Nalucoat was born in the Ceramic District, the “green” startup that eliminates chromium
From left Michael Robinson, Gian Luca Falleti, Ivan Bonvini
Spinoff of Nanoprom Chemicals srl and Leba 1974 srl, was founded as a benefit company with the aim of providing an alternative to one of the most polluting industrial processes.
Sassuolo (Modena), XX November 2022 A new company is born in the heart of the Ceramic District, destined to carry out an unprecedented project in terms ofthe elimination of chromium from surface finishing treatments.
It is aboutNalucoat, definitely green-oriented startup, which will have a double seat: in Sant’Antonio di Casalgrande, in Reggiano, and in San Genesio ed Uniti, in the Pavia area, for a transversality that denotes the inclusive aspect of the project and establishes a sort of joint venture between two of the most industrialized regions of Italy, representing, Sunglasses, the 35% of the national GDP.
The creators of this unprecedented initiative are two young entrepreneurs: Gian Luca Falleti from Sassuolo, patron of the company Nanoprom Chemicals srland for years a supplier of “ultralight” paints for various sectors (top team in Formula 1, nautical groups and aerospace companies) isIvan Bonvini, founder of the Pavese Leba 1974 srl, specialized in finishing treatments on aluminum. At their side thecar designer statunitense Michael Robinson, from whose pen cars such as the Lancia Thesis and Ypsilon were born, the Fiat Bravo and Brava and the Frecciarossa train 1000 and the front of the new tonal but famous above all for its propensity to adoptinnovations regarding the future of the automobile.
"Our idea of giving life to Nalucoat a benefit company - explain Falleti and Bonvini - was born first and foremost from a film. We both have seen, and we were strongly impressed, the film <<Erin Brockvich - Strong as the truth>>”, released in 2000 and interpreted, among others, da Julia Roberts. Based on a true story, the film deals with the lawsuit filed against Pacific Gas & Electric for the hexavalent chromium contamination of a Californian city. Thanks to this legal action, the US energy giant was sentenced to pay the largest compensation in US history: 333 millions of dollars to more than 600 people.The hexavalent chromium, indeed, it is one of the most dangerous environmental contaminants. However, it is still used in various industrial processes, although its use is granted in derogation from international standards and for limited periods. Now, But, there is the solution to eliminate chromium from various manufacturing processes.
Falleti and Bonvini continue: “What allows you to eliminate chrome plating from aluminum processing is called Nalucoat, the same name we gave to our statrup, spinoff of our companies Nanoprom and Leba 1974. It is a process based on the Polysil product, silicon-based coating (a real cold vitrification) whose composition is covered by a Nanoprom patent. We are ahead, in other words, to a real Copernican revolution in various industrial sectors, first of all that of the automotive ".
Robinson adds: “Let's think about how many elements there are in any car that, currently, they undergo the process of glossy or matte chrome plating. Well, thanks to this treatment, already entered the production phase, it will finally be possible to completely eliminate the presence of chromium, an element that is now very much in attention at an international level, precisely because of its impact on the environment ".
Double is the advantage which can derive from the use of Nalucoat. Falleti and Bonvini still highlight: “The designed and patented process is doubly green: thanks to the formula of our coating, indeed, it's possibleand eliminate the use of chromium, or recycle the material on which it is applied. Till now, indeed, the aluminum on which the chrome plating is applied, it cannot be subsequently recycled, but it must be reprocessed or disposed of. We therefore propose a substantial step forward also from a circular economy perspective ".
Another plus of Nalucoat, finally, is that process waste is considerably reduced. "The current chrome plating - Falleti and Bonvini close - produce a processing waste that can even reach the 30%. Our treatment, instead, has been designed and optimized to achieve a difference of no more than 2% physiological, thus guaranteeing a considerable economic advantage to all manufacturers of aluminum components. Lastly, an application that significantly reduces the need for electricity, water and eliminates waste ".
