Indium Blog

Innovations for the Factory Floor: the Creation of EZ-Pour®

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    Robert Ploessl, Manager of Marketing and Technology Assessment and Product Manager, Compounds, and Phil Zarrow examine how observing the needs of the factory floor led to innovation and the creation of EZ-Pour®.

    Phil Zarrow: Robert, what's new in the exciting world of simple molecular compounds these days?

    Robert Ploessl: Well, Phil, I think there is plenty of space to innovate in this area. Let's start with gallium trichloride. We make that in a form called EZ-Pour® which means granulating a soft waxy material, making it into granules. Why is that an advantage? We see what our customers need and what they tell us on the factory floor is they want simplification in the process. They want to get away from very expensive control systems.

    Phil Zarrow: Right.

    Robert Ploessl: That say, heat up the solid material and melt it, pump it through pipes, and so forth. When you have a granulated material, what you can do is move it into a glove box - and the increased use of glove boxes is a trend that we observe in specialty chemicals manufacturing. Inside that glove box you can now have an operator directly, manually interact with the material and control the setup of the batch process - of the batch reaction for whatever they're doing. They just manually pour in the material. It's a alteration of the physical properties of the material. It's the same chemical compound but it makes it easier to use. You pour it in just like that and it does away with an entire control system.

    Phil Zarrow: So, Indium Corporation's innovative EZ-Pour® is exactly what it sounds. It's easing the process.

    Robert Ploessl: Yes.

    Phil Zarrow: Making it less complex to a certain degree or it's certainly helping eliminate some of the variables that would lead to inaccuracies or mistakes.

    Robert Ploessl: Yes. It's what we love doing at Indium Corporation, getting insight at the factory floor and addressing concerns directly.

    Phil Zarrow: Where could we find out more information about this?

    Robert Ploessl: Our website, always a good place to start. My email address is there. My phone number is there. Come to our website and explore.

    Phil Zarrow: Robert, thank you very much.

    Robert Ploessl: Thank you, Phil.