On 27.03.2025, a General Meeting of the Association members was held in Krakow, during which the activities in 2024 were summarized, the reports were approved and the Board of the Association was discharged.
Further on, President T. Biliński presented information on the procedure regarding the application of the Imerys company for the introduction of increased customs tariffs for fused corundum imported from China. He discussed the division of the costs of hiring a legal office by PRE, which deals with the development of appropriate arguments on behalf of interested manufacturers of refractory materials.
Next, J. Czechowski presented the current status of the work of the Task Force for International Standard of the World Society of Refractory Materials WRA. At the last meeting in which he participated, the following were discussed:
– summary of the results of interlaboratory tests for the determination of MOR at high temperatures
– establishment of a Working Group in the ISO Committee on “Sampling and acceptance tests” (experts are currently being sought to work in this Group),
– establishing key standards for work on their verification or development (he informed about the need to develop a standard for “fused corundum for applications in the production of refractory materials”).
M. Cyganik gave a presentation on “Methodology for calculating the carbon footprint of refractory products”. The issue of developing standards for calculating the carbon footprint of refractory products and the proposal to create a team composed of representatives of plants under the supervision of M. Cyganik, which would deal with such a study, was very popular among the gathered members of the SPMO.
The Secretary of the Association presented the current status of matters related to the ViscoTherm application submitted last year to the 38th CORNET Competition entitled “Improvement of thermal shock resistance of refractory materials through controlled formation of the liquid phase”. The application has received a positive assessment from the reviewers and by 23.04.br the final application will be submitted to the National Centre for Research and Development, which will be subject to cost assessment. At the same time, an agreement between the international consortium and partners from Germany (FGF, Hochschule Koblenz) and an agreement on the performance of research works by the ICIMB Refractory Materials Centre will be prepared.
The President of SPMO informed about the PRE Congress, which will be held on 18-20.06.2025 in Lubjana (Slovenia). He also provided information that in 2026 the Congress will be held in Helsinki, while in 2027 Poland will be the organizer and preliminary organizational work is expected to be undertaken in the second half of the year. The President also reminded about the competition for pro-ecological solutions organized by PRE and the upcoming deadline for submitting applications.
