Nanomaterials Research Corporation
202 7 Miller Drive, Suite B, Longmont, CO 80501
(720) 494-8401 http://vvwv.nanoproducts.com
DESCRIPTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY
With support from the Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Pro-
gram, Nanomaterials Research Corporation (NRC) has
developed and commercialized an innovative manufac-
turing technology for performance ceramics. NRC's pro-
cess improves device quality while preventing pollution
by reducing the amounts of raw materials, solvents, and
binders required for production of these ceramics in com-
parison to conventional manufacturing techniques.
NRC's manufacturing method for performance ceramics
offers the following advantages over conventional tech-
niques in that it: (1) eliminates the formation of second-
ary gaseous, liquid, or solid wastes; (2) reduces the pro-
cessing, containment, and treatment of solvents and
resulting vapors by more than 10-fold; (3) reduces energy
requirements by recovering mass and heat through pro-
cess integration; and (4) produces performance ceramics
of significantly improved quality (i.e., monodisperse,
nanosize particles with extraordinary properties).
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TECHNOLOGY
The performance ceramics industry produces and sells
more than $18 billion of ceramic products annually and
is one of the fastest growing segments of all industries
listed by the North American Industry Classification Sys-
tem. The performance ceramics industry is enabling growth
within the electronics, utilities, medical devices, optics,
and telecommunications industries, and the market for
such ceramics is expanding in conjunction with this
growth. More than 1 billion ceramic devices (e.g., ca-
pacitors, thermostats, varistors, inductors, resistors, and
1C substrates) are produced and sold each week. Antici-
pated growth in the market for ceramic devices will fur-
ther extend the role of performance ceramics.
Performance ceramics typically are produced by solvent-
based techniques that inadvertently lead to processing,
containment, and treatment of hazardous solvents and
byproducts. Given the commercial importance of the
electroceramic industry, it is imperative that environmen-
tally benign manufacturing techniques are developed to
prevent pollution at its source while providing perfor-
mance improvements to customers.
COMMERCIALIZATION SUCCESS
NRC has demonstrated that devices produced from
nanosized electroceramics are nanostructured and meet
the needs of high-performance components that will be
NRC has developed and commercialized a manufacturing technology for performance ceramics that
improves device quality while preventing pollution at its source by reducing the amounts of raw materi-
als, solvents, and binders required for processing.
This technology enables the manufacture of nanoscale electronic grade powders needed in next gen-
eration miniature electronics. The market for nanostructured components is expected to exceed $100
million/year in less than 5 years.
NRC is scaling up the manufacturing process to produce 100,000 nanostructured components per week
from electroceramic nanoscale powders.
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200nm
Nanopowders of performance
ceramics produced by NRC.
t *+
I *
Nanotechnology electronic devices from
nanopowders of performance ceramics manu-
factured using NRC's innovative manufactur-
ing technology.
essential for the anticipated era of nanodevices and mo-
lecular electronic components. Manufacturing of these
devices is being scaled up by NRC to serve surface-mount
electronics, cellular telecommunications, power compo-
nents for utilities, laptop computers, and biomedical prod-
ucts. The market for nanostructured components should
exceed $100 million/year in less than 5 years.
COMPANY HISTORY
Since the company was founded in 1994, NRC has ex-
perienced an average annual growth of more than 100
percent. NRC currently has more than 60 employees.
In 2000, the company began a scale up of its manu-
facturing process, which was successfully completed in
2001. In March of that year, NRC was reorganized into
two companies: (1) Nanomaterials Research LLC, which
focuses on nano-engineered device development and
manufacture; and (2) NanoProducts Corporation, which
focuses on the development and manufacture of
nanoscale powders and emerging powder-based energy
technology products. In February 2002, NanoProducts
Corporation and Hosokawa Micron Corporation an-
nounced a strategic partnership and signed a letter of
intent for a joint venture in Japan to develop, manu-
facture, and market nanoscale powders and related
nanotechnology.
EPA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program was created to assist small businesses in
transforming innovative ideas into commercial products. The SBIR Program has two phases—Phase I is
the feasibility study to determine the validity of the proposed concept and Phase II is the development of
the technology or product proven feasible in Phase I. EPA also offers Phase II Options to accelerate the
commercialization of SBIR technologies and to complete EPA's Environmental Technology Verification
(ETV) Program. For more information about EPA's SBIR Program and the National Center for Environmental
Research, visit http://www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir.
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