California Nanotechnologies opens state-of-the-art spark plasma sintering facility
October 21, 2024
California Nanotechnologies Corp (Cal Nano), based in Cerritos, California, USA, has announced the commissioning of its new manufacturing facility in Santa Ana, California. The new facility is now operational and houses a large-scale MSP5 Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) machine and cryomills.
The commission marks an important milestone in expanding its manufacturing capabilities and footprint. The expansion provides the necessary infrastructure to operate its recently purchased equipment and creates additional space for potential production requirements, warehousing, and custom tooling. This infrastructure includes increased electrical current capacity, liquid nitrogen storage, and other associated upgrades.
Dr Fritsch GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Fellbach, Germany, supplied the new MSP5, which is the largest SPS press built by Dr Fritsch.
“We are proud to open a first-of-its-kind facility in North America, which will bring commercial access to state-of-the-art technologies and machinery for processing advanced materials,” stated CEO Eric Eyerman. “We have already started to run our first parts on the new MSP5 machine for our green steel ‘cleantech’ customer. Our mission is to help clients push the boundaries of material science and innovation, and the new equipment will allow us to execute on larger volumes, batches, and part sizes.”
Cal Nano said it expects other equipment, including multiple cryomills and a mid-sized SPS2000 machine, to come online over time.
In addition, pre- and post-processing services and custom tooling manufacturing are becoming more important aspects of the company’s manufacturing services. To complement existing processing offerings, a molybdenum wire EDM (Electrical Discharge Machine), an advanced cutting mill, and additional machining capabilities are expected to be available at the new facility for customers who require ancillary parts and services.
All these investments have resulted in a portfolio of advanced material processing technologies across its Cerritos and Santa Ana facilities. This includes the largest SPS machine commercially available for production and R&D manufacturing services, cryomills with batch sizes ranging from 0.5 kg to 25.0+ kg, and ancillary machinery and services.
