摘要
An analysis of the present and of the future of the refractories industry is being presented , considering some important technical, economical, human and environmental issues , on a worldwide basis. Refractories are still neededas confinement materials to prevent heat and mass transferlosses in many diverse manufacturing industries , and will remain so , but the main challenges , this industry do needto meet, are to adjust to an overcapacity production , to cope with new needs of the customers , in particular the'outsourcing' , which is a new customer / supplier relationship being adopted by many of them, and to keep the research and development alive in a more and more competitive arena. Among the direct consequences , are the need to keep the education world in refractory engineering training alive and to cope with macro and micro projects to change the image of the Refractories , from a commodity material to a sophisticated 'high-tech' composite material . Some suggestions are provided in the text.
An analysis of the present and of the future of the refractories industry is being presented , considering some important technical, economical, human and environmental issues , on a worldwide basis. Refractories are still neededas confinement materials to prevent heat and mass transferlosses in many diverse manufacturing industries , and will remain so , but the main challenges , this industry do needto meet, are to adjust to an overcapacity production , to cope with new needs of the customers , in particular the'outsourcing' , which is a new customer / supplier relationship being adopted by many of them, and to keep the research and development alive in a more and more competitive arena. Among the direct consequences , are the need to keep the education world in refractory engineering training alive and to cope with macro and micro projects to change the image of the Refractories , from a commodity material to a sophisticated 'high-tech' composite material . Some suggestions are provided in the text.
