A conversation with the Pixelligent Technologies CEO about what is behind the latest nanotech boom and what it means to the industry.

Since moving its operations to Baltimore in 2011, nanocrystal additive manufacturer, Pixelligent Technologies, has seen the kind of explosive growth and market success that seems only possible in business school fantasies and start-up legends.

In these past 17 months, the company has seen its customer pipeline increase tenfold and has grown to include some of the world's largest chemical-polymer manufacturing companies, prompting a 150% increase in its workforce and an expansion to a 13,000-square-foot facility.

According to CEO Craig Bandes, though this success appears to have struck fast, it has been long in coming for the industry.

"For ten years, people have been saying nanotechnology is going to hit next year," he joked. "Well, now it is actually happening and these companies are finally seeing that nanotechnology is real -- that it is having real, significant impacts in a number of different technologies and products."

"There is a convergence going on between a receptive market that is out there looking for nano-enabled solutions and companies like Pixelligent that have cracked the code on the technology." - Craig Bandes, CEO, Pixelligent Technologies

Of course, this newly realized and matured technology wouldn't mean much without a receptive market. Luckily, today's manufacturers seem very much in the mood for progress.

"In the industrial world, there is a real focus now on how to incorporate next-generation materials into what they are doing today," he explained. "There is a convergence going on between a receptive market that is out there looking for nano-enabled solutions and companies like Pixelligent that have cracked the code on the technology."

This convergence is translating into what many are calling a "nanotech revolution," as the long-awaited mainstream adoption of the technology finally takes hold.

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