Never very far away from an NGK or NTK product
Walking down the street, or working in your office or home, it is highly likely that you will be in contact with something the company has either made or helped to make.
The mother speaking on her mobile phone could be making the call thanks to NGK technology.
The father striding up the road may be only able to do so because the company has helped put him back on his feet.
While overhead too, the aeroplane taking a teenager on their first solo holiday may be speeding to foreign climes due to NGK’s ingenuity.
For although NGK is a name synonymous with the automotive industry, where its products are featured in millions of vehicles driven across the globe, its influence spreads far wider.
The company’s expertise extends way beyond the automotive sector with its technology being used daily in numerous items featured in the home, at work in offices, shops and factories, in telecommunications and even hospitals.
Its innovative products impact on the daily lives of the UK population in ways that they would just not realise with the company’s expertise in ceramics and electronics placing it at the heart of countless products and technologies.
The company’s prowess in the development of NTK ceramics and electronic components means it features in – or in the manufacturing process of – items as diverse as satellites and jet engines through to washing machines and cameras. You could even be walking around with a hip joint made out of its ceramic material….
Gerard Irving, NGK Spark Plugs (UK) Ltd Marketing Manager, said: “The NGK name has long been established as one of the leading manufacturers of original equipment (OE) spark plugs, glow plugs and sensors for the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers and also the automotive aftermarket.
“However, its influence extends way beyond the automotive industry with NGK and NTK products featuring in many diverse areas where their technical excellence helps service the needs of the population both at work and in the home.”
Peter Ward, Deputy General Manager – NTK Ceramics, NGK Spark Plugs (UK) Ltd, said the company’s electronic and ceramic components expertise is world renowned.
He said: “If you look at the physical properties of ceramics, the fact that they are so hard and durable, and can retain that hardness at high temperatures, you will see why they are used in numerous industrial applications, such as for cutting tools which operate at high speeds in steel mills, and for the production of ball bearings.
“These are also ideal properties for use in other industries such as in agriculture, where its high wear capability makes it ideal for use in things such as flow tubes for cereal crops which can cause a surprising amount of wear to metal, and also in the flow of aggregates.
“And these same attributes make it ideal for use in the aviation industry where because of its high wear and extreme heat resistance it is used in the production of turbine rings for jet engines.”
Perhaps one of the most surprising uses of ceramics is in the treatment of hospital patients where Bio Ceramics – bone filling material – are used to fill and repair the lost or empty space in a bone caused by diseases such as a bone fractures or tumours, and for such operations as hip replacements.
“Ceramics are being increasingly used in the medical environment,” added Peter. “Its toughness and hard wearing capabilities has led it to be used increasingly instead of steel in bone replacement operations, and the body reacts well to its use.”
NGK/NTK‘s expertise is also borne out by the company’s involvement in the field of semi-conductor components where they are used in the telecommunications industry in such things as satellites, in computers and mobile phones.
All this is in addition to the company’s long-standing ignition expertise which is not just limited to the automotive sector.
In the aviation industry, its igniter plugs are used in jet engines. An igniter plug with a high-purity aluminum insulator and a special alloy that can withstand high spark energy, high voltage, high temperature, and high-pressure gas is used in the Airbus A320.
While a plug for reciprocal engines in airplanes has a shield structure that covers the whole body with metal fittings and can prevent radio wave noises completely.
The company also manufactures an igniter plug for rockets. Installed in the combustion chamber near the supply port of hydrogen and oxygen, a silicon nitride insulator that can withstand strong impact from the combustion heat is embedded in the plug.
Peter Ward added: “At work and in the home it is amazing how our components will either have been fitted to, or helped in the manufacturing process, of countless things that people come in contact with every day, from mundane items, such as wash basins, through to rockets and satellites, and that will continue in the future.”
In the automotive industry, NGK Spark Plugs (UK) Ltd is an original equipment (OE) parts supplier to most of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers (VMs) with whom it works hand-in-hand to produce parts that are manufactured to meet their specific requirements.
It invests around eight percent of world turnover into R&D to ensure that it can constantly develop spark plugs, glow plugs and NTK Lambda sensors that deliver the optimum performance and reliability that VMs demand for their increasingly sophisticated vehicles. Last year it also successfully introduced a range of ignition coils into the automotive aftermarket.
For more details about NGK Spark Plugs (UK) Ltd and its products and services please visit www.ngkntk.co.uk