Nanoprom Group al UIGA 2022
Nanoprom Group al UIGA 2022, at the company of designer Giorgietto Giugiaro, awarded DS4 for Stellantis' Chrome Detox philosophy, represented by Claudio D’Amico. And with Michael Robinson and Ivan Gianluca Bonvini, Gian Luca Falleti's company premiered the birth of the #bcorp #Nalucoat start-up.
“All this is a classic success made in Emilia-Romagna”, Falleti underlined. “A big thank you goes to Councilor Vincenzo Colla for his tireless support to Emilia-Romagna companies, and to Paolo Artemi and Paolo Ciccarone for their effective collaboration”.
Nanoprom is an entrepreneurial reality among the first in Italy to believe in the research and commercial application of nanomaterials. At the end of the 90s, applications of silica-based nanomaterials begin, Nanoprom develops Polysil which represents one of the new products in the field of surface protection, consisting of polymer-based structures (gelcoat and paints), metals, alloys and glass. In this area it was determinant, for Nanoprom, the experience conducted in Tetrapack within which Polysil is the product chosen by Tetrapack to protect all their systems in the world (steel structures, aluminum and glass).
Technology with Nalucoat the car even greener
Decorative chrome plating is a treatment used to give an aesthetic plus to each element, making it pleasant from an aesthetic point of view and resistant from a functional point of view..
It is also widely applied in the automotive sector on both plastic and metal, especially on aluminum: door pull handles, paddle shift, dashboard inserts and door panels and other details that can generate a perception of greater value.
The production phase, however, is characterized by a series of aspects that make this process unsustainable as well as not allowing the recycling of the elements on which it is applied.. Think of aluminum artifacts, despite being a metal that can be recycled over and over again, this fundamental characteristic is lost due to the presence of overstocks that force or to inversion processes, highly energy-intensive, wasteful and polluting, or to disposal as special waste.
From the point of view of production it is estimated that they are needed beyond 15 liters of water per square meter of submerged surface, as well as a large amount of electricity, classified as raw material in the form of low voltage direct current obtained by rectifiers. Lastly, the thermal energy used to keep the solutions operational at certain temperatures.
Even more important are the chemicals needed to facilitate the electroplating process and the metals that are deposited, used both in massive form and in the form of salts and compounds.
Among these we have hexavalent chromium, considered one of the most important and dangerous environmental pollutants that, in case of accidental spills, thanks to the high solubility in water, it can spread over large areas. Think of the famous cause, brought against Pacific Gas & Electric nel 1993, for contamination withhexavalent chromium of the waters of the city ofHinkley inCalifornia for over 30 years, subject of the largest legal action of its kind, headed by Brockovich and Ed Masry. The energy giant was forced to pay the largest compensation in US history: 333 millions of dollars to more than 600 residents of Hinkley, episode that inspired in 2000 il film “Erin Brockovich”.
By law it is mandatory to switch to the so-called trivalent chromium variant (CrO3), less toxic and harmful. But also for this variant, important legislative changes are underway, pushed by the Reach Committee (with reference to the publication of 17 June 2022 by the CTACSub) which invite you to apply, wherever possible, suitable alternatives to this treatment.
Consequently, failure to grant authorization to use even trivalent chromium compounds, it would involve the complete compromise of the supply chain upstream of the manufacturing and assembly industries. The time has therefore come for industries and designers to start preparing, also with the help of those who have experience in the field of alternative treatments.
A fundamental contribution to the development of these solutions is due to Gian Luca Falleti, interpreter of nanotechnologies in the concrete world of industrial production.
Falleti tells us about his latest innovation, the Nalucoa treatmentt®, which also finds application in the automotive sector, following for example the philosophy espoused by the Stellantis Group.
The DS7 is the first car called "Chrome Detox", that is, it eliminates the chromed pieces both inside and outside, adds Falleti: "However, it is not necessary to deprive oneself of the aesthetic effect, just eliminate the unsustainable processes that make the pieces non-recyclable ".
