Aerospace - Page 7

Scientists have unveiled Juno: a three-and-a-half-meter wide graphene-skinned aircraft that was given its first public airing on the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) stand as part of the ‘Futures Day’ at Farnborough Air Show. Haydale has supplied the enhanced prepreg material used to make the Juno.

The unmanned vehicle was developed in a partnership between Haydale, an aerospace engineering team from the University of Central Lancashire, the Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center and the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute. The partners have been working on the project to get the super lightweight plane ready for action. Billy Beggs, UCLan’s Engineering Innovation Manager, said: The industry reaction to Juno at Farnborough was superb with many positive comments about the work we’re doing". Having Juno at one the world’s biggest air shows demonstrates the great strides we’re making in leading a program to accelerate the uptake of graphene and other nano-materials into industry". He added: The program supports the objectives of the UK Industrial Strategy and the University’s Engineering Innovation Centre (EIC) to increase industry relevant research and applications linked to key local specialisms. Given that Lancashire represents the fourth largest aerospace cluster in the world, there is perhaps no better place to be developing next generation technologies for the UK aerospace industry.

Promethient, an early stage U.S-based company that developed graphene-enhanced seat warmer technology, has received a large (though undisclosed) equity investment from Faurecia Ventures, the investment arm of Nanterre, France-based Faurecia, the sixth-largest auto supplier in the world, with a big American presence.

The funding will allow Promethient to ramp up product development and marketing and also provides it with a very large early customer. The investment will also allow Promethient to sell to other auto suppliers and makers.

Signet International Holdings has announced a Letter of Intent for the acquisition of HyCarb, a Florida-based company operating in association with the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida to develop graphene-enhanced batteries.

HyCarb has reported that it is currently completing the prototype of its first phase, the "HyCarb Coin Cell Battery". The battery is expected to be ready for manufacturing within the next year. "This new generation Graphene battery has proven to be amazing," says Signet's president Thomas Donaldson. "Within the next twelve months, we will be on the market delivering a coin cell battery far superior than the Lithium Ion battery in use today."

China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the rocket development arm of the Chinese space program, recently announced the design of a graphene composite film suitable for use in light-propelled spacecraft.

The composite was developed as part of CALT’s research on graphene-based spacecraft propulsion, a new technology that converts light into electrical energy. The method utilizes a technology similar to the solar sail, which was already tested by Japan’s space agency JAXA during its IKAROS mission to Venus. Unlike the solar sail, however, the graphene sail will not use thin-film solar cells, but will instead be covered with graphene film.

Advanced materials company First Graphene has announced that it has entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding with SupremeSAT for the development of graphene-enhanced components for SupremeSAT's Miniature Satellite Assembly Project. The collaboration with FGR will aim to develop graphene-enhanced components, for both strength and weight reduction, and also heat and radiation shielding.

SupremeSAT is working on the Project with EnduroSAT of Bulgaria. Two leading universities in the USA will be joining this project shortly. The Project will test satellite interconnectivity and data exchange between satellites and a data relay within a constellation. Initially a duo of 1.5U Cube Satellites will be assembled at SupremeSAT's Satellite Assembling facility - Pallekele - Kandy, with hardware for the satellites, training and other variants of engineering support coming from EnduroSAT.

Advanced materials engineering group Versarien has announced an agreement with a "world leading provider of aero engines and components, including avionics, electrical power and mechanical systems for aircraft".

The agreement will see Versarien and its new unnamed partner collaborate on research and development projects using Versarien's proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets in base materials and sensory devices used in a variety of products in the aerospace and aero engineering sectors.

The Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester have published a joint paper on the potential of graphene in aerospace, or more precisely the potential market opportunities available to UK aerospace companies. Organizations that also worked on the paper included the University of Central Lancashire, the Center for Process Innovation, QinetiQ, Morson Projects Limited and Haydale with input from Ekosgen.

The safety and performance properties of aircraft could be significantly improved by incorporating atomically-thin graphene into existing materials used to build planes, while the reduced weight of the material could have a positive impact on the fuel efficiency of the aircraft and, as result, the environment.

Haydale will be demonstrating real-life applications of its lightweight graphene-enhanced prepregs at JEC World. Graphene-enhanced prepreg offers significant weight reduction and improved structural performance. This is expected to be of considerable interest to the automotive, sports and leisure and tooling industries.

On display will be: graphene-enhanced carbon fiber composite rear wheel arch made with thermally enhanced tooling; demisable fuel tank for use in the satellite industry; next generation graphene-enhanced bicycle frame; graphene-enhanced payload sent to the edge of space. Also, other components will be displayed, like Haydale’s latest advancements in graphene enhanced 3D filament and pellets aimed at improving the speed, strength, quality and accuracy of 3D printed products.

Imperial College London researchers aim to reduce the weight of body armor by combining silk with graphene. The team hypothesized that by improving on the Kevlar layer, they could reduce the size of the ceramic outer layer, making the vest much more wearable.

They initially looked at spider silk (as it is known to be 10 times tougher than Kevlar) but soon reached the conclusion that it would be too expensive and difficult. Instead, they turned to silk from silkworms, produced for thousands of years through sericulture. But while it is much easier to produce, it is not as tough as spider silk. To improve this, they added graphene.

MITO Material Solutions has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant of $224,988 to develop a graphene oxide-based nano-additive that doubles the interlaminar toughness of composite materials utilized in aerospace, recreation, and automotive industries.

The main focus of this project is the development of new hybrid nanofillers based on Graphene Oxide (GO) and Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS). These nanofillers can be added to epoxy/vinyl ester/polyester matrices through a "Master Batch" process to enhance the interlaminar fracture toughness of commercial composites.