Haydale - Page 14

Thomas Swan, manufacturer of performance and specialty chemicals, has announced that it has received funding from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, for two new collaborative projects in a program entitled Advancing the Commercial Applications of Graphene. Both projects are due to start on 1st April 2016.

One of the projects involves a collaboration between Thomas Swan Advanced Materials and Plessey Semiconductors, Nano Products and Nottingham Trent and Strathclyde universities on flexible LEDs. The other project will see Thomas Swan cooperating with DelStar International, Haydale, and the University of Bradford to develop plastic composites for advanced separations.

Haydale has received £350,000 in research grants from the government, to accelerate the development of new products enhanced by the incorporation of functionalized graphene and other nanomaterials.

The grants are for five project areas:

1. The development of electrically conductive graphene-enhanced adhesives for aircraft structures.
2. The development of multi-functional graphene-enhanced composite materials that are not only capable of detecting the build-up of ice on structures, such as aircraft leading edges and wings, but can then be thermally activated in order to prevent ice build-up.
3. The development of graphene reinforced polyolefin materials for lightweight extruded products such as filaments for nets and filtration.
4. The development of graphene-enhanced epoxy resins with improved durability, wear resistance and thermal cycling performance.
5. The development of graphene-enhanced carbon-carbon composites materials for use in high-performance brake systems.

Haydale's HCS has announced the commissioning of a composite pipe testing facility, that will be used to assess new graphene enhanced composites. The new facility for long term testing consists of 8 independently controlled tanks which can carry out short and long term pressure testing of composite pipes up to 500bar and at temperatures up to 80°C. The facility is versatile and can conduct short term burst pressure (STBP) tests, determine long term hydrostatic pressure (LTHP) rating as well as performing dynamic, fatigue and cyclic testing of composite pipes to a wide range of international standards including API 15S, ISO 14692 and ASTM D2992.

HCS is active in the design, development, testing and certification of reinforced thermoplastic and thermosetting composite pipes for the oil and gas industry. The new facility should enable HCS to accelerate the development and approval of new materials and designs that can be used in the construction of oil and gas pipelines. HCS is currently developing new graphene-enhanced polymer materials for use in pipeline construction and this facility will assist greatly in the testing, approval and certification of these novel materials.

A couple of weeks ago Haydale announced that they plan to raise funds by ways of a new shelf issue, and now Haydale reported that the new issue was successful and the company raised around £6.0 million.

Haydale's revenues in 2015 reached £644,000 (up from £19,000 in 2014) while total income (which includes government grants) reached £1.48 million (up from £129,000). Most of the increase in income came from EPL Composites (now renamed Haydale Composite Solutions, or HCS) - which generated £1.18 million in income. Haydale loss rose to £2.38 million.

Haydale announces that it has received confirmation from the European Patent Office (EPO) of the decision to grant a European Patent for its proprietary HDPlas® functionalization process for graphene and other nanoparticulate materials.

The European Patent is the key process patent underlying the Company's proprietary functionalization treatment and is one of a number arising from the families of patent applications surrounding Haydale's unique plasma functionalization process. Haydale already has a granted patent in China and has visibility on the patent application in Australia, which is expected to proceed to grant within the next 3-4 months.

Haydale reported their financial results for 2015 - revenues reached £644,000 (up from £19,000 in 2014) while total income (which includes government grants) reached £1.48 million (up from £129,000). Most of the increase in income came from EPL Composites (now renamed Haydale Composite Solutions, or HCS) - which generated £1.18 million in income.

Haydale is still losing money - in fact the EBITDA loss rose to £2.38 million (up from a loss of £1.96 million in 2014). Haydale ended the year with only £2.05 million in cash (down from £5.68 million at the end of 2014) - but the company also announced a new share issue that will bring in about £5.2 million. Haydale will sell 3.51 million shares at 160p a share (a 5% discount on the average closing price of Haydale shares in the past 20 days).

Haydale recently announced that its proprietary HDPlas technology has been used to create functionalized Graphene Nanoplatelets (GNPs) that have been incorporated into a functional graphene ink, which has been developed for screen printing. The ink has been created with area printing applications in mind.

A recent report details how a screen-printable functional graphene based ink, supplied by Goodfellow, performs better than many normal carbon-based ink, opening the door to innovative applications that require enhanced electrical conductivity, excellent adhesion on a range of substrates and high print resolution. Such applications are found in sensors, displays, printed electronics and electrodes.

Haydale announced that its composites division Haydale Composite Solutions (HCS) has entered into a joint development and commercialisation agreement with Scott Bader Company, a global supplier of liquid resins, gel coats and adhesives.

Under the agreement, HCS will functionalize Graphene Nano Platelets utilising its proprietary HDPlas® process and add them to Scott Bader’s Crestapol resin to create a highly loaded masterbatch. This masterbatch will then be diluted down by Scott Bader and HCS into a range of concentrations from 1% to 8% and cast into resin plaques which will then be tested to quantify any improvements in mechanical, physical, electrical and thermal performance.

Haydale has been awarded over £450,000 by the government to work on series of research projects. The studies, set to take place over the next 18 months, include several areas of research like a low cost, self-cleaning graphene enhanced coating which could be used to clean and filter swimming pools and waste water, as well as developing resins and coatings for boats and sign posts which emit UV fluorescent dyes under impact.

Haydale has signed a letter of intent with Huntsman Advanced Materials, a leading global chemical solutions provider, to use the company’s graphene enabling technology together with Huntsman’s ARALDITE resins and heavy duty adhesives to create enhanced composites. 

The agreed first step will be the development of a graphene enabled ‘master batch’ which will be used for development and validation. The companies hope that this work might open up the potential for a whole new range of advanced composite materials and products with enhanced performance and lower cost.