads can be absorbed in the fiber direc­tion 0° and 90°. At an angle of 45°, a flexural strength of only approx. 50% of the 0° and 90° fiber direc­tion is measured. (Graphic: blue curve)


Bending strength behaviour of the isopropic plate:
 

  • The samples are showing a nearly constant bending strength at all test angles, (0° – 90° in 15° steps). In the course of the tests carried out, a maximum devi­a­tion of only about 15% occurred. (Graphic: red curve)


Conclusion:

The iso­tropic OCMC material suits far better for multi-axis stress condi­tions than the aniso­tropic OCMC material.

 

Full details of the experi­ment can be found in the original doc­u­ment at:

„Biegeversuche an anisotropen und isotropen oxid­keramischen Faser­verbund­werk­stoffen (OCMC)” (German)

Test implementation: Sandra Leonhardt and Frank Walter, Author: Sandra Leonhardt, published by: © Walter E. C. Pritzkow Spezial­keramik

(As of february 2021)


With new 3M Nextel® 610 fabrics, component costs can be reduced enormously.

At the same time our customers do not have to give up on quality.

The 3M Nextel® 610 oxide fibre fabric is an essential “basic material” of OCMC’s1. Therefore, its pur­chase price is a deci­sive cost factor in the produc­tion of simple and com­plex parts made of Keramikblech®.

As a result of a series of develop­ment stages with 3M Nextel® 610 fabrics, the DF11-3000 fabric had already proven itself in the pro­duction of OCMC last year. This had already made a cost reduc­tion of ten to fif­teen percent in the produc­tion of Keramik­blech® possible2.
 

Depending on the require­ments and com­plexity of the com­po­nents, the new type DF13-4500 allows a cost reduc­tion of up to 67%

Our com­po­nents made of Keramikblech® have to endure a lot and before their use they have to pass through the "torture chamber": tempera­ture, ther­mal shock and mechan­i­cal stress. The results of the qual­ity tests using the new fabric were en­cour­aging in this regard. Even more excit­ing: the price-per­formance ratio.
 

Go-ahead for use in Keramikblech® manufacturing

DF13-4500 is expected to be available for component manufacturing from April 2021.

 

1 OCMC = oxide ceramic matrix composites


The focal point of energy technology

Solar absorber compo­nents made of Keramikblech®:

Recently, sheet ceramic com­po­nents for a volumetric receiver of the Noor III solar tower plant have been com­pleted. Due to its excep­tional prop­er­ties, sheet ceramic is interest­ing for hot gas gen­era­tion in this type of solar energy con­ver­sion, where ther­mal­ly and me­chani­cal­ly highly loadable com­po­nents are required.

The American company Wilson Solarpower Cor­po­ra­tion had devel­oped the tech­nical basis for the Brayton Cycle CSP* system, which there­upon has been mar­keted as 247Solar Plant™ by 247Solar Inc. This pro­pri­etary CSP* tech­nol­ogy uses hot air as a heat trans­fer medium in­stead of the usual steam or ni­trate salt.

The solar absorber, designed as a volumetric receiver, is a cen­tral com­po­nent of the Noor III solar plant in Morocco. On top of the solar power tower, it heats the air pass­ing through up to 970 °C. In combi­na­tion with a micro­turbine, this hot air is used to gen­er­ate solar elec­tri­city. 

The basket like struc­ture made of sheet ceramic, (Keramik­blech), holds the ceramic SiC foams to­geth­er, where the heated air flows through. The combi­na­tion of SiC foams as the absorber ma­terial and the sup­porting struc­ture made of sheet ceramic, make the ab­sorb­er per­fectly suited for these extreme challenges and will guarantee a long-term use at the same time.

In order to make a contri­bu­tion to the energy supply of our common future, we were glad about this task.

Thanks to our cus­tomers and part­ners for their great co­op­er­ation. 

*CSP = Con­cen­trating Solar Power
 

Further infor­ma­tion on this subject:

247solar.com,
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247Solar Plants 3D Animation
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(As of august 2019)


Dawn of VTOL with sheet ceramic tech­nol­ogy

September 17, 2018:
Jetoptera, Inc. has commenced the Ver­ti­cal Take Off and Land­ing (VTOL) test cam­paign, demon­stra­ting capa­bil­i­ties to vertically take off and hover a test­bed of more than 50 kg.
(As of oktober 2018)

A vertical launch of ground­breaking success:
the tests show an ex­cel­lent thrust vector control via a swiv­eling Fluidic Propulsive System™, (FPS™), which can be rotated more than 90 degrees out of the hori­zon­tal posi­tion for VTOL. The plat­form demon­stra­ted the excel­lent ma­neu­vera­bility and ver­ti­cal takeoff capa­bil­i­ties. In addition, findings on dem­on­strate Short Take-Off and Landing / STOL capa­bil­i­ties.

