Industrial production of smart coatings: OliKrom’s winning bet

The setting up of a production plant in Pessac, France

At a time when many so-called “strategic” goods are still imported into France, the issue of industrial sovereignty is on everyone’s mind. It is essential to secure a company’s activities and is a major lever against the fragmentation of the value chain.

Since its creation, OliKrom has adopted a strategy of vertical integration: from Research & Development to production.

At a time when the trend was to outsource and relocate, OliKrom made its vision a reality by taking the bold step of acquiring a 3,800m2 industrial site in Pessac (33) in 2017. The objective was to meet real industrial challenges of reliability:

• Be able to control the intelligent property of the coatings at each stage of the project to ensure a guarantee of quality and stability of performance.
• Secure supplies in terms of deadlines and quality, or else there will inevitably be load breaks.
• To create a bridge between the production unit and the Research Department in order to gain in reactivity, to innovate, and to ensure a continuity between the proof of concept and the realization of a real product by integrating all the technical, economic and strategic dimensions of marketing.

OliKrom production plant©

In 2021, 4 years after the purchase and installation of our plant, this bet is more than winning. This industrial capacity has become one of the most striking arguments for our partner customers. All the sectors for which we operate are sensitive to it: defense, transport, heavy industry, medical, cosmetics, food, space, construction…

OliKrom expertise: controlling the entire value chain

The ability to control intelligent ownership through to production

Our atypical model “from Research & Development to production” fully meets the needs of our industrial partners.

With the emergence of color changing materials (thermochromes, piezochromes, photochromes, photoluminescents, chemochromes…), there are multiple opportunities to give intelligence to colors.

Unfortunately, too many industrial developments are stopped today by a lack of knowledge of the thermodynamic processes involved during the color change. Very often, intelligent pigments are considered as simple additives to be added to a paint or ink… The result is disastrous: production is not stable from one batch to the next!

OliKrom’s approach is completely different. We know that these intelligent materials are extremely sensitive to their environment. The milling and formulation stages modify the physical-chemical environment and the ionic bath of the pigments. Therefore, it is essential to control the smart property at each step of the process, up to the finished product.

Each production is delivered with a certificate of conformity taking into account criteria co-constructed with our industrial partner. Our mission is to ensure the recurrent and reliable production of each product.

Control of supplies

We ensure the quality control of each raw material and the traceability of all products throughout the production process. Each supplier is evaluated according to our quality reference system (ISO 9001 certification) and/or in accordance with the specificities of our partners’ businesses.

We attach the greatest importance to the excellence of our personnel. Our team is made up of doctors, engineers and technicians in chemistry, materials science, photochemistry, formulation, chemical engineering… This complementarity and this unique know-how in the field of intelligent materials allow us to be very reactive while ensuring the highest confidentiality to our partner customers.

OliKrom now has 20 employees

The ability to create and design the adaptive pavements of tomorrow

OliKrom is not only an industrial production unit, it also has two research and development departments of excellence “Materials” and “Process”. We have chosen to combine the worlds of research and manufacturing on the same site.

This is an essential bridge between high-level research on the scale of the material, the innovative pigment, and the formulation in a targeted matrix (ink, paint, varnish, etc.) with all the specificities required. This allows us to support many manufacturers in their innovation process.

In order to save time, many manufacturers look for finished products “off the shelf”. In the world of color change coatings, there is no such thing as a finished product compatible with industrial requirements. Each specification has its own particularities with regard to the intelligent property sought, the shaping requirements during the industrial process, the desired durability or even the regulatory aspects… The expertise of our Research & Development department is essential to synthesize the right pigment and formulate the optimal intelligent solution (paint, ink, etc.).

Do you have a project ?

Today, many industrialists wish to entrust us with their production of intelligent color change coatings.

Depending on the size of your project, we have a capacity of several kilograms to several tons/day. The reactors, mixers, dispersers, tricylinders of our factory are at your service to deliver products of excellence in the respect of your requirements.

Do not hesitate to contact us, our team is at your disposal.