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People in Manufacturing
News Release from: Keronite
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 06 January 2005
Former Covisint chief appointed CEO of
Keronite
Lars Elias Olrik, 43, former head of Covisints European operations, has taken up a new position as CEO with technology leader in the field of surface treatment, Keronite of Cambridge UK.
Lars Elias Olrik, 43, former head of Covisints European operations, has taken up a new position as CEO with technology leader in the field of surface treatment, Keronite of Cambridge UK Born in Denmark, Olrik studied Economics and Land Management in Denmark, Copenhagen and later in the UK
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 3 Mar 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Process hardens and protects magnesium, aluminium
Surface treatment process is building quite a reputation as the preferred treatment for magnesium and aluminium alloys, providing the hardest and most corrosion resistant surfaces.
Electrolytic surface preparation is ISO approved
Keronite International has achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification for the application of advanced surface treatments using the Keronite Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation process.
He speaks English and German fluently and brings a wealth of experience from a diverse range of industries and locations from as far afield as Africa to a large number of European countries.
His previous roles include those of management consultant with Cap Gemini where he specialised in the development of technology solutions for leading corporations in the field of oil and gas, e-commerce and automotive manufacturing.
In the year 2001, Olrik left Cap Gemini as VP and Member of the European B2B practice with responsibility for the automotive industry to join global e-business company, Covisint, as VP and MD of European Operations.
Further reading
Mould surfaces made more durable
Aluminium is used as a replacement for expensive steel tools using patented chrome-free Keronite technology, improving durability and surface release properties.
Plasma process decreases magnesium corrosion
Plasma electrolytic oxidation process gives magnesium alloys as much as 1,000 hours of corrosion resistance in the extreme environment of a salt spray test.
Magnesium to grow in manufactured products
The market for cast magnesium components has been growing at around 15% p a in recent years and forecasts for the next decade - especially from the automotive industry - are even more bullish.
It was here that he worked closely with all the automotive OEMs and their suppliers to bring about collaborative product development, purchasing, quality and supply chain management in order to reduce costs at the same time as improving business efficiencies across the automotive value chain.
Looking for a new challenge, Olrik immediately saw the benefits that the Keronite technology could bring not only to his network of contacts in the automotive sector, but to virtually every walk of life from space travel and aerospace components to the buildings around us, the gadgets that make our lives simpler and the spectacles we wear.
Olrik firmly believes that Keronite can enable much wider use of light metal alloys such as aluminium and magnesium by giving them the properties that designers dream of: extreme hardness and excellent resistance to corrosion and wear.
With the full support of major shareholder, CLS Holdings, Keronite has grown over the past four years from a laboratory process with great potential, to a solid business in volume production.
Olriks predecessor, Graham Peel, is delighted with the progress made since he joined Keronite some three years ago and is now looking forward to the new challenge of assisting the development of the business in architectural cladding such as aluminium fascia tiles where prospects for Keronite look extremely bright.
* About Keronite - with headquarters in Cambridge, UK, Keronite offers a unique solution to the surface treatment of light metals: a patented process known as Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO).
Not only is the technology totally chrome-free and widely acknowledged as one of the greenest on the market, but it brings a whole range of unexpected processing benefits for the applicator, and endusers are excited by the multifunctional properties of the top quality surface finish.
Rather than adding a protective layer of dissimilar material as most coating systems do, the Keronite process totally transforms the surface itself into a hard, dense ceramic with truly amazing characteristics.
Because the protective layer of Keronite is atomically bonded to the substrate, the users confidence is absolute: the coating will not crack or peel and there are no weak spots on the surface which could ultimately lead to failure.
The outstanding properties of Keronite ceramic mean that it is rapidly becoming the surface of choice in the most demanding environments where the use of energy-saving lightweight materials is desirable but previously could not even have been considered.
* Without Keronite, aluminium could not withstand the thermal shock of space travel where temperatures reach as much as 2000 deg C.
* Automotive door frames and other body parts are rarely constructed from magnesium, but with Keronite protection, OEMs feel confident enough to offer a 12 year corrosion warranty.
* Keronite improves engine performance significantly by reducing the temperature of aluminium pistons by a critical 30 deg C.
* Magnesium can be successfully used as a material for hand-held electronics such as mobile ?phone cases, cameras, PDAs and laptops, thanks to the superior corrosion resistance of Keronite.
* Aluminium frying pans coated with Keronite demonstrate unsurpassed scratch and corrosion resistance when impregnated with PTFE.
* It is now possible to increase the life of expensive aluminium sand casting core moulds four-fold, simply by adding a layer of wear resistant Keronite.
* We can ride magnesium-framed bicycles, safe in the knowledge that even the inner surfaces of the magnesium tubes have been protected against corrosion using Keronite.
Today, in every walk of life, more and more people are discovering new possibilities using this versatile technology.
The only limitations lie in our own imagination!.
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