News

Smartglass Visit

25th January 2012 

As part of their involvement in the Glan-Surf Project, Staff from Smartglass recently visited the CREST facilities. Glan-Surf is a one and a half-year Innovation Partnership project involving the development of durable antimicrobial coatings for hard surfaces in healthcare environments with Irish companies (further details).

Innovation Convention December 2011

Irish technology that kills MRSA and other disease-causing microbes played a star role at the first European Innovation Convention that took place in Brussels on 5th & 6th December 2011 (further details).

 

SFI TIDA 2011 Feasibility Study Award

5th December 2011

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), has awarded almost €300k in three separate awards to DIT researchers working in the Photonics Research Centre (PRC) and in CREST - the Centre for Research in Engineering Surface Technology (Link to DIT Website). The TIDA 2011 Feasibility Study Award is intended to fund commercially relevant applied research programmes. It enables researchers to focus on the first steps of an applied research project which, if further developed, has potential to be a commercial success.

Dr Brendan Duffy, CREST, was successful with his proposal entitled “Controlled Oxidation of Adsorbable Magnesium Stents” in collaboration with Dr. Bryan McDonald from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in DCU. 

Innovation Convention December 2011

5th December 2011

“CREST and Vitra will be the sole Irish representatives exhibiting their research at the 1st ever European Commission Innovation Convention in Brussels 5th -  6th  December. The event is being hosted by Maire Geoghegan Quinn and Michael O’Leary will be heading up one of the sessions.”   Follow the link: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/ic2011/index_en.cfm

Further details of the technology and the Brussels Event can be found on Silicon Republic.

Postgraduate Opportunities

18th November 2011

PhD Project: Investigation of Silane Treatments Under Stress Project Description: The industrially co-funded project will investigate the physical properties of highly adherent silane surface treatments as part of full coating system. The silanes are used as adhesion promoters for binding rubber to engineered metal surfaces (e.g. antivibration mountings, conveyer rollers, seals). The silane treatments are based on a novel combination of organic and inorganic chemistries, primarily organically modified silanes, which have been developed at Henkel (Loctite) Irl., a recognised global leader in adhesion research. The research will establish the critical steps involved in surface preparation, contamination avoidance, application and curing conditions of the silanes. Characterisation of the coatings will be achieved by using a range of instrumental techniques available in both DIT and Henkel (Dublin). It is expected that the critical chemical factors for optimising adhesion will be investigated to maximise the compatibility between the silane and the rubber. It is expected that the project student will be trained to contribute towards the research ongoing Henkel and may join as a staff member on completion of the project. For further information and application forms click Here

Silicon Republic November 2011

18th November 2011

Watch Silicon Republic Video of Dr Mary McNamara and Prof. Hugh Byrne discussing DIT’s progress in R&D and technology transfer. A special mention was made to the Lo-Noise project where CREST developed a series of acoustic dampening paints that are reduced the sound of delivery trollies in city environs. The coatings are currently being trialled in a leading high end automotive manufacturer for improving driver comfort. 

Commercialisation Awards November 2011

16th November 2011

This year five CREST researchers have been recognised and awarded the Commercialisation Awards by DIT and Enterprise Ireland for four individual licences. These were:

 1. Brendan Duffy, John Colreavy, Hugh Hayden and Rajath Varma for licensing anti-corrosion coatings to C&F Automotive.  

2. Michael Whelan, John Colreavy and Hugh Hayden for licensing anti-bacterial coating for joinery products to Gem Group.  

3. John Colreavy, Michael Whelan and Hugh Hayden for licensing anti-bacterial coatings for glass to Smartglass International Ltd.

4. Hugh Hayden, John Colreavy and Michael Whelan for licensing anti-bacterial coatings for stainless steel products to Yoruba Ltd.  

Dublin Innovation Week 2011

15th November 2011 As part of Dublin Innovation Week, CREST hosted a successful paint failure workshop followed by a working lunch seminar. Attendees were taken through workshops to understand: 1. Accelerated exposure of samples for predicting performance 2. FTIR and Raman microscopy to analyse paint samples 3. SEM microscopy to analyse paint defects

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 New staff join CREST

 2^nd November 2011

In October 2011, Dr. Yvonne Cadogan, Dr. Nigel Leyland and Ms. Ashley Allen joined CREST.

Dr. Cadogan has taken over the role of Commercialisation Manager following the departure of Dr. Anne Hopper earlier this year while Ms. Ashley Allen is our new Materials Engineer.

Dr. Nigel Leyland has joined the Nanomaterials Research Group and will be be working on the Medicoat project with Dr. Suresh Pillai.

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Launch of Radical Coatings Limited

 28th October 2011

Read about CREST's first spin-out company Radical Coatings Ltd.  and their ability to kill superbugs and the production of their self-cleaning ceramic tiles (Irish Times)   In December 2010, Radical Coatings Limited, the first scientific spin-out from CREST was launched. Radical coatings a B2B company, which has licensed a range of technologies from CREST, opened its manufacturing facilities in Wicklow to produce a range of smart functionalised coatings. These coatings include photocatalytic coatings, hygiene and easy clean coatings and also anti-corrosion coatings. Radical coatings is working with a large multinational in Europe on photocatalytic technology for the healthcare to reduce Hospital acquired infections, HCAI. Radical coatings also collaborates with a number of Irish based SME on implementing easy clean and anti-corrosion coatings into their products.

For more information see www.radical-coatings.com  or email at info@radical-coatings.com

 

CREST collaborates with tile manufacturer to develop new coating 8th November 2010 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.   Robert Hickson, CEO of VitrA Ireland/UK and Dr. John Colreavy, Director of CREST at DIT.
CREST appears in SciTech2010 Publication 27th September 2010 CREST have been selected to appear as part of SciTech 2010 with a publication entitled “Centre in Dublin delivers on expectations…” The publication is published by Public Service Review: Science and Technology and will be made available in November 2010 in Issue 8 of their Journal to coincide with the SciTech 2010 event. Click on the following link to access the publication: SciTech2010 Publication
DIT Researcher wins award 27th September 2010 Damian Synnott, a researcher at CREST (Centre for research in Engineering Surface Technology) and School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, DIT, won the best presentation award of the applied chemistry section of the Irish Chemistry colloquium. Damian’s talk entitled ‘A Novel Microwave Assisted Synthesis of Doped ZnS for the Development of Indoor Light Activated Anti-Bacterial Materials’. The research has been carried out as a part of the FP7-ERANET project ‘Nano-vigil- Visible Light Induced Photo-degradation of Organic Matter Using Semiconductor Nanoparticles for Hygiene Applications. The work has been focused on the development of novel materials and synthesis of these materials to create self sterilising environments in hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities to combat the rising number of cases of healthcare associated infections.
This year marked the 62nd anniversary of the Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium and was hosted by Queens University Belfast. The colloquium is an annual meeting which young researchers to present their work, as both posters and oral presentations, to the chemistry and chemical engineering community in the island of Ireland. Damian is a researcher from north County Wicklow who completed his secondary level education is St. Davids Holy Faith School, Greystones, Co. Wicklow before completing his Bachelors Degree (Hons) in Forensic and Environmental Sciences in DIT. He commenced his Ph. D. studies in September 2007 and spent six months during his Ph. D. studying in Rice University, Houston, Texas as part of the FAS Science Challenge Program 08/09. Damian’s PhD research is supervised by Dr. Suresh Pillai (CREST) and Dr. Michael Seery (School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences).
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