SBIR Success Story: En’Urga Inc.

1201 Cumberland Avenue, Suite R
West Lafayette, IN  47906-1359

Contact: Yudaya Sivathanu
Phone: 765-497-3269
E-Mail: sivathan [at] enurga.com (sivathan[at]enurga[dot]com)
Website: http://www.enurga.com

Project Title: Combined Extinction/Fluorescence Absorption Diagnostics for Pharmaceutical Sprays

NIST Award: 70NANB14H303

Technology Developed:  This Small Business Innovation Research project completed the development of a pharmaceutical spray quality audit system.  The spray quality audit system estimates the planar mass distribution, mass flux, and drop size of pharmaceutical sprays that are used in functional coating applications and inhalers. 

Key Words:  Spray Characterization, Dropsize, Fluorescence, Tomography, Patternation

Uses of Technology/Products/Service: En'Urga Inc. developed an instrument for estimating the number and size of drops in a spray.  This information is obtained at a plane within the spray.  The instrument has two major commercial applications.  The first application will be in the quality audit of spray nozzles used in the pharmaceutical industry, primarily in the tablet coaters, spray dryers and inhalers.  The uniformity of mass distribution in the spray issuing from these nozzles is crucial for ensuring the quality of the tablets, APIs, and inhalers.  The second application is in estimating the mass distribution of fuel in automotive injectors and aero-engine nozzles.  The mass distribution of fuel is crucial to ensuring the stability of the combustion process, increasing the efficiency of engines, and lowering pollutant emissions. 

Benefit to Company: Since we work in advanced diagnostic equipment, we need a suite of instruments to continue our growth curve and maintain our presence in the market place.  Our current annual revenue averaged over the last four years would be approximately 1.3 million.  We would like to be a mid-sized company with annual sales revenue of 20 million dollars.  This will enable us to increase our highly skilled workforce to approximately 80 people.  The proposed product has the potential market size to generate this higher sales revenue since it can be used potentially as a replacement for a range of spray diagnostic equipment that is currently in the market.  We received orders worth over $300,000 for the product this year from China.

Technology’s Impact on Company’s Growth: Strategic, Tactical

How Product was Commercialized: There was some resistance to using a fluorophore for characterizing sprays.  Therefore, scattering tomography was used to help the commercialization process.  A prototype system was developed and demonstrated at the International Liquid Atomization and Spraying Systems conference.  In addition, a brochure was designed and printed.  The brochure was mailed to several of our customers in the automotive, aerospace, and pharmaceutical industries.

Past R&D and/or Sales from this Project: First year of commercialization.  Received two orders for a total of $ 300,000.

Estimated Future Annual R&D and/or Sales from this Project: We anticipate having an annual revenue of $ 500,000 from this SBIR funding.