Ceradyne has announced the opening for its new 98,000 square foot factory in Tianjin.

This newly constructed factory will produce high purity ceramic crucibles for the forming of large polysilicon ingots for use in the manufacturing of photovoltaic silicon solar cells.

Bruce Lockhart, Ceradyne vice president responsible for the company's solar energy efforts, commented: "This is a very exciting event for Ceradyne and particularly for Ceradyne Thermo Materials. Only three years ago, we established a major dedicated facility in Atlanta for the development and manufacture of these high technology ceramic crucibles for sale to solar cell fabricators. This new Tianjin plant replicates the Atlanta plant, only it is much larger, to meet our Chinese customer requirements."

The facility, located on Ceradyne's five-acre plot in Tianjin's Tanggu National Marine High Tech Development Zone, will supply the exact components to its Chinese photovoltaic solar cell customer base as it is currently producing in Atlanta, Georgia, where the technology was developed. The Ceradyne Tianjin facility will be run by Ceradyne Chinese executives and engineers who have been trained by U.S. based Ceradyne Thermo Materials' management for some time.