The automotive sector is not only working on sustainable mobility but also on sustainable manufacturing, creating both assembly and disassembly lines (a new paradigm that we see already applied by the telephony giant Apple) allowing, to end-of-life meetings, to be recycled. Therefore every material and every treatment must allow the recycling of the pieces.
Hence the immediate need, by the entire automotive industry, to intervene on manufacturing processes through the use of enabling technologies such as Nalucoat®, a valid and viable alternative to traditional finishing treatments.
The Italian vaccine against Covid is a varnish
By Michele Brambilla – 17 October 2022
The invention of a small chemical company in the province of Reggio Emilia renders all the viruses and bacteria that land on surfaces inert. Thus the feat of Gianluca Falleti for the 2022 is 2023 it is the first in Italy in its sector for economic growth and the fourth in Europe
The end of February 2020. There are three people on a plane that is returning from Barcelona to Italy: in the sense of three in all. Only three passengers because, even if the measures to close everything have not yet been taken, the world is already stopping. We come across words and acronyms hitherto unknown to almost everyone, and then in other obsolete words, and then again in other removed: coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, Covid-19, lockdown, Ffp2, red zones, pulse oximeter, hydroxychloroquine, Epidemic, pandemic. We discover a feeling that not even our wartime grandparents had known, accustomed as they were to the hard life: let's get acquainted with fear. Collective fear. And what scares more than what is new and unknown? The virus is more unknown than bombs, the Spanish flu and the plague are memories of past generations. The world will end? We will go extinct? We are all thinking about this as that plane returns to Italy loaded with only three passengers.
One of these three returning from Barcelona is called Gianluca Falleti, at that moment it has 44 years, was born in Sassuolo and is the owner of a small company he founded in 2000: la Nanoprom Chemicals. Five employees, a beautiful headquarters in the industrial area of Casalgrande, in the province of Reggio Emilia, fraction of Sant'Antonino, on the border with the ceramic district of Sassuolo. In short, we are in one of those corners of the peninsula that make our GDP rise so much.
The company produces very thin glass which is "doped" with various materials to be adapted to the most sophisticated technological devices; does cold vitrification; invents and produces the “lightest” paints in the world. A Formula car 1, to say, is painted with 250 grams if opaque and 300 grams if shiny. For a Curti helicopter of Castel Bolognese, eight kilos of paint was once needed, enough now 800 grams of the product designed and supplied by Nanoprom. Lightweight glass and paint: to a drone it has gone by 17 a 3,4 kilograms. And what can such a company do against Covid?
"On that plane", says Falleti, “I was thinking about what I could do to help. In Barcelona I had participated in the F1 tests and presented some plastics with our paints; they are like films that are used to color and protect the cars during the races, to prevent dust from adhering to the body, to cushion impacts with anything that may come up from the track.
“So I thought: I make a varnish to be applied to another film that protects against viruses and bacteria. But I understood that it was infeasible from a bureaucratic point of view: too many certifications were needed. I didn't give up, because I try to never stop in the face of a difficulty. I invested 330.000 euros to create a staff that would invent something to secure homes, offices, school. And I have to thank the Region, which helped me with 70.000 euro”.
And that's how BV-Stop was born: the first anti-Covid paint in the world. To be precise: anti-all-viruses, anti-all-bacteria, anti mould. “It is an invisible paint, transparent. It is applied with a spray on all paintable surfaces but also on fabrics. In order to understand each other: even in an armchair, on a pillow, on a bed. It cannot be seen and has no smell, on the contrary, it eliminates odors caused by bacteria. Thirty square meters are protected with a liter".
But how does it work? “After thirty minutes the virus dropped on a surface painted with BV-Stop becomes inert al 99,9 percent, and the bacteria are destroyed”. How can you be sure? “Con 6.700 pounds I had a lamp made in Great Britain with a light balance that, with a blue ray, allows you to see where the bacteria are, where they can be and where the paint has already passed. This checks the level of protection”. How long does this protection last? “About five years. And if it lasts less, you can go over the paint".
