An industry leader came to Ortec for help with a new specialty chemical that would be used in a graphic arts application. After executing an NDA to protect confidential information, the new customer provided their challenge. The technology required handling solids material and multiple solvents to create a dispersion. The solvents then needed to be removed carefully without impacting the properties of the dispersion. In addition, this technology needed to meet critical performance properties having to be manufactured to a narrow specification range.

Since this was a new technology, the first challenge was to determine how it could be scaled for production sized manufacturing. Initial lab work was promising but pilot production batches showed that a conventional process set up would not control the critical parameters. Ortec was able to design and implement a novel equipment set up to control those parameters at full scale. The final design utilized a reactor system to accommodate the multi-step process with varying capabilities to adjust the process to limit variation of the product.

The next hurdle was helping our customer successfully navigate ever changing market conditions. We have worked together to implement ongoing process and capital improvements increasing the value for both companies. These enhancements allowed our customer to better position and extend their technology in the market thus maintaining their leadership position.

Ortec helped launch this technology successfully in the market and we have supplied our valued customer for several years!