• Process Technologies
  • Microencapsulation
    • Alginates
    • PMU Beads
    • Water Beads
    • Coacervation
  • Particle Coating and Surface Modification
  • Dispersions
  • Spray Drying
  • Grinding
  • Prilling/Melt Spraying
  • Additional Technologies
• Contract Manufacturing
• Research & Development
• Characterization Services
  • Send a Sample
• Applications/Industries

Research and Development

AVEKA, Inc. is a contract Research and Development company as well as a toll producer of particulate based materials and products.  We are a company with a diverse processing base serving small start-up companies and Fortune 500 corporations in markets as diverse as food, cosmetics, chemical, microelectronics, automotive, nutraceuticals, and medical.  We have experience in processing a wide variety of raw materials in our lab and three production facilities.  From initial conception to full scale production, AVEKA has the expertise and facilities to assist you in developing or improving your product or process.

Contract Research and Development Process
AVEKA, Inc has a well organized Research and Development operation.  This group is led by our Director of R&D and includes a team of Chemical Engineers, Chemists, Material Scientists, Food Scientists, Organic Chemists, Analytical Chemists, and consultants from a variety of industries which work on the various contract research projects closely with our customers. 

For small scale projects that typically take a week or less to complete, the AVEKA project manager handles any problems that occur during the project and follows up with the customer as necessary.

Start-up of larger research or development projects may include patent searching, brainstorming sessions, and intellectual property agreements. We establish milestones to review the progress of the R&D program and to continuously evaluate the goals and needs of the project. 

While the process is ongoing, we continue to maintain close contact with our customers which, for large projects, include regular conference calls and visits as required.

Materials Processed
Particles for AVEKA can range from macroscopic particles as large as 10 millimeters to nanoparticles. Particles may be in a dry state, wet state or combination.    We do not have any specific raw material set that we focus on or exclude.  Due to the breath of industries/customers that use our services, our raw material interests are virtually limitless and encompass most materials and matrices.  We obviously avoid highly hazardous materials (radioactive, biohazaradous, highly toxic).  We have general knowledge and exposure across all particle material systems including inorganic particles, organic particulates, pastes, and dispersions.  We have worked in aqueous, non aqueous and 100% curable continuous phases as well. 

Intellectual Property Philosophy
At AVEKA, we realize that intellectual property is important to our growth and to our customers.  We take special care with all proprietary information; our information and our customer’s information.  We also realize that good interactions with our customers require an open exchange of information.  Many times this open exchange of information is limited by conflicts over intellectual property rights.  Clearly, ownership of intellectual property brought to the table by AVEKA or the customer resides with that party.  However, what happens to the new intellectual property discovered during brainstorming and the development process?  Rather than making IP ownership a road block to open and timely discussions, we prefer to work out agreements where you, the customer, own any newly developed IP with AVEKA retaining the rights to operate with that technology outside your field of use and we have the right to manufacture for you provided we meet cost, volume and quality requirements.  Clearly, this model can be more complicated than described here, but properly defined and worked on, this model can be advantageous to both parties.

Current Intellectual Property
List of granted US Patents held or licensed to AVEKA, Inc.:

Topic	Title	Number	Licensed to or Owned by AVEKA
Gel Beads	Organogel Particles	6,858,666	AVEKA
Nano-particles	Process for the Manufacture of Nanoparticle Organic Pigments (this technology is now part of CIMA NanoTech)	6,837,918	AVEKA, licensed to CIMA NanoTech
Surface Modification of Metal Particles with a wax coating	Metallurgical Compositions Containing Binding Agent/Lubricant and Process for Preparing Same	6,602,315	Licensed
Water Beads	Particulate Encapsulation of Liquid Beads	6,413,548	AVEKA
Surface Modification of Metal Particles with a wax coating	Metallurgical Compositions Containing Binding Agent/Lubricant and Process for Preparing Same	6,280,683	Licensed
Effect pigments	Multilayer Pigments and Their Manufacture	6,139,613	AVEKA
Cellulosic Film formation	Anti-immunoresponsive Polymeric Material and its Use in Biological Applications	6,071,981	AVEKA
Surface Treatment and Conversion	Hydrophilic Materials and Their Method of Preparation	6,045,650	Licensed
Surface modification MAIC Particle on Particle coating	Process for Making Particle-Coated Substrates	6,037,019	Licensed
Surface modification MAIC Liquid on Particle coating	Process for Applying Liquid Coating To Solid Particulate Substrates	5,962,082	AVEKA
Electrostatic deposition	Process for Patterning Powder into Thick Layers	5,817,374	Licensed
Surface Melting Coatings over particles	Process for Producing Fused Particle Agglomerates	5,620,643	Licensed
Sublimation pigments	Pigment Dispersions	5,106,533	Licensed

In addition to issued patents, AVEKA, Inc has additional pending patent applications:

1. Alginate microencapsulated engineered particles (family of 10 -14 patents)
2. Particulate delivery of iodine for biocidal and cleaning applications (family of 2-3 patents)
3. Prilling process for omega three oils
4. Particle classification during prilling process