Haydale - Page 7

UK-based planarTECH has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, as part of Graphene-Info's Graphene Crowdfunding Arena. planarTECH aims to expand its current business and also initiate new graphene endeavors. Investors are now able to participate in this financing round.

Here's our interview with planarTECH's co-founder and CEO, J. Patrick Frantz - who explains the company's technology, business and future plans.

Haydale Graphene Industries has reportedly lowered its expectations for this year after slow sales in the US and UK. Haydale has reduced overheads by £900,000 and closed its Taiwan operation though there will be a £410,000 revenue hit from this action in the second half.

US unit HCT has also seen disappointing demand for silicon carbide (SiC) whiskers and blends, while the new blanks production line started later than scheduled in November.

Advanced materials group Haydale Graphene recently raised £450,000 (around $580,000 USD) following the issue of new shares.

Haydale said the funds will be used for general working capital purposes. Haydale also noted that it had approximately £2.47m of cash as of 31 October.

Haydale has launched a range of graphene-enhanced prepreg materials for lightning-strike protection, utilizing functionalized graphene to improve the electrical conductivity.

The material has been developed in collaboration with Airbus UK, BAE Systems, GE Aviation and Element Materials Technology Warwick, within the NATEP-supported GraCELs project where the first iterations of materials were developed and subjected to lighting strike tests. The consortium is now looking to manufacture a demonstrator component using the materials developed to establish composite manufacturing protocols as a showcase part for commercial purposes.

UK-based graphene developer Haydale announced its financial results for its fiscal year that ended 30 June 2019. Revenues in 2019 were £3.47 million (just a little over the £3.4 million revenues it generated in 2018) and an operating loss of £4.18 million (down from £4.88 million in 2018).

Haydale is focused on cost reductions and a new target on revenues and business and it also increased its investments in its US blank tooling business (it announced a US$700,000 order for that today) and its inks and functional capabilities.

Haydale has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA), which is seeking to develop non-metallic gas tanks for spacecraft propulsion systems in a technology de-risking project.

The demand for small satellite launches has created a challenge within the existing space propulsion supply chain for low-cost reliable components. With the constellation market set to increase rapidly, the development of components that meet these criteria is critical. Haydale's non-metallic system reportedly offers a low-cost alternative with reduced lead time that can be offered in a wider range of configurations to exactly suit the end user requirement.

Haydale has announced that its graphene-enhanced prepreg has been incorporated in the composite tooling and automotive body panels in the new BAC Mono R, which made its debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Briggs Automotive Company (BAC), working alongside both Haydale and Pentaxia, built the light-weight BAC Mono R body using Haydale’s graphene-enhanced carbon composite materials, in work that started back in 2016. In October 2018, Haydale announced that it has been awarded a research and development grant from the Niche Vehicle Network to develop graphene-enhanced composite tooling and graphene-enhanced automotive body panels.

Government agency Innovate UK is the sponsor of a 12-month project involving Haydale Graphene Industries and the National Physics Laboratory (NPL) working together on ways to improve the functionality of graphene.

Haydale said it has significantly upgraded its HDPlas plasma technology since it was verified by NPL in 2014 and through the collaboration will gain additional understanding of the surface chemistry of the graphene after functionalization. This can be crucial in tailoring its use for specific needs.

Haydale announced its financial results for H1 FY2019 (six months ended 31 December 2018). Revenues were £1.64 million (up 20% from H2 FY2018 but down 20% from H1 FY2018). Loss before tax was £3.47 million and cash at hand was £0.96 million (Haydale recently announced plans to raise £7.8 million).

Haydale says that it made significant investments to increase its production capabilities at its US Silicon Carbide operation (revenues from US operations were up 10% in H1FY18). Haydale also announced that it sold over 200 Kg of functional ink into the biomedical sensor market and that it has received its first commercial revenues for its graphene piezoresitive inks.

Haydale Graphene Industries reportedly intends to raise up to £7.8 Million (over $10 Million USD) at a big discount to the market price. Any money raised will be used to fund general working capital, restructuring costs and investment in equipment.

Of the money, £3.8 million is being raised through a placing while an open offer will bring in up to a further £4 Million. The graphene and composite materials specialist lost £3.5 Million (£2.67 Million) in the six months to December on sales of £1.6 Million (£2 Million).