Once upon a time...
… there was a chemist and an electrical engineer. They had an idea – we want to make the products of the future.
1999 NANO-X GmbH is founded on 18 August in a Voelklinger Huette office. An old shower room served as lab with a used fitted kitchen as the first lab equipment. The company's first car was an old Ford Probe. It was used to move a complete pallet of roof tiles 500 kms. The first project started with the Metten company. Turnover was around 100,000 DM. We had 5 staff.
2000 The first production run started – concrete stone coating and roof tile seal with the "Lotus-Effect®". We moved to Ueberherrn and rented a chemical industry building urgently needing modernisation. We produced our first tonnes and the first lorry left our works with over 20 IBC. We founded nanomedx (later sarastro), x-coat, n-tec, Genthe-X-Coatings and inomat together with experts from the various industries involved.
We now had 8 staff and over 1 million marks turnover. Frank Gross and Nora Laryea become partners in NANO-X.
2001 We buy our own building in Saarbruecken. The former Kraemer Chemie premises offer optimal conditions for expansion. The tailoring requirements for products get ever more complex so we have to build new labs and start lots of new development. All sorts of industries including the automobile, construction, foodstuffs and cleaning industries begin taking an interest in new materials. The company depends to about 50% on research projects.
We're now 16 staff.
2002 New products are marketed including hypophile coatings for spotlights and antifingerprint coatings for sanitary components of stainless steel. Corrosion protection and coating systems for the consumer market now become the main emphases. A new product design for concrete surfaces comes onto the market. McDonalds specifies coloured paving stones with our Clean Top surfacing as the new standard for floors in their branches.
Our employee numbers grow to over 20.
2003 We are commissioned to coat VW's door hinges with tribologic coatings. Cofresco brings their new "Toppits® Fix Brat Alu" by Melitta onto the market with our coating. We produce nearly 100 tonnes of coating material. The company comes to rely increasingly on production. We set new trends in development. Industrial clients become our main focus. Barrels of our impregnation products are shipped to the US. We supply the consumer market in cooperation with Nano4You. In this year we sold most of our stakes in other enterprises and remained stakeholders only in inomat and sarastro.
We now have 25 staff.
2004 30 employees need space. More space. And above all more production. American Standard uses our Easy-to-Clean or anticalcification coating under the name "Ever Clean“on all the valves they make. For Fresnel Optics we make Spin Coating-capable scratch-resistant paints for vehicle interior displays. We travel to Mexico, Japan and Korea. Commissioned to coat more body parts of the new VW Passat, NANO-X expands its premises by buying the adjacent building and installing a new works and offices in it. Turnover is now about 2.5 million Euros. The company is profitable.
2005 Series production for VW starts and uses much of our capacity. Materials production is now several hundred tonnes annually. We integrate independent quality assurance (QS) and an application engineering department. Cooperation with the Japanese Kyowa Hakko Chemicals gives us the necessary infrastructure to supply the Asian market. The automobile market pays us increasing attention. Two BMBF projects in the textiles and photocatalytic effects fields are awarded us. We prepare for REACH. Turnover is now about 5 million Euros.
Employee numbers grow to over 40.
2006 Success is rewarded: NANO-X wins the Steel Innovation Prize in the "Steel in R&D" category. Managing director Stefan Sepeur and project manager Stefan Goedicke receive the award from Porsche boss Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking. We discover an engineering loophole and develop a new adhesives class - SiliXane. We undertake transactions with other paint systems makers and offer a raw materials and adhesives concept for the first time. Our sales partner here is Worlée-Chemie. HJS starts series production of a catalytic converter as a modification and accessory for particle catalysts on diesels. NANO-X developed the Nano Washcoat needed. Turnover improves.
2007 The Saarland holds the Empower Congress: NANO-X wins the prize as the most innovative company in the province. Major projects become our main focus. New catalytic converter coatings are developed by our fundamental researchers. Particle catalytic conversion without heavy metals becomes feasible. With the newly introduced ERP System Microsoft Dynamics NAV our entire team is set for expansion. New scaling protection products are added. Many small projects are realised including coatings for natural stone, antifingerprint for stoves and engineering coating for spotlights. NANO-X even goes into space. Our hydrophile coating with anti-bacterial effects is applied to a heat converter aboard Columbus. We achieve nearly 6 million turnover.
2008 NANO-X expertise is passed on: Stefan Sepeur and his chemists publish a specialised book entitled "Nanotechnology". Managing director Dr. Stefan Sepeur becomes a BMBF-recognised expert.
NANO-X has 50 staff.
...And they're still producing if they aren't researching.