innovate arkansas

Duralor LLC, which makes coatings for cutting tools and machine parts, broke ground Wednesday on its international headquarters in the Springdale Technology Park, a move company officials said will create 110 jobs there.

The company said it will hire 10 employees in its first year and plans to add 100 more within five years. Duralor said the average annual wage for the first 10 employees will exceed $60,000.

The company plans to move into the new facility in the fall and begin production and manufacturing in early 2009.

"Duralor shows that Arkansas' investment in nanotechnology research is paying dividends in the form of high-quality, knowledge-based jobs," Gov. Mike Beebe said in a news release Wednesday. "Duralor's patented technology will have everyday uses for manufacturing companies, and as the company grows, its international headquarters will be right here in northwest Arkansas."

Developed at the UA

Duralor's coating technology was licensed through NanoMech LLC. NanoMech, headquartered in Fayetteville at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, designs and manufactures coatings and coating systems used in a variety of industry sectors. Duralor's original patented technology was invented by Ajay Malshe and his colleagues at the University of Arkansas.

"Duralor's groundbreaking event marks an important milestone for technology product manufacturing industries in the state of Arkansas through a public-private partnership," said Malshe, UA professor and co-founder and CTO of NanoMech. "We are experiencing home-grown, world-class innovation connecting entrepreneurship, education and economics.

"The progress path toward Duralor in the past six years has been an exemplary case of combining world-class nanotech invention from the mechanical engineering team at the University of Arkansas, an array of strategic nanotech innovations and developments from NanoMech LLC company, ingenuity, the entrepreneurship of Arkansans and terrific support from the U of A and local and industry leaders."

Malshe said Duralor will manufacture and market next-generation abrasive coatings for cutting tools for machining and wear-resistant coatings for dies, molds and other products. Duralor's technology includes the TuffTek extreme wear-resistant coating, a process that can improve tool life by 300 percent or more compared to conventional coatings, according to the company.

Initially Duralor will focus on hiring people in the fields of engineering, marketing and business management, Malshe said.

"We are already in the process of recruiting some of them," he said.

Malshe said Duralor plans to serve a broad range of clients including those in the aerospace, energy and transportation industries.

Duralor is a subsidiary of NanoMech, Malshe said, which has plans for another company called Guard-in-Fresh that will produce packaging material for the supply chain industry.

Duralor announced plans in December to locate in Springdale.