Microbritt Secures Patent for Innovative Method of Machining Brittle Materials
Newcastle-based Microbritt, a leader in the rapid manufacturing of microscale products from brittle materials, has secured a patent for its groundbreaking cutting method. This advancement allows the company to enhance edge quality and precision in machined profiles, surpassing previous techniques.
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Microbritt‘s new patented micromilling method enables the high-precision fabrication of customer-defined products using materials such as silicon, glass, ceramics, and polymers. This achievement underscores the company’s innovation and expertise, with the patent granted in Europe and validated as a Unitary Patent (covering most EU countries) and a UK national patent.
Dr. Carl Dale, CEO and co-founder of Microbritt said: “Securing this patent is a huge achievement for our brilliant team! From day one, our commitment has always focused on providing leading edge technology that gives our clients confidence in the quality and precision of products that we have the expertise and resources to produce.”
Microbritt, a spin-out from Newcastle University, manufactures premium microscale products. These products are made from a range of hard, brittle and fragile materials, including silicon and glass.
Manufacturing with silicon, widely used in the semiconductor and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) fabrication, poses challenges when forming features at the microscale. Microbritt‘s new patent addresses these challenges by delivering defined precision, with the added benefit of enhanced quality and rapid manufacturing capabilities.
Microbritt’s technology has applications across several key strategic sectors for the UK economy, such as semiconductors, healthcare (microfluidics), photonics and quantum where the company is actively engaged with customers across these sectors. For one of its IUK projects, Microbritt is also currently working with key partners to explore the use of microfluidics to monitor and treat agricultural crop diseases.
This announcement follows Microbritt’s recent presence in South Korea, where Dr. Carl Dale and Lorena Pantelie (Sales Manager) represented the company at Smart Tech in COEX Seoul, as part of the Global Business Innovation Programme: Advanced Manufacturing South Korea. This programme is designed to facilitate collaboration between UK delegates and Korean companies that are actively shaping the future of smart technologies.
During the programme, Dr Carl was invited to deliver a talk on Microbritt’s unique approach to bespoke manufacturing.
Microbritt has recently secured a £400k investment to scale, led by the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, and managed by Northstar Ventures, alongside business investor Angel Groups.