DIT R&D centre collaborates with tile manufacture to develop new coating
Robert Hickson, CEO of VitrA Ireland/UK and Dr. John Colreavy, Director of CREST at DIT.
The Centre for
Research in Engineering Surface Technology at DIT (CREST) aims to be the
model for developing
new technology in the field of surface coatings in Ireland. Since
2008, CREST has been
collaborating with VitrA Ireland, a manufacturer of tiles, to
develop a novel photocatalytic coating for ceramic tiles. Dr. John Colreavy,
Director of CREST, and Mr. Robert Hickson, CEO of VitrA Ireland/UK were first
introduced to one another by Enterprise
Ireland, and an innovation
partnership developed. The result has been the development of a nano-coating
that effectively destroys bacteria simply by relying on a light source and the
moisture in the air. Suresh Pillai was the researcher with CREST who made the
discovery. While working on a solution to a separate challenge for another
Irish company, Suresh realised that the reverse solution could be applied to
address VitrA’s requirements. This week commercial trials are taking place at
the main VitrA manufacturing plant in Turkey. The project is funded under
Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Partnership
Scheme. The technology has also led to Crest’s first spinout company RADICAL,
which will manufacture and supply the technology to VitrA and other companies
interested in the application in different fields.
