The exterior of Bridgeworks Enterprise Center, the Allentown Economic Development Corporation’s business incubator.

A microencapsulation company recently celebrated the grand opening of its new space in the Bridgeworks Enterprise Center in Allentown, becoming the latest in a string of high-tech companies in the Lehigh Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem focused on creating good-paying manufacturing jobs.

TRuCapSol (Time Release Capsule Solutions), which employ six scientists at the Allentown business incubator, was approved to join Bridgeworks in May and has spent the last few months fitting out its laboratory, according to Jiten Dihora, the company’s Chief Technology Officer.

“We are enthusiastic to be a part of the Bridgeworks community,” Dihora said. “It is a great culture fit for us and allows us to scale-up technologies from the bench scale to pilot plant scale.”

The grand opening was held on November 29. TRuCapSol came to Bridgeworks by way of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, having launched its research and development efforts at the Ben Franklin TechVentures incubator in Bethlehem.

“We are happy to celebrate the opening of the TRuCapSol lab here at Bridgeworks,” said Scott Unger, Executive Director of the Allentown Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), which operates the Bridgeworks program. “Not only have they made a considerable investment in their facility, but they have also brought a highly talented team on board to grow the company.”

TRuCapSol manufactures biodegradable capsules used in consumer and nutritional products. It encases high-value active ingredients to form micron-sized balloons that retain them in the supply chain, then release the active ingredients over a period of time, according to AEDC.

“We started in a lab at Ben Franklin TechVentures to prove our technology and develop the capability to produce several grams of our products at a time,” David Brand, CEO of TRuCapSol CEO, said in May.

“With our move to Bridgeworks, we will scale up to producing test batches of our products that are several kilograms in size which we can then provide for testing to customers,” Brand said. “The goal is to attain full-scale production in a manufacturing facility.”

The company is focused on utilizing natural materials, which allows them to produce environmentally friendly and world-class capsules. By utilizing their patented technology and production processes, TRuCapSol can decrease waste and improve the effectiveness of the formulations delivered to their customers.

“The team at TRuCapSol has built out an amazing space, the first of its kind in the building,” said Anthony Durante, program manager at AEDC. “Not only will it serve their company well for several years, but it will be a terrific space for another startup company needing a wet lab that is suited for scaling up from R&D to production.”

TRuCapSol’s initial product line will focus on the consumer goods space, specifically laundry products such as detergents and fabric softeners, according to the company.

Founded in 1989 in the refurbished former Mack Trucks Plant 4A, the 64,000 square-foot Bridgeworks Enterprise Center is the only business incubator in the Lehigh Valley dedicated primarily to manufacturing startups.

Bridgeworks received the IMPACT Award for February 2018 from the International Business Innovation Association. The award distinguishes entrepreneurship centers that are creating economic impact in their communities.

Other Bridgeworks client companies include Amorphic Tech Ltd., ColdEdge Technologies, The Colony Meadery, County Seat Spirits, HiJinx Brewing Company, JH Plastics, LightLab International Allentown, MTS Ventures, Polymer Contours, and Zzyzx Polymers.