The BV-Stop has been on the market for a month. The first buyer was the Municipality of Casalgrande, who protected his Registry Office with this magical spray. Schools and company canteens have also ordered it. A large hospital in Turin is evaluating it. For now this paint is unique in the world: a patent application was filed last year and no objections are reported, which is considered a good sign. Meanwhile the company has grown from five to nine employees and the turnover has risen to two million seven hundred thousand euros a year. According to the Financial Times ranking, the small Nanoprom Chemicals of Casalgrande, Province of Reggio Emilia, for the 2022 is 2023 it is the first Italian chemical company and the fourth in Europe for economic growth.
In short, this is a story of Italian genius. A story of those "how to turn a crisis into an opportunity". But if you say this phrase, Falleti glares at you.
“I have not used Covid to earn money or to grow the company, I assure you. My father in law died of Covid. And faced with this planetary tragedy, I thought if I could lend a hand in my own small way, if I could come up with something. I was wondering: but i really can't do anything? We are truly powerless in the face of this enemy so tiny as to be invisible? What can I do to help? When the news of the first lockdown arrived, I was skiing in the mountains. I remember everyone's sense of dread. I felt a huge emptiness. I have two sons, and above all those who have children were afraid.
“When we developed the anti-Covid paint, I wanted to be sure it really worked. I had it tested by three companies and universities in three different cities: Modena, Firenze, Chieti. Only when all three of them gave me the certification did I start…”. to sell it? “To give it away. I told him, it has only been on the market for a month. First I donated it to the Sassuolo Red Cross, of Scandiano, of Maranello and Casalgrande. They protected the ambulances with BV-Stop. Then I moved on to schools. They asked me to protect them from Covid with my paint, and I asked: but how long has it been since you whitened? In a school near us, which I won't name, they answered me: from 1984. He realizes in what condition the Italian school is? But she knows he paints them, after a few years, they become cancerous if they are not removed and replaced? If you don't whiten the old walls? I answered those who asked me about the BV-Stop: first whiten, then i pass it. And I assure you that I could have immediately earned hundreds of thousands of euros if I had ignored it, and passed my anti Covid paint on those walls last painted in 1984. Today any municipality can use European funds against Covid to have all the classrooms repainted, and then prepare for the BV-Stop.
“Making money with Covid? There are those who made them. There are many who have marched on it. That's why I left, here in our area, the anti-looting project. When they sold surgical masks for two or three euros each, I gave away more than a hundred thousand. And the ones I sold, I sold them to 50 cents each, well before this was the state-mandated price. If then a family had three children, the third had a free mask, and for the first two the price was forty cents".
Even on the masks, the small Nanoprom has tried to innovate. “I produced masks with a particular fabric: 45 percent cellulose e 55 percent polyester. With these masks, the water is completely absorbed and the virus becomes inert in eight hours: so you don't even need to incinerate them. You can throw them away in the regular trash. They gave us the Open Innovation award of small and medium-sized enterprises, for these masks.
Now Falleti is aiming for the recognition of Nanoprom as a B-Corp company, that is, to be certified as a company that, as well as chasing profit, has high standards of social and environmental performance. “Il 15 December last year we received the patent as the only company in the world that is offering an alternative to the use of galvanic, which forces them to be disposed of in special waste. We launched the Nalucoat project, which means to use, instead of galvanic, another technology and materials that can be recycled one hundred percent. Our business lies in research and development: companies come to us with requests, and we study how to help them. We work with the Formula 1 and with Moto GP, with boating, with drones, with all: from submarines to satellites”.
The magic paint will work? It will really eliminate Covid, and all other viruses, and all bacteria, and all the bad smells in homes, offices, factories, hospitals and cars? The patent will arrive that will certify yet another Italian miracle? Meanwhile, this is a story of Italian genius. And where does our genius come from? Pupi Avati, great director, he says from having suffered and knowing how to react. “I have lost both parents since I was thirteen”, says Falleti. “As a boy I was an insurer, I delivered pizzas and washed cars. I've tried sneaking sleep in insurance company bathrooms. In a 21 I haven't bought a car in years: I bought myself a house”.
