Chromatography, the science of separating of mixtures, makes up the booming business of Belleftonte's Restek, founded by successful entrepreneur Paul Silvis in 1985 in a former elementary school turned business incubator. Restek's spin-out, SilcoTek, is now separating itself from the competition as it continues to grow and earn industry validation.

SilcoTek was formed in early 2009 behind th epower of an innovative chemical-vapor deposition process, which coats metal surfaces with fused silicon and was originally used in Restek's chromatography work. It targets the analtyical and process instrumentation, oil, gas and semiconductor industries, in which there is a large opportunity for the company's proprietary coating. The strong, yet flexible coating can be applied to the surfaces of metal tubing, foil, filters, crucibles, containments and other metallic parts and materials to protect their integrity and enhance their performance in extreme temperatures and stress.

The new company took home $125,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania for marketing efforts in 2009 and another $250,000 in 2010. The funding seems to be payin goff. The 19-person company has increased its staff by more than 30 percent in the last year, and sales are up 16 percent through August, 2010, including a 45 percent increase among SilcoTek's top five customers. Silvis' ambitious goal is to grow the business to $202 million in sales by 2020. While that seems daunting, SilcoTek's current trajectory is headed in that direction.