NTE Scientific Hub

NTE Scientific Hub is the headquarters of the NTE Process Research & Development Department, a Technological Innovation Centre of excellence. It is unique in Italy and one of the best equipped in Europe, which enables talented Engineers and Technicians to create technologies and patents that improve processes and production techniques. These process gains positively impact NTE Process’ customers production environmentally.

Around 1000m² building houses a Research and Innovation Centre equipped with a laboratory and a 1: 1 scale pilot plant.

At the Hub customer requests and needs are engineered using NTE Process technologies, feasibility is confirmed by performing scientific tests (basic fluidity, aeration, consolidation, etc.). Full scale tests (technologies such as spray drying, drying, mixing solid-liquid, parallel processing, pneumatic conveying, etc.) are conducted, and simulate the performance of the various technologies in real world conditions, enabling customers to understand scaling capability.

NTE Scientific Hub consists of 4 areas, depending on the type of process to be tested, and a laboratory:

AREA 1 – POWDERS / GRANULES

Pneumatic mixing test
Pneumatic conveying test
Dosing test

AREA 2 – LIQUIDS / POWDERS / GRANULES

Concentration test
Drying test
Dissolution test
Mixing test

AREA 3 – POWDERS / GRANULES

Wonderbatch® system test
Big bag unloading and mixer loading test
Bag breaker and mixer loading test
Degassing test
Lump breaker test

AREA 4 – SPECIAL PROJECTS

This area is dedicated to special projects and for the completion of FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) in the presence of the customer.

NTE LAB

The NTE Process Team takes care to understand customers’ requirements their specific needs, then uses experience and knowledge to engineer the solution. The Research and Development Team uses advanced tools such as:

• FT4 Rheometer for calculating all the rheological properties of powders, investigating the effect of any external variable by simulating the process conditions. In addition to the standard characterization (basic flowability, aeration, shear cell, wall friction, consolidation, compressibility, permeability) it is possible to perform an advanced characterization that allows you to define all the analysis variables and to perform predictive analyzes in different conditions, performing up to more than 150 different tests.
• Scanning Electron Miscroscopy (SEM) with spectrograph for very high resolution morphological analysis which provides information on the chemical composition of the material.
• Laser diffraction granulometer to determine the particle size of both dry and solution powders.
• Moisture Analyzer for determining the moisture content of the powders in a particular environment characterized by a given temperature and pressure. In this way it is possible to study the behavior of a material which may be subject to changes in environmental conditions during the process.
• Balance to calculate the density of a material, both bulk density and tap density.
• Device for calculating the material flow angle – definition of the minimum and maximum flow angle – to define the correct geometry of the hoppers.
• Device for calculating the angle of repose to define the angle that the material creates with the surface when it settles due to gravity. This tool is used for the correct design of the hoppers too.
• Fluidization tests to determine the volume increase of a material given the absorption of air and the properties of the aerated material.

Thanks to such scientific instrumentation, detailed, data-based reports are issued, providing complete predictive analysis of performance, and energy consumption to support the design of the system.

NTE Scientific Hub is a centre of excellence using advanced technologies, combined with an entrepreneurial vision and the expected Italian flair and creativity.

NTE Scientific Hub – Via G. di Vittorio 15/17, 20060 Pessano con Bornago (Italy)