Walls, floors and ceilings painted or tiled with self-cleaning and anti-bacterial coatings will soon be an everyday thing. "We've been scratching the tip of the iceberg. Prospects are unlimited," says Juha Alfors, the sales and marketing director at ABR Innova Oy.

The company develops, licenses and sells technology based on coating that uses a hot aerosol layering process. The company has a partnership agreement with Nextrom Oy, which is responsible for developing, producing, marketing, selling, supplying and maintaining the equipment needed in the process.

The hot aerosol layering process is suitable for coating large surfaces. The primary uses are the staining of plate glass and the production of self-cleaning ceramic tile surfaces.

From aerosol physics to nanotechnology

The development of hot aerosol layering process began as a joint project between the University of Art and Design Helsinki and Tampere University of Technology in 1992. The first patent applications were submitted in 1995.

"The purpose of the project was to find an inexpensive method for staining plate glass. At that time nobody spoke of this as nanotechnology but as aerosol physics. In 1998 we realized that the hot aerosol layering process could be used for the production of active optical fibres."

For example, making coloured plate glass is traditionally full of problems because the entire glass mass must be stained and changing the colour is expensive. ABR Innova's technology makes it possible to change the colour 'in flight': instead of a break lasting several days, it is just a matter of a few hours.

Limitless benefits

Although self-cleaning slabs are at the moment needed by only a narrow sector, the possibilities are almost limitless. The benefits from self-cleaning surfaces will be felt both privately and publicly.

"For example there are in Germany companies that are already producing almost all their ceramic tiles with hydrophilic coating that is easy to keep clean. Buildings in Finland have also been covered with tiles like this," Ahlfors says.

"Other interesting properties include sound insulation, filtering UV light, heat insulation, scratch resistance, water affinity and water repellence."

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ABR Innova, which was founded in 1995, converts ideas into innovation. The ideas are associated with high temperature technology and ceramic materials. In front of the coating line are Juha Ahlfors (left) and Jussi Wright, the head of production.