Akron particle firm picks Dayton for hub

An Akron company that specializes in microscopic particles is moving its operations to Kettering's National Composite Center and aims to create 10 jobs within a year.

The company, NanoSperse LLC, which mixes nanoparticles into polymer resins, will relocate to Dayton by the end of the year, said founder and chief executive officer Art Fritts.

Lou Luedtke, chief executive officer and president of the composite center, said that no formal deal had been established, but he has verbally told Fritts that he will hold space for him.

Fritts is also a principal at Renegade Materials Corp., a spin-off of Blue Ash-based Maverick Corp., which is building a 25,000-square-foot building in Springboro.

Renegade would be a customer of nanocomposites produced by NanoSperse.

Nanotechnology centers around lightweight, composite parts that can be used in aircrafts and automobile engines, among other applications, said John Leland, the University of Dayton Research Institute director.

However, composite resins will degrade once they reach a certain temperature, making them impractical in engine applications. NanoSperse's aim is to mix carbon nanoparticles into the resins to create nanocomposites, which drastically add strength, heat tolerance and/or electrical conductivity to the hardened resin.

NanoSperse, along with the NCC, UDRI and Cedarville-based Applied Sciences, is awaiting the approval of $2 million in Congressional earmarks for the collaborative production of nanocomposites, which are essentially microscopic particles, for aerospace applications.

Leland said once the funding is approved, NanoSperse would be the lead company on the project.

"It's a big step," Leland said. "This (funding) will establish some true manufacturing capability."

NanoSperse would begin operations in two phases, Fritts said, first starting a large-scale prototyping facility.

"It is definitely not a science project, but it needs to go a little further," Leland said.

The company would then scale up to a manufacturing facility in two to three years.

Fritts said he would create about 10 jobs within a year of making the move and hopes to far surpass that in the future.

"We have not ruled out building our own manufacturing facility," Fritts said.

NanoSperse is not the only small particle company seeking space in the composite center.

Dayton-based NanoTek Instruments Inc. is moving into the center's other location in West Dayton. Nanotek will relocate from downtown Dayton to start production.

Bor Jang, NanoTek president, said the company is planning to move into about 8,000 square feet by January, but is still renovating and preparing the space.

The composite center is a business incubator and accelerator that explores and develops new processes to handle fibers and resins providing lighter and stronger alternatives to traditional materials such as concrete and steel.

The company had been in the The Entrepreneurs Center downtown business incubator while it developed its technology and is now ready to begin manufacturing, Jang said.

NanoTek employs about seven people now, Jang said, though he plans to employ as many as 70 people in the next five years.

Similar to NanoSperse, Jang's company disperses carbon nanoparticles for the storage and conversion of energy, to be used in fuel and solar energy cells.

Nanotek is a North American representative of Asia Pacific Fuel Cell Technologies Inc., based in California and Taiwan.