This is the first time that the thin-walled thrust­ers made of sheet ceramic were employed for a VTOL test and its low weight prop­er­ties enable the FPS™ capa­bil­i­ties.

All Jetoptera products except the J-55, including the four-seat VTOL air­craft “Jetoptera 4000”, are employing the pro­prie­tary fluidic pro­pulsive system FPS™.

Further information can be found on the

www.jetoptera.com,
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jetoptera.com/news/,
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The-J2000-flying-car,
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Jetoptera FPS™ system completes another flight test campaign

A second model – this time a glider – took to the skies on July 5th, 2018, powered solely by the Fluidic Propulsion System.

The successful test flight demon­strates the flexibility of the propul­sion FPS™ concept used on various config­ura­tions of the air­frame. The glider will be used as test bed for future shapes of the thrust­ers, including round and non-round, enabled by Walter E.C. Pritzkow special ceramics construc­tion method.

The advantages of the system: small size, dis­tri­buted thrust and high speeds, low weight, sim­plic­ity, consider­able pay­loads and ex­cep­tion­al maneu­ver­abil­ity are obvious, and its scala­bil­ity can be extended to the new concepts of urban air mobility.

These success­ful flights strengthen the coopera­tion between Walter E. C. Pritzkow special ceramics and Jetoptera, Inc. The ultra­light ceramic sheet thrust­ers were key to keeping the weight of the FPS low and the thrust to weight ratio high. The flight and further tech­ni­cal details can be seen on the Jetoptera, Inc. Company website:

jetoptera.com/news/,
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(As of july 2018)


Lift-off: „Keramikblech“ thrust nozzles in test flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UVA)

For the first time a component made of sheet ceramic, built into the model “J55”, takes to the skies. Edmonds / Washing­ton-based Jetoptera, Inc. devel­oped the Fluidic Pro­pul­sion System™, an innova­tive pro­pul­sion concept for an unmanned aerial vehicle. For the first time the fluidic pro­pul­sion technol­ogy was imple­mented on the air­frame. A con­sist­ent devel­op­ment of fluid mechan­i­cal com­po­nents, the imple­menta­tion of the latest ceramic tech­nol­ogies and innova­tive manu­fac­turing tech­niques are com­po­nents of the compact, revo­lu­tion­ary design.

The sheet ceramic were incor­po­rated into the thrust­ers of the model Jetoptera J55, due to the low density of the ceramic ma­terial, which is only 36% of the steel density, as well as its high thermal load ca­pac­ity, es­pe­cial­ly devel­oped for this chal­leng­ing task.

The test flight of the Jetoptera prototype on April 26 this year was a world premiere in terms of design and drive tech­nol­ogy for unmanned aerial vehicles, but also in regards of the wide range of applica­tions of the oxide ceramic fiber composite "sheet ceramic" in industry and research.
(As of may 2018)

More about „Jetoptera“,
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article „Fluidic propulsion™ takes off“,
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Jetoptera on Linkedin,
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“Keramikblech” flame tubes 15 years in successful use

Already 15 years ago, in 2002, flame tubes made of “Keramikblech” (sheet ceramic), were delivered for burn­ers from the com­pany Weis­haupt for the first time. The first flame tube was in­stalled by the large bakery Wendeln near Munich, (at that time already Kamps), in a baking line, on which the crisp­bread “Lieken Urkorn” was pro­duced. This pro­duc­tion line was sold in 2003 to Wolf Süss­waren in Arn­stadt, Thu­rin­gia, where a second baking line was also equipped with flame tubes made of “Keramik­blech". Both plants are still in op­era­tion. Today this in­dus­trial bakery is called “Grabower Süsswaren”.

The lifetime of metal flame tubes in 2002 was ap­proxi­mate­ly 1000 hours. The du­rable flame tubes made of sheet ceramic are only replaced if they are me­chani­cal­ly damaged dur­ing main­te­nance. There­fore a more than 50,000 hours lifetime of “Keramik­blech” flame tubes is about 50 times higher than the life­time of metal flame tubes.

Further flame tube types for “Weishaupt burners” are mainly used in crema­to­ria. In these ap­pli­ca­tions the lifetime of 10 weeks is extended to more than 2 years.

See also:

Burner Components

(As of january 2018)


Sliding carriage of the first generation after 2800 cycles:

The sliding carriage of the 1st generation, shown above, passed through 2800 cycles by now but still works with its fissures. The sliding carriage of the 2nd generation currently passed through 920 cycles.

The application temperature of these sliding carriages is between 1000 – 1140 °C. The cycle time amounts approx. 2 hours. It's loaded with test bodies, is pushed into the hot stove and pulled out again after a not known residence time.
(As of april 2016)


Article of the magazine Ceramic Applications 2/2015

Further publications you can download as PDF file

(As of february 2015)