The roots of POSTEC go back to the 1960’s when Rolf Eckhoff at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Bergen got involved in analysing the growth of PVC particles in reactors of Norsk Hydro at Herøya in Porsgrunn. He realised Powder Technology was a new field of research and started to develop it at CMI. The first person he appointed as a researcher in powder technology was Gisle Enstad in 1972. In 1982, Sunil de Silva joined the CMI powder technology group. Together with Enstad he established the POSTEC Muliti Client Programme in 1983 at CMI. In 1988 the powder group counted 14 people. The same year the entire research base, including laboratory equipment, pilot installations and one of the employees were moved to Porsgrunn. In a couple of years, POSTEC in co-operation with Telemark Univeristy College was restored to the same number of employees as in Bergen and has been located in Porsgrunn since then.