GCE is a highly specialized service provider for companies that use industrial minerals in advanced applications e.g. coatings, glass or technical ceramics. Our services include the thorough characterization of minerals as well as products made from minerals and outsourcing solutions for quality control, product optimization, and research and development.
Services by GCE are certified by ISO 9001:2000 and accredited according to DIN EN ISO 17025. We are approved for chemical and physical analyses as well as research and development regarding basic materials, industrial mineral products and systems.
One unique feature of our services is the opportunity to produce test materials at our technical center, and verify conclusions from research & development or product optimization projects.
For details about our services, please click on the value chain below.
For any production, the stable and reliable supply of raw materials is a key factor for high quality products. However, unlike synthetic materials, industrial minerals are made by nature and therefore subject to natural variations. Some applications, e.g. the pharmaceutical or technical ceramics industry, are very sensitive to variations in the final product. Therefore a thorough characterization and specification of relevant properties e.g. chemical and mineralogical composition, grain size distribution, specific surface area or particle size and shape etc. is required for any new development.
As an experienced and internationally well accepted specialist in the analysis and engineering of industrial minerals, GCE provides the know-how to quantify relevant properties and how to establish specifications. Our laboratory is fully accredited for all those methods needed to quantify an array of specification parameters amongst which just one or two may be critical for specific mineral application.
Today, quality and production control are the leading parameters of the production process. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are therefore acquiring off-site quality and production control options. GCE is experienced in creating individual packages partnering specifically the raw material, glass and technical ceramics industries in outsourced quality control.
Our customers have the additional benefit of an independent accredited laboratory which is required in end user markets such as the automotive industry. GCE also provides analytical certificates required in export and import business e.g. high quality glass tableware. In addition, customer specific analytical solutions are set up in our laboratories according to their requirements.
During the production process minerals or mineral admixtures are introduced to create specific functions. For example, functional raw materials are used to improve properties such as printability of paper, rheology of coatings, viscosity of glass, surface of technical ceramics, or the porosity of functional layers.
At GCE we use our laboratory to analyze the function of minerals or mixtures in the respective product by applying advanced analytical techniques e.g. atomic force microscopy, electron microscopy, and advanced trace element analysis. Once the critical properties of the components are identified, product optimization can be started to further improve the system. At our technical center we can adjust parameters and create prototype products for application tests. Depending on the end user, application tests are carried out at our laboratory or at the customer.
Research and Development covers a wide range of applications for minerals, e.g. filtration, coatings, paper, glass and ceramics. GCE is highly experienced in the research and development of new innovative products to be used in highly specialized systems. Based on experience and a pragmatic, production related view, we use our scientific network, our laboratory and technical center to create new mineral-based products.
GCE is developing new technologies for the processing and recycling of high purity materials. Here, our research and development activities lead to completely new processing concepts offering substantial benefits in purity and yield. As partner with selected machine manufacturers we have successfully introduced new recycling and comminution technologies into the high purity quartz, quartz glass, and lithium minerals processing industries which are now available on a technical scale.
As a unique part of our research and optimization studies we offer the opportunity to process test samples for application tests at our technical center. Here, specialized technologies are combined in pilot scale for the separation, classification, thermal and chemical treatment to purify and modify a raw material to become a pilot product.
Depending on the requirements of the application and the necessary processing steps, pilot samples in the range of up to several hundred kilograms are created, thus providing sufficient material quantities for application tests on a technical or semi-technical scale. At the same time sample production allows gathering of the required process data which may provide important information for the later engineering of the processing plant.
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- 75 Edridge Rd, Croydon, Greater London, CR0 1EJ
- 0745-230-4089
- Mon - Fri: 9:00 - 18:00