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Scaling a Novel Copper Nanoparticle Process from Lab to Commercial Production

EPIC helped an early-stage technology company scale a novel copper nanoparticle product from laboratory production toward commercialization. Because the full-scale process parameters were still evolving, EPIC engineered a flexible, mobile batch processing system that gave the customer the capabilities needed to optimize its process while moving into larger-scale manufacturing. 

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Hygienic Process System Design

Project

Overview

  • Industry: Specialty Chemical (Industrial)
  • Location: USA
  • Customer Use Case: R&D Scaleup

Customer’s

Challenge

An emerging technology company had developed a copper nanoparticle suspension used to create conductive pathways for electronics and semiconductor applications. The product had been proven at a small laboratory scale, but the company had never produced it at a larger, commercial scale. 

Because the process was still early in commercialization, many of the full-scale operating parameters, including mixing requirements and other processing conditions, were not yet fully established. The company needed a production system that could support scale-up while providing enough flexibility to refine the process as it gained operating experience.  

Space was also limited, and the equipment needed to be portable so it could be moved within the facility as production needs changed. 

EPIC

Solution

EPIC designed and engineered a mobile batch processing system that allowed the customer to transition its copper nanoparticle technology from laboratory-scale production to a full-scale manufacturing process. 

Because the process had never been operated at this scale, the customer did not yet have firmly established parameters for mixing, heating, material additions, or other operating conditions. Rather than designing a system around assumptions that could restrict production later, EPIC took a conservative approach and built additional process capability and operating flexibility into the design.  

This gave the customer room to test and refine operating conditions as it learned how the product behaved at larger scale.  

The batch system incorporated a reactor vessel, mixing capabilities, and pumps for material additions, supporting a process in which ingredients could be added, processed and heated as required before completing each production batch.  

EPIC also engineered the system around the customer’s existing space constraints and need for mobility. The equipment could be repositioned within the facility to support different production activities rather than requiring a permanently installed process line. The combination of mobility, flexible operating capabilities and a scalable batch design gave the customer a production platform it could adapt as its process matured.  

Project

Impact

  • Enabled scale-up from laboratory to commercial production without requiring every full-scale process parameter to be known upfront.  
  • Provided operational flexibility to refine mixing and processing conditions as the company gained production experience.  
  • Reduced scale-up risk by designing additional process capability into the system rather than limiting it to narrowly defined initial requirements.  
  • Maximized existing facility space through a compact, mobile system designed around the customer’s physical constraints.  
  • Supported changing production needs by allowing the batch system to be repositioned for different operations.  

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