Marketing and Technology Appraisal for water-repellent coating

This programme was carried out for a UK Government Agency, who had developed a new method for applying water and oil repellent coatings for fabrics.

Conventionally, such coatings are applied using an aqueous emulsion, which is then thermally cured. These coatings have a number of functional disadvantages, which the new method seeks to overcome.

Technology Enterprise, working with an associate company, was engaged to carry out initial marketing for the new method. This involved gaining a deep understanding of the core technology so that the key functional advantages could be clearly identified.  An understanding of the industry structure was gained, and in initial list of nearly 100 UK companies was identified for marketing approach. In addition to identifying and contacting key personnel in an initial 20 selected companies, Technology Enterprise provided additional key innovation which has led to the filing of an additional 6 patents to protect application areas for the new technology.