New ads support CuproBraze®
New CuproBraze® advertisements will be published in select magazines, beginning with Diesel Progress International, and they will also be shown at special conferences and trade shows such as Innotrans 2010.
The message will be clear. The ads will highlight the advantages offered by CuproBraze products, specifically that they are strong, they are durable and they require less space. The 
new initiative has been taken on by the CuproBraze Alliance and their Marketing Team. Head of this Team is Mr. Karl Görtz, Global Sales Director of Umicore/BrazeTec, who is also the Chairman of the Alliance Board.
“A trademark like CuproBraze needs continuous coverage in all types of media. We currently offer information tools through our CuproBraze website, with more than 10 000 unique visitors every month, and have brochures and newsletters, but we have learned that we have to improve in external areas, like magazines.”
Great success
The CuproBraze Alliance, in cooperation with the International Copper Association (ICA), has achieved great success in presenting CuproBraze to the automotive heat exchanger industry. Today 15 customers world wide are producing CuproBraze products and an additional 30 customers are in different evaluation stages. Most of them are in close cooperation with the Luvata Brazing Centre, which also continues publishing and updating the Luvata CuproBraze Brazing Handbook.
Mr. Karl Görtz continues, “The CuproBraze technology has had good penetration into both the original equipment manufacturing and the after market, covering producers of trucks and buses, locomotives and vehicles in the agricultural and forestry segments. Today there are high volume CuproBraze heat exchanger producers as well as small to medium volume producers and CuproBraze production is going on all over the world including in America, Europe and Asia.
The mission for the CuproBraze Alliance - to promote the adoption of CuproBraze heat exchanger technology to the global vehicle market - is still valid. However the strategy has been modified and the focus today is on heavy-duty diesel vehicles for on and off-highway. The reason for this is that the CuproBraze advantages are especially apparent within these areas.
Played an important role
It was Luvata who first came up with the idea to coordinate marketing efforts for the introduction of CuproBraze. As a paste producer with extensive process knowledge, along with a product that is essential for the CuproBraze process, Umicore/Brazetec also played an important role when the Alliance was founded in 2003.
“Our close cooperation with Luvata has not been a matter of paste technology only, but also a matter of process development,” states Görtz. “The commercial milestones of the CuproBraze have been mass production beginning with Denso and Shaaz as well as Finnradiator, using one-shot brazing technology.”
Karl Görtz says that Umicore/Brazetec will continue to support the CuproBraze technology by improving its products and extending the company’s application and process know how, which will be of benefit for both new and existing CuproBraze customers.
More applications to come for CuproBraze
Today the CuproBraze Alliance has eight members including the International Copper Association, Luvata, Seco/Warwick, Shaaz, Finnradiator, Umicore/BrazeTec, Vacuumschmelze and YamaKin (Japan).
“When it comes to introducing CuproBraze in the global market the Alliance has done a tremendous job,” continues Karl Görtz. “Customers in the heat exchanger business can choose among different base materials when looking for solutions for their specific applications. Many of them have already realized that CuproBraze offers valuable advantages compared to other materials. I am convinced that this technology will soon be used in many other applications besides radiators and charge air coolers. Our new ads will contribute to this development by telling the fact that the CuproBraze products are strong, durable and that they save space.”