Jet Metal pulls €2.5M for clean coating technology

Ecully, France-based Jet Metal Technologies raised €2.5 million for its new coating technology that reduces the need for chemicals and the generation of wastewater.

The funds came from Viveris, Schneider Electric Ventures, Naxicap Partners and Rhône Alpes Création.

Jet Metal is commercializing a faster metallization process developed at the Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes at l'Ecole Centrale Lyon.

Electroplating and vacuum deposition technologies are the most common metallization technologies today. But the coatings industry is facing stricter environmental controls on chemical waste and energy consumption.

Jet Metal says the process meets those needs because it removes the need for highly polluting sulfochromic preparation treatments, reduces the quantities of reagents used, minimizes the generation of wastewater, and uses no VOCs.

The process removes steps, which can save time and money. Additionally, the process occurs at room temperature using basic painting tools.

Jet Metal says the technology creates a synergy between the simplicity of painting techniques and the sophistication of metal plating coatings.

In its patented metallization process, two aerosols are simultaneously projected onto substrates to react and form a homogeneous and continuous metal film. The process can be used for a variety of metal coatings—including copper, nickel, cobalt or gold—and on a variety of substrates, such as metals, plastics, glass, ceramics, textiles, and wood.

The process has applications in a number of industries, including cosmetics, glass, automotive, aerospace and appliances.