YBI introduces Nanoe, a French ceramics company

BY SAMANTHA PHILLIPS

sphillips@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Business Incubator announced that Nanoe, a company based in France, will be operating out of YBI as it explores expanding business to the United States.

Nanoe employs 15 in Europe and has served the European ceramics market for more than 10 years. About a year ago, Nanoe launched a new range of Zetamix, ceramic and metal 3D printing filaments; and Zetaprint, a ceramic and metal FDM process 3D printer.

Guillaume de Calan, Nanoe CEO, said ceramics are difficult materials to shape and process, so there are less producers for that material than plastics and metals.

“To print ceramics, you need dedicated 3D printing machines that are very expensive,” he said. “We decided to take a different approach and to adapt raw materials to existing machines already on the market.”

By working out of YBI, Nanoe will also benefit from the incubator’s partnerships with organizations such as America Makes, a Youngstown additive manufacturing institute.

John Wilczynski, America Makes technology director, said he is excited about the opportunities and possible applications the filaments will have for the tooling industry.

Mindy McLaughlin, Team NEO senior director for International Business Development, said: “We’re trying to sell the Northeast Ohio area to the rest of the world. When we think of additive manufacturing, we think of Youngstown.”

De Calan said the company has been looking to expand to the United States additive manufacturing market for a few years. He said Ohio, especially Cleveland, is regarded as a hot spot for additive manufacturing.

“We want to see if we can gain some traction, see if the filaments can be of interest in the U.S.,” he said.

De Calan said the filaments can be used in a variety of industries including medical and aerospace technologies and even for products such as jewelry. Nanoe provides the filaments to industries at a cost effective rate and cuts down on product development time.

“We make it simple and affordable for any company to [3D] print ceramic and metal,” said Yogesh Ramadoss, Nanoe product marketing engineer.

The company will have Youngstown State University researchers test its materials and give feedback.

If the business does well in the U.S., de Calan said after a year it may begin to add more employees here.

Barb Ewing, CEO of YBI, said the partnership is a big win for YBI. She said the company will continue to invest in local portfolio companies as well as international companies.