Facilities

Sol-Synthesis

1. Pilot Plant having 10, 20 l and 100 l Capacity Reactors with Sophisticated Process Controls

Substrate Cleaning/Pretreatment

1. Flat Glass Cleaner - 1500 mm x 1000 mm x 8 mm (maximum)

2. Wandres Sword Brush Cleaner - 1400 mm x 1000 mm x 100 mm (maximum)

3. Ultrasonic Cleaners – 110 litre and 210 litre capacities

110 litre tank capacity 210 litre tank capacity

4. Plasma Pre-Treatment Equipment – 300 mm x 300 mm

Coating Equipment

1. Flat Spray Unit – 1000 mm x 1000 mm

2. Spray Coating Line for Symmetrical Parts – Coating Capacity – 900 parts/h

3. Spray Cabin with Heating Facility (can be heated up to 120 oC)

4. Dip Coater - Laboratory and Angle Depedant Dip Coater (1000 mm x 1000 mm and can tilt up to an angle of 20 deg)

Laboratory Dip Coater Angle Dependant Dip Coater

5. Screen Printer – 1600 mm x 1600 mm

6. Pad Printer - 400 mm diameter parts

Curing/Densification

1. Batch Furnace - 1.5 m3 chamber volume, Tmax - 600 oC

2. Continuous Furnace - 1000 mm belt width, Tmax - 750 oC

3. UV Curing Unit - 1000 mm x 1000 mm

4. NIR unit – 600 mm x 600 mm

5. Drying ovens

Characterization Facilities

1. Taber abraser for abrasion testing

2. Contact angle measurement system

3. Scratch hardness tester

4. Cross hatch cutter

5. Haze meter - for checking optical quality of coating on transparent substrates

6. Spectroscopic Ellipsometer for Refractive Index and Thickness Measurements

Other Facilities

1. Clean Room (area-130 m2) of class 10000 for sol synthesis with a class 1000 enclosure for coating

2. Reaction Calorimeter for Safety and Scale Up

3. Karl Fischer Titrator

4. High Temperature Furnace (Tmax - 1750 oC and 15 cm3 chamber volume)

5. 6 kW microwave sintering furnace for microwave sintering of oxide and non-oxide ceramics

Microwave Sintering Furnace

Schematic representing the processing steps that are taken up at the Centre for Sol-Gel Based Nanocomposite Coatings