Materials Processing Services

Materials processing services mechanically or thermally process metals, thermal ceramics, polymers, glasses and other materials on a contract basis. They provide services such as product formulation, compounding, synthesis, metal processing, powder processing, polymer processing, inspection testing, and process optimization. Materials processing services may serve a specific industry or specialize in a particular application. For example, a material processing service for the aerospace industry may specialize in a service material such as nickel-base and cobalt-base superalloys.

Material processing services differ in terms of capabilities. Technologies include acylation and alkylation, atomization and powder production, blending and mixing, calendering, coating, compacting and conversion, compounding, condensation and cooling, crystallization, and distillation. Some material processing services perform drying and freeze drying, esterification, evaporation, fermentation and biotransformations, or filtration and extraction. Others perform granulation and agglomeration, formulation, halogenation, hydroformylation and formylation, hydrogenation, or polymer manufacturing. Heat treatment, milling and size reduction, packing and encapsulation, polymerization, and recycling and reclamation services are also available.

Important specifications for a materials processing service include volume-based capacity, mass-based capacity, and run and batch size. Laboratory or benchtop scale facilities feature processing capacities that do not exceed a few pounds or a few gallons. Typically, pilot-scale quantities are in the range of several drums or hundreds of pounds or gallons; however, quantities vary with the density and type of processed material, chemical or product. Pilot-scale facilities are better than laboratory scale facilities at simulating production processes and can be used for troubleshooting, improving and optimizing processes. Some material processing services providers offer commercial, production or industrial scale processing facilities. Typically, production lots are in the range of thousands of gallons or pounds.

Materials processing services conform to quality standards and regulatory requirements from organizations such as the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Companies that comply with current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) or that meet U.S. military specifications (MIL-SPEC) are also available. Certifications and standards compliance for materials processing services also include AS 9100, ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001, and QS 9000. Material processing services that meet requirements from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are also available.

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