IMNA: Please tell us about Materion.
Ong: The Brush Beryllium Company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1931 to commercially develop the beryllium technology of Brush Laboratories. Brush Laboratories was started in 1921 by Charles Brush Jr and Dr C Baldwin Sawyer, who pioneered the work in extraction of beryllium from ore and the production of beryllium metal, oxide and master alloys. Brush Beryllium Company purchased the SK Wellman division of Abex Corporation in 1971. Its name was changed to Brush Wellman Inc. Brush Wellman’s international organisation was formed in the 1980s with offices in Germany, England and Japan. The Singapore office was formed in 1992 to provide local service and distribution in Southeast Asia.
In 2000, Brush Wellman Inc and its foreign subsidiaries became a wholly-own subsidiary of a newly created holding company, Brush Engineered Materials Inc. On 8 Mar 2011, the company became Materion Corporation and Brush Wellman Inc became Materion Brush Performance Alloys. Materion Brush Performance Alloys is a leading supplier of high performance alloys. We provide high-strength, high-conductivity copper, copper beryllium and specialty alloy products.
As the western world's sole commercially viable source of beryllium ore, Materion is the only fully integrated developer and supplier of engineered beryllium materials, from mining to R&D to mill products and value-added fabrication services. Our strip and bulk products are manufactured at Materion facilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania and distributed worldwide through a network of company-owned service centers, distributors and agents.
IMNA: How does the name change come about
Ong: There are 13 subsidiaries with different names under the parent company. We decided to have a standard name for all companies for branding and recognition purposes and to leverage on each other to get synergy. Our companies can share resources and customers' database, and tap on each other's strengths. It will also make it easier for customers to identify all of our subsidiaries under a common name.
IMNA: What do you think are your company's strength
Ong: Our subsidiaries can leverage on each other's strengths, share resources and shorten the learning curve. If one subsidiary has a relationship with a particular company, then if any of our other subsidiaries are interested to go after tenders with that particular company, it will be easier as we all share the same name. The particular company will be more open to talk to other subsidiaries since it already has a working relationship with one subsidiary. In the past, our subsidiaries had never worked together but now we are working together and this produces synergistic results. For Materion Brush Performance Alloys, we are more international than the rest of the subsidiaries. We have offices in Asia. We opened our China office in 1992. With our foothold and long experiences, we can help other subsidiaries to penetrate this region.
IMNA: Please give an overview of your company's products.
Ong: Materion is an advanced materials solutions company. Our products include precious and non-precious specialty metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium and copper-based alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, ceramics and engineered clad and plated metal systems. As the world's leading supplier of high-performance alloys, Materion Brush Performance Alloys' copper beryllium alloys provide many advantages in demanding automotive, commercial and industrial end-use applications ranging from downhole drilling tools and subsea wellhead products, to computer burn-in and test sockets. Beryllium is a natural element, used primarily as a hardening agent in alloys, especially in beryllium copper. Beryllium is relatively transparent to x-rays and is used as window material for x-ray machines.
We manufacture beryllium copper in several distinct compositions. This fall in two categories: high-strength alloys and high-conductivity alloys. Benefits of beryllium copper alloys include: enhanced functional performance, facilitate miniaturisation of components and products, and improved reliability.
We sell strip products and bulk form products. Strip products include thin-gauge precision strip and small diameter rod and wire. These copper and nickel beryllium alloys provide a unique combination of high conductivity, high reliability and formability for use as connectors, contacts, switches, relays and shielding. Bulk products are copper and nickel-based alloys manufactured in plate, rod, bar, tube and other customised forms that, depending upon the application, consistently provide superior strength, corrosion or wear resistance, thermal conductivity or lubricity.
While we are the world's leader in copper and nickel beryllium alloy products, we also pro¬duce a growing line of non-beryllium alloys. One of these is ToughMet, a remarkable copper-nickel-tin engineered alloy renowned for its combination of strength, lubricity and resistance to corrosion. This unmatched property set makes it the material of choice for applications such as bearing materials used in drilling, mining and other tough environments. Beyond ToughMet, we have introduced other new alloys and processes for shielding, connectors and other applications in products such as smart phones, digital cameras and computers.
IMNA: Which industries use these products
Ong: We serve leading-edge, high-growth global markets that include consumer electronics, defense, aerospace, automotive electronics, telecoms infrastructure, medical, oil & gas and energy.
IMNA: In your opinion, what are the current state and the outlook of the market in Asia
Ong: In my personal opinion, although the market is not doing well, I don’t think it is as bad as perceived by some. For the previous eight months, many companies were doing well because of the economic success in 2010. They might have hit targets for year-to-date but might not have achieved their targets for the whole financial year given the uncertain outlook. So now they are doing what they can to mitigate the risk by addressing the only factor that they can control. And that is their expenses. They are cutting their expenses so that they can remain profitable. Many of these companies had weathered the financial crisis in 2008 and they are now better prepared to face the economic uncertainty. They have the organisational structures and resources to react flexibly and quickly to any market changes.
Materion Brush Singapore Pte Ltd
1008 Toa Payoh North, #04-12/14/15
Singapore 318996
Tel: + 65-6842 4456
Fax: + 65-6842 6646
Email: BrushAlloysSG-info@materion.com
Website: www.materion.com