Coating Place

The innovative process of Wurster particle coating was established and patented by Dr. Dale E. Wurster Ph.D. in the 1950’s and 1960's, in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Harlan S. Hall began his work with WARF and the Wurster process in 1971 as the Coating Laboratory Manager. He purchased the Wurster technology and original prototype equipment in 1976, marking the founding of Coating Place, Inc. In the years following, Coating Place developed products for numerous markets, including the pharmaceutical and specialty chemical industries. In 1982, Coating Place introduced the first micro-coater for research purposes, which was capable of producing approximately a 20 gram batch of product. Coating Place began development work in 1987 for oil field service companies to create an encapsulated breaker product, capable of delayed release properties. This microencapsulation process allowed the breaker to reach ample depths, temperature and pressure before release and modification of the fracturing fluid. Continuing the advancement of Wurster fluid bed coating technology, a 7-nozzle production unit was built in 1989. By 1997, Coating Place developed the first 3-nozzle Wurster unit that allowed for linear scalability from research batches to production batches. This created the opportunity for Coating Place to begin commercial microencapsulation manufacturing for thin film-coating of industrial materials, drugs and food. For the next 20 years, Coating Place became the exclusive commercial manufacturing supplier of breaker products to one of the leading oil field service companies.