We are about to go out. Ask us: “He needs to go to the bathroom?" Why not, at my age. “Ecco, then I show her what happens before and after using a toilet”. Then he enters with his magic lantern, which by lighting up blue shows us where the bacteria are, where there is the protection of its anti-virus and anti-bacteria paint, and where instead we still have to pass it. He is happy like a child. Because he invented something to make money? Who knows these entrepreneurs, he knows it's not the gain (which is also needed, yes, and that's right) to make those who undertake a work happy. It is the feeling that something new has been done, it is the feeling that one has done something useful for others. “What I told her is the 5 percent of what this company has done”, he says as he accompanies us to the parking lot. His company is among those classified in the "Growth Leaders 2022" category compiled by the Sun 24 Ore, with a growth rate of 54,76 percent.
Ecco, as long as there are people like that, enough to talk about a finite country. Stop crying.
[Source: https://www.ilfoglio.it/] Read MoreNanoprom Chemicals, the Reggio-based company that defeats Covid with innovation
17 October 2022
Entrepreneurs and innovation will save the world. After discovering the recent history of Nanoprom Chemicals, the Casalgande company founded by Gianluca Falleti, on Il Foglio one cannot help but think so. Activate from 2000, it has nine employees and deals with cold vitrification, but also to produce special glasses for sophisticated technological devices and the lightest paints in the world.
BV-Stop, the anti-Covid paint by Nanoprom Chemicals
When the pandemic broke out, Falletti wondered, as an entrepreneur, what he could do to help out. So he decided to invest 330,000 euros to build a staff with one goal: inventing something that would secure homes, offices and school. The Emilia-Romagna Region, who had glimpsed the potential of the project, he had contributed by investing as much as 70 thousand euros. The outcome? BV-Stop was born, the paint that keeps all viruses away, bacteria and molds. We can therefore talk about the first anti-Covid paint in the world. An extraordinary result.
How BV-Stop works
It is a transparent varnish, can also be used on fabrics, which not only has no smell, but it also removes those caused by bacteria. The effectiveness is almost instantaneous. Thirty minutes after application, the bacteria are killed and the virus becomes inert 99,9%. With a liter of BV-Stop you can protect even thirty square meters of surface, but that's not all. The protection lasts five years.
This miraculous paint has been on the market for a month and the patent has been filed, there will be news soon. In the meantime, buyers are starting to arrive. Not just company canteens and schools, but the municipality of Casalgrande itself is also using it. And that's just the beginning.
Innovative masks, here is the Open Innovation award
In the first phase of the pandemic, also, Nanoprom Chemicals has produced innovative masks. Established at 45% of cellulose et al 55% of polyester, these masks are able to completely absorb water. In this way, the virus becomes inert in eight hours and there is no need to incinerate them. This innovation has allowed the Falleti-based company to win the Open Innovation award for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Nanoprom Chemicals numbers and prospects
Reading the ranking of the Financial Times one jumps. Nanoprom Chemicals, indeed, turns out to be the first Italian chemical company and the fourth in Europe in terms of economic growth considering the 2022 and the 2023. Not bad at all for a small company in the Reggio area that also appears in the "Leader of growth 2022" ranking by the Sun 24 Ore. The growth rate, indeed, settles around 54,76%.
Falleti now would like Nanoprom to be recognized as a B-Corp company. The certification would make official what is already known in the area: the firm is not limited to pursuing profit, but is characterized by high standards of social and environmental performance. And this goes beyond innovations in healthcare, to the anti-looting project aimed at avoiding speculation on masks and providing them at affordable prices. For example, last year a patent certified that the company was the only one on the market to offer an alternative option to electroplating. Thanks to the Nalucoat project, in which he focused on sustainable technology and materials, it is possible to avoid creating special waste. Yet another demonstration thatthe future is today and it is companies that make it possible.
[Source: https://loccidentale.it/]
