Vesuvius, established in 1916 as Vesuvius Crucible, is a world leader in the design, engineering, manufacture and delivery of refractory products, systems and services for high-technology industrial applications.

Vesuvius was the originator of the technologies and processes it continues to deploy today. The depth and breadth of expertise acquired over the years by our engineers, in ceramics, metallurgy and metal coating, enables them to interact as peers with their customers on all continents to define value-creating solutions, monitor their implementation and ensure their reliability over time. These solutions incorporate products developed by R&D engineers in 7 Vesuvius Research Centres worldwide.

With the integration of Foseco in April 2008, Vesuvius is now present in 30 countries on 5 continents, with 80 manufacturing units, 7 R&D centres and numerous sales agencies, together employing over 12,000 people.

Foseco has been associated with the metals Industry for over 75 years and today is acknowledged as a world leader in the supply of consumable products for use in the foundry industry with a presence in 32 countries and major facilities in Germany, USA, UK, Brazil, China, India, South Korea and Japan.

The company was founded by Eric Weiss in 1932 and quickly became established as a supplier to the Foundry Industry, from where the name FOundry SErvice COmpany was derived. In April 2008, Foseco was acquired by Cookson Group plc and is now part of Vesuvius.

Different divisions of the company:

Iron & Steel Division VESUVIUS' STEEL DIVISION provides customers with a full range of products and systems for the continuous casting of steel.

VESUVIUS' product range includes:

Isostatically-pressed alumina graphite consumable products
Slide gate systems and refractories
Continuous temperature measurement instruments
Process automation
Lining materials
Pre-cast insulating materials.

FOUNDRY

VESUVIUS' Foundry Division supplies ferrous and non-ferrous foundries as well as investment casting, with a wide range of refractories. Key products include monolithic and brick linings for furnaces, flow control products, crucibles used to melt and transfer molten metals, temperature measurement systems, dosing accessories, degassing products and ceramic filters which reduce flaws and control turbulent flow during mould filling.

GLASS

VESUVIUS supplies a wide range of special refractories for the Glass industry. Key products supplied by VESUVIUS to the glass industry include refractories used in both glass production and glass transformation installations.

SOLAR

A key component for the mass production of multi crystal Solar Grade Silicon ingots is the availability of large ceramic crucibles in which ingots are manufactured.

Almost two decades ago, VESUVIUS has developed a unique process to produce these complex ceramic parts on a commercial scale.

MINERAL PROCESSING

VESUVIUS has a long experience of the supply of refractories to all areas of the cement production process, and to other rotary kiln based minerals processing applications.

HPI & POWER

Vesuvius is a World Class supplier to the Hydrocarbon Processing and Power Generation Markets. Our Superior Abrasion and Erosion Resistant Castables, Plastic Refractories, Brick and Gun mixes are used extensively in all process units in these industries. We also possess a full service Engineering and R&D department to stay on the cutting edge of technology and offer state of the art refractory products.

Milestones:

1916- Vesuvius Crucible Company founded to manufacture clay graphite crucibles
1960- Worldwide expansion and development of isostatic pressing technology and alumina graphite isostatically pressed products
1986- COOKSON GROUP acquires VESUVIUS
1988- Acquisition of ACCUMETRIX CORP. (USA)
1989- Acquisition of STEEL SERVICE MALMÖ (Scandinavia), McDANEL REFRACTORY CO. (USA), FLO-CONTROL SYSTEMS (USA) and LAVA CRUCIBLE (USA)
1991- Acquisition of METACON (Switzerland), NEOMELT (a division of Ferro Corp. USA), TYLER (USA), MONTERREY (Mexico)
1993- Acquisition of LECO (USA) Joint venture (50%) with KAWASAKI REFRACTORIES (Japan)
1995- Acquisition of HI-TECH CERAMICS (USA)
1997- Acquisition of MONOFRAX (USA), ZEDMARK REFRATTARI (Italy), CROW (Australia)
1998- Acquisition of HINCKLEY GROUP (Flogates & KSR, UK), IIE (Belgium), FLO-CONTROL ITALIANA (Italy), BECKER & PISCANTOR (Germany)
1999- Acquisition of VGT DYKO (Germany) and PREMIER REFRACTORIES INTERNATIONAL
2000- Acquisition of SKAWINA REFRACTORIES (Poland) Acquisition of monolithics plant at VISAKHAPATNAM (India)Joint venture with PREMIER HERNIC REFRACTORIES (South Africa)
2002- Acquisition of SIR (Germany), the remaining shares of PREMIER HERNIC REFRACTORIES (South Africa) and AG REFRACTORY SERVICES (Australia)
2003- Acquisition of BLUE DIAMANT CY (Mehsana, India), our first Foundry plant in Asia Pacific Opening of a new mix plant in China: VESUVIUS ADVANCED CERAMICS Co, Ltd (China)
Building of a new glass tempering rolls plant VESUVIUS ZYAROCK CERAMIC (Suzhou) Co.,Ltd. (China)
Set up of a new fused silica crucibles plant (used for the production of photovoltaic solar cells), VESUVIUS SOLAR CRUCIBLES, s.r.o. (Czech Republic)
2004- Acquisition of SIDE DAMS (Italy) Creation of sales offices: VESUVIUS Co. Ltd (Thailand) and VESUVIUS CORPORATION S.A., TAIWAN BRANCH (Taiwan)
Extension to the existing Kua Tang manufacturing plant VESUVIUS ZYAROCK CERAMIC (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., (China)
Take over of the monolithics business of BULLI REFRACTORIES (Australia)
Divestment of VGT DYKO (Germany) and PREMIER BELGIUM (Belgium)
2005- Joint venture with WUGANG-VESUVIUS ADVANCED CERAMICS Co, Ltd. (China) increasing to 50%Disposals of non-core technical ceramics business (Mc Danels US)
2006- Divestment of Ceramics fibres and Carbon Blocks business (UK)
2007- Disposals of MONOFRAX fust-cast refractories and Snowshoe (Indiana) refractory brick business (USA)
2010 - New Mix Plant at Kolkata factory.
2012 - Doubled capacity to manufacture shaped refractory at Kolkata factory.
2013 - New taphole clay facility replaced old facility at Visakhapatnam factory.

Frequently asked questions