Ever wanted to make a new Coating in your spare time?  I didn't think so.  That's why we're here!  Let's talk about what it takes to make a coating.  Hint, it's not easy.

A little dab of this stuff here, mix with some of that blue liquid that's bubbling in the beaker and voila!  A new coating!  You may now place an order.  If only it were that easy.  Today we're going to discuss what it takes to get a new coating into the hands of the customer.  A new coating requires 3 major steps.

- Establishing the process

- Developing the application

The Details of How to Make a New Coating.

The process of bringing a new CVD coating to market is more a simultaneous and cooperative venture than a linear progression through departments.  If you develop a new coating product without having an idea how you're going to make it or whether customers will actually need the coating, the whole endeavor is bound to fail.  So it's imperative that Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and R&D all become involved right from the start of the process.  But for the purpose of this blog, and my desire not to present an implementation diagram that resembles the immaculate reception, we'll list some key to do's for each major step of the coating development.

Coating chemistry 

This is where that PhD in chemistry you've always intended to get would come in handy.  Understanding the interaction, capabilities and bonding of molecular groups is essential to basic coating development.  Why?  Because there are over 9 million organic (carbon based) compounds in the world (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica)  If a lab tech tried mixing compounds together willy nilly, they're looking at millions of years of trial and error.  Besides we all have better things to do, like watching a video of the immaculate reception!  So narrowing down what basic compounds enhance other material characteristics is vital to any level of coating trials.  

Next you'll need a lab staffed with those PhD chemists and skilled technicians.  The lab is a must for coating development.  If you're talking with a potential coating supplier and they don't have a lab that means they're doing experiments on the shop floor.  That's a big no no from a process control perspective. 

What's in the lab is just as important.  You'll need equipment to evaluate coating thickness, adhesion, surface energy, coating composition, etc.  It also pays to have access to a large national university with a major materials research laboratory.  We happen to be located near The Pennsylvania State University; their Material Research Institute is second to none.  When it comes to evaluating a surface and coating on a molecular level, we'll ring up PSU and get time on their SEM or other systems.

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To summarize R&D basics:

• R&D staff
• Coating lab
• Affiliation with a major research university
• Coating evaluation equipment

After you pull all the people and facility/equipment together, it's time to get cracking on the new coating.  All new coatings start with an idea and a concept coating or coatings that seem to have a particular performance goal, but soon after initial formulation, the R&D team will pull together a project plan entailing key objectives for coating development like market studies, test plan, coating performance goals, etc.  Then it's time to roll up our sleeves and start the real work of coating performance optimization trials.  You'll need the right equipment, tooling, instrumentation, and materials to begin work on a coating.  This in itself is not trivial.  Some specialized organic or inorganic compounds take months to obtain.  It can take that long or longer to design and develop evaluation tooling.  That's why it helps to have a dedicated staff of engineers with CAD design software and a shop to develop the needed tooling for a developmental coating.  It also helps to have a statistical software package to run optimization statistics to eliminate possibilities and optimize coating performance.

Things you need to pull off a successful coating evaluation

• A basic coating formulation
• Project plan
• Statistical software
• Coating manufacturing equipment, special tooling, and processing equipment 
• Design engineers and design software 
• Lots of test equipment

After weeks, months or years of effort, we've got what we think may be a winner of a coating.  Are we done yet?  Sadly no.  This is just the start!  Next let's develop a process.

Developing a coating process

It does no good to develop a coating that can't be made.  So during coating development R&D teams up with our manufacturing, quality, and engineering groups to begin process design.  What's needed for a new coating process?  Usually all of the following:

• General process design
• Material specification
• Manufacturing tooling specification and design
• Oven design and automation
• Chemical delivery system
• Statistical optimization software
• Process quality specifications and quality inspection plan
• Establish a process control plan with specific control data points and acceptable range of process control data
• A surface preparation specification and process method
• Handling procedures
• Manufacturing technician training
• Ramp up plan

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Developing the application

Parallel to coating development and implementation Marketing, Sales and R&D are actively targeting markets and developing applications data for the proposed coating.  Why?  Because if there's no market for the coating why make the coating at all?  This aspect of a coating development can take years and lead to some pretty interesting applications. 

For example when our team developed our SilcoNert® 2000 coating (then called Sulfinert®) we initially targeted the coating customers in the sulfur analysis market because the coating proved to be particularly effective in enhancing low level detection of sulfurs, hence the Sulfinert name.  Well after further application evaluation, we found the coating was effective in preventing surface adsorption of all sorts of active compounds.  From endrin to ammonia to nerve agents, the coating proved to be highly inert.  So we needed a second name for the same coating, Siltek®.  When we spun off from our parent company, we decided to go with an all encompassing name, SilcoNert. 

From that experience we learned that a coating can have many beneficial uses in a wide variety of industries and applications.  And we've decided to take a long ball approach to a coating.  We now name coatings generically and we release a coating based on a few known applications but continue evaluation with partners pretty much throughout the life of the coating.  If we waited to release a coating after knowing the effectiveness for millions and millions of applications, we'd never release a coating!

What does it take to develop a coating application?  Lots of experimentation mostly with interested customers.  Some applications can be more simpler than others.  So if we're targeting a coating for off shore oil and gas operations, we may conduct salt spray or simulated splash zone testing, etc.  But if an application required say prevention of a specific set of protein markers from binding to stainless steel and causing protein carryover in a medical diagnostics application; the analysis can take years to complete.

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So what's needed to develop a coating application?

• An understanding of the target market.  What data is key to that industry.
• A test plan
• Test platform and test equipment
• Specific coating evaluation equipment to monitor the test and gather specific data
• Customer input or partnership a plus.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat

After the process is approved, and a coating is proven in key target applications and relevant data is available for that application, it's marketing's turn to develop sales tools, literature, and website information for customers and our sales team.  And to make up a name for this new product.  What's in a name?  Ask Ford about the Edsel...   After what can be years of work, finally the customer is made aware of a new coating.  Congratulations!

Speaking of new coatings.  We've got one!  Yep we released Dursox™ last year.  It's a high purity coating for improved corrosion resistance in laboratory, instrument, and research applications.