AeonClad Coatings, LLC, an advanced materials company focusing on improving the performance of existing products for new applications, has announced the company’s expansion into a new research and development facility located in Austin, Texas. With the new facility, AeonClad will demonstrate how semiconductor plasma processing techniques and equipment can be adapted to handle a wider range of materials, shapes, and sizes such as powdered plastic additives, consumer apparel, and novel drug formulations. Instrumental to AeonClad’s expansion has been the support of a multi-million dollar investment from one of its major industry partners.

Giving AeonClad more than 12,000 sq. ft. of additional R&D space, the new facility will be used for proof-of-concept design studies for novel reactors, reliability and efficiency evaluations, and material performance testing. By adapting semiconductor plasma processing technologies, the novel reactors will have the capability to run high volume, low cost materials thereby bringing precision, low environmental impact (greener), and advanced features that heretofore were not possible with older technologies. The designing and prototyping of novel reactors will support AeonClad’s current and future customer development efforts in consumer and industrial materials.

”Our expansion with the north Austin facility provides the bridge between the research and development efforts at AeonClad’s laboratories in Austin’s Bee Caves, and the full scale production capacity at our New Mexico site,” said Tony Taylor, AeonClad Coatings president. “It further strengthens our ability to deliver innovative, market-driven solutions to our customers.”

AeonClad Coatings provides nanocoating solutions to a wide range of industries but is focusing its efforts in its north Austin facility on consumer and industrial materials. The nanocoatings market is projected to reach $17.9 billion by 2015. Robust potential markets for nanocoatings products exist worldwide for a myriad of applications spanning pharmaceuticals, healthcare, electronics, apparel, energy, transportation, construction, packaging, textile and security sectors.