TheraDep Technologies has opened an Innovation and Surface Coatings Center of Excellence in Youghal, County Cork, combining research, process development, cleanroom manufacturing and quality operations as the company scales its BioDep coating platform.
The facility gives TheraDep a dedicated European base for moving surface treatments from development into controlled production, with medical device and life science programmes able to pass through process design, verification and manufacture inside the same operation. Its quality system has already completed an initial ISO audit milestone, giving the site a formal framework for the documentation and controls required as customer programmes progress.
BioDep uses cold atmospheric plasma to deposit biologic materials, pharmaceuticals and polymers onto component surfaces without relying on the high temperatures associated with many conventional coating processes. Gas introduced into the treatment chamber is energised into an ionised plasma, while the material intended for deposition is delivered into that environment and carried towards the target surface.
Because the process operates at comparatively low temperature, metals, polymers, ceramics and composite substrates can be treated without exposing the underlying component to a thermal cycle that could alter dimensions or material properties. TheraDep says the platform can create nanoscale coatings at room temperature, extending the range of biological and functional materials that can be applied to medical and life science products.
Moving the process into routine manufacture requires more than repeating a laboratory recipe on larger equipment, since coating uniformity depends on gas flow, plasma energy, material delivery, component position and treatment time remaining inside controlled limits. Small variations that are manageable during development can produce unacceptable differences once hundreds or thousands of parts are processed to the same specification.
By placing research and process engineering beside cleanroom production, the Youghal site shortens the route between discovering a coating behaviour and testing whether it can be reproduced under manufacturing conditions. Engineers can adjust process parameters against production equipment, while quality teams can build measurement and release requirements into the route before volumes rise.
TheraDep’s current applications include collagen coated laboratory microplates and surface treatments intended for medical devices, with development work extending into hydrophilic, antimicrobial and drug delivery coatings. Each application imposes different demands on adhesion, thickness, durability and biological performance, so the manufacturing route has to be adapted without losing control of the underlying plasma process.
Microplates require consistency across large numbers of wells because differences in the surface can affect cell growth or assay behaviour, while a coating applied to a catheter, implant or other device may have to withstand handling, sterilisation and exposure to biological fluids. A process that performs reliably on one geometry can therefore require different fixturing, gas flow or treatment time when transferred to another.
TheraDep says BioDep can deposit coatings without polymer binders or conventional chemical linkers, reducing the number of materials introduced into the finished layer and removing separate curing stages from some applications. That simplifies part of the production route while increasing the importance of controlling the plasma conditions that determine how the deposited material interacts with the substrate.
As production volume increases, cleaning, calibration, maintenance and environmental control become more important because equipment has to deliver the same treatment across repeated batches rather than occasional development runs. Medical device customers will also require evidence that the coating process remains reproducible after equipment maintenance, software changes or shifts in raw material characteristics.
The Youghal centre was created by converting an empty shell into an operating research and manufacturing site during 2026, with cleanroom capability and quality infrastructure installed as part of the project. Local recruitment has begun alongside the technical build, giving TheraDep a manufacturing base rather than an extension of its laboratory activity.
TheraDep’s development history already includes plasma coated pharmaceutical applications, commercial coating equipment and a 2026 partnership with dsm-firmenich around advanced bio surface and nano coating technology. Medical grade collagen coated microplates formed an early product focus under that collaboration, giving the new site a defined route from development into repeatable output.
Keeping research, process development and production together reduces the number of organisational transfers required when a new coating approaches manufacture, while problems identified during cleanroom operation can return directly to the engineers responsible for the process. Development data and manufacturing results can therefore be compared inside one technical organisation rather than passing between separate facilities.
With the Youghal operation now running, TheraDep has the equipment and quality structure needed to move more customer programmes towards validated manufacture. Each new molecule, coating function and component geometry must still pass through controlled process development before laboratory performance becomes repeatable commercial output.
