Cerion Nanomaterials Executive Vice President of Manufacturing, Development, and Commercialization, Doug Singer, addresses the challenges and opportunities of manufacturing at the nanoscale and what strategic steps companies can take to create success from the onset.

Presented at the 2021 Nanotechnology Show

The Challenges, Opportunities, and Development of Manufacturing at the Nanoscale

Within the nanomaterials industry and chemicals manufacturing industry as a whole, the central focus is commonly on creating materials or products with society changing potential. What gets lost, oftentimes, are the critical considerations of the real-world manufacturability of the material – with cost and scalability being dominant factors.

So how can businesses of all sizes in the specialty chemicals industry, specifically those working with nanomaterials, look at the entire material development roadmap to tackle the considerations that underpin successful scale-up?

There are many systems or approaches that exist for creating materials that can scale from design through to manufacturing, for identifying changes that can maximize robustness, and for finding the source of product variability and how to reduce it. Implement these key considerations early on so you don’t find yourself painted into a corner late in the process.

Highlights

  • How can manufacturers develop a blueprint for nanomaterial manufacturing set up that can be repeated?
  • What are the biggest challenges preventing businesses from breaking ground in nanomaterial manufacturing and how can they be overcome?
  • Could using existing infrastructure hold some of the answers to expediting manufacturing and reducing cost?
  • What can materials designers do to improve the manufacturability of their products earlier?
  • How to know ahead of time the type / size / location / cost of the eventual manufacturing plant you can afford to build and operate below COGS targets.
  • How to channel your research product development and invention toward the easiest possible reality.
  • How to leverage learnings at the beginning of each commercialization step (Research, Development, Pilot, Plant Design).