Startup Idea: Conductive Ink Quality Control Software

Startup idea to develop a software application for nanotechnology companies producing electrically conductive inks. The software would track the unique specifications of each ink batch e.g. particle size, surface tension and viscosity, compare these measurements to acceptable standard deviations and give alerts for anomalies. The goal is to enhance quality control and prevent the disruption caused by bad ink batches.

I have spent the last several years working for a nanotechnology company, specializing in electrically conductive inks made using nanoparticles.

Every day the inks are made by hand and prepared for shipping to clients all over the world. The exact specifications of each ink - their particle size, surface tension, viscosity, and other measurements are crucial knowledge and are carefully measured for each batch of ink.

Because these inks are handmade, however, there are certain variations in each batch of ink and the measurements of their properties differ from batch to batch. Keeping track of each ink batch's measurements is of the utmost importance, for two reasons.

1. the characteristics are recorded and sent along with each vial of ink to the customer, so they know the numbers and can use them in their desired tests and implementations; and
2. by having a general knowledge of what each characteristic of the ink should read, myself and the other chemists are able to tell when a certain batch of ink may not be within spec, once slight deviations for temperature of the ink/room and the precursor anoparticle's properties are taken into account.

While the characteristics of each ink batch are meticulously tracked, it is difficult at first to spot any anomalies in measurements unless they are glaringly obvious. A program that is able to track the measurements for each characteristic, the acceptable standard deviation for each characteristic, and keep track of trends to show if an off measurements is a case of one bad batch or due to a drift over time higher or lower would be extremely useful.

My company would absolutely pay to have software that could monitor these measurements and give alerts when one is not within the acceptable deviation. As of now, a bad batch of ink, or even multiple bad batches, can be missed by the chemist doing the measuring and recording and can cause a big disruption further downstream.