Spotlight on Exhibitor – Innovnano

Wednesday, 5 June 2019

What has been your organisation’s biggest achievement in 2018/19?

At Innovnano, we are always broadening our product portfolio to offer a greater range of yttria-stabilised zirconia (YSZ) powders with different specific surface areas and binder content to meet current market needs.

What will you be showcasing at The Advanced Materials Show?

At Ceramics UK, Innovnano will be showcasing our full range of powders and suspensions for structural ceramics, thermal barrier coatings and refractories.

What technologies or materials do you specialise in?

Emulsion Detonation Synthesis (EDS) is our unique manufacturing synthesis process that sets us apart from other suppliers. At Innovnano, we produce mostly zirconia based ceramic powders that are ideally suited to industrial applications that demand the highest material performance.

If visitors should know one thing about your company and experience, what would it be?

Through our unique proprietary synthesis process – Emulsion Detonation Synthesis (EDS) – Innovnano offers powders with unique performance. Our 2YSZ powder, for example, presents a novel combination of outstanding fracture toughness, shock resistance and flexural strength, which is unique among YSZ powders

Your company ethos is Innovation, Competence and Personal Development, do you have any new product development plans that you can tell us about?

At Innovnano, we are constantly working to improve our product offering and meet our customers’ most demanding needs – either by improving the value proposition of the current product offer, making them usable in a wider range of applications and conditions, or by tending to individual customer needs that may require specific product specifications. We are always looking for new ways to utilise our unique EDS technology to help our customers achieve more with their ceramics. We invite companies to get in touch and let us know their application and we will aim to find a solution or work together on new developments.

Emulsion Detonation Synthesis (EDS) is your unique manufacturing synthesis process, how does this practice set you apart from your competitors?

EDS has the ability to synthesize a multitude of ceramic compounds in a microsecond time scale using a unique combination of high pressures, temperatures and quenching rate. It is fully automated and provides the capacity, quality and consistency for the improved production of nanostructured ceramic powders, which offer extremely favourable properties compared to conventional micro-structured powders.

Your facility based in a dedicated technology park in Coimbra (Portugal) allows you to support the entire project life-cycle of your customers. What advantages does this give you as a company?

When we first start thinking about how to attend a specific need, overcome an existing challenge or take advantage of an opportunity, we first do a simulation using a mathematical model. This provides a first understanding on the feasibility of a specific formulation and also some indications for process conditions. Following this, our dedicated laboratory facilities provide us with the capability to make small quantity formulations and synthesise them using our small-scale reactor. This allows us to produce powders that are representative of what can be achieved on an industrial scale, and means that we can go through multiple iterations and evaluate performance as we go. The process can therefore be fully optimised before progression to industrial-scale production, which is also performed at our facility.

What excites you most about the advanced materials industry? What will you be looking out for yourselves at The Advanced Materials Show 2019?

The development of new materials has become a critical pillar for human development in recent years. From medical applications to renewable energy or water treatment, great progress has been made but the existing potential is still immense. Materials can help us handle many of mankind’s existing challenges and being fortunate to work in such an industry is very satisfying and stimulating.