Aerospace - Page 9

Grolltex, a U.S-based advanced materials and equipment company, recently announced a large-capacity commercial lab for production of high quality CVD graphene. Grolltex states that it is now manufacturing the material in its new class 1000 clean room, producing both raw graphene as well as products made from the material, like sensors, perovskite solar cells, display materials and X-ray windows for use in spacecraft.

The new Grolltex graphene facility is said to be capable of producing large high-quality sheets of graphene for commercial sale. The Company is said to have a patented methodology to manufacture the material in a novel way that yields lower-cost materials of high quality. Grolltex leverages graphene research and patents developed at nearby University of California, San Diego.

A collaboration work by Purdue, the Chinese Lanzhou University and Harbin Institute of Technology, and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has yielded a lightweight, flame-resistant and super-elastic composite shown to combine high strength with electrical conductivity and thermal insulation, suggesting potential applications from buildings to aerospace.

The composite material is made of interconnected cells of graphene sandwiched between ceramic layers. The graphene scaffold, referred to as an aerogel, is chemically bonded with ceramic layers using a process called atomic layer deposition. The team explained that graphene would ordinarily degrade when exposed to high temperature, but the ceramic imparts high heat tolerance and flame-resistance, properties that might be useful as a heat shield for aircraft. The light weight, high-strength and shock-absorbing properties could make the composite a good substrate material for flexible electronic devices. Because it has high electrical conductivity and yet is an excellent thermal insulator, it might be used as a flame-retardant, thermally insulating coating, as well as sensors and devices that convert heat into electricity, said associate professor in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University.

The Graphene Flagship has announced preparations for two new experiments in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), to test the viability of graphene for space applications. Both experiments will launch between 6-17th November 2017, testing graphene in zero-gravity conditions to determine its potential in space applications.

One of the two experiments (named GrapheneX) will be fully student-led, by a team of Graphene Flagship graduate students from Delft Technical University in the Netherlands. The team will use microgravity conditions in the ZARM Drop Tower (Bremen, Germany) to test graphene for light sails. By shining laser light on suspended graphene-membranes from Flagship partner Graphenea, the experiment will test how much thrust can be generated, which could lead to a new way of propelling satellites in space using light from lasers or the sun.

NASA is getting set to announce its first mission to fly directly into the sun’s atmosphere during an event on Wednesday, May 31, 2017. The mission, Solar Probe Plus, is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2018.

Placed in orbit within four million miles of the sun’s surface, facing heat and radiation unlike any spacecraft in history, the vessel will explore the sun’s outer atmosphere and make observations that may answer questions that have long since plagued researchers.

Applied Graphene Materials has outlined details of a new graphene-enhanced ink technology and signed a development deal with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center. A patent for this new development, called Structural Ink, has been registered and once fully commercialized, the product will be targeted at the advanced composites industry.

The technology will aim to enable users to increase mechanical toughness, through the addition of graphene. This is ultimately designed to improve performance, enable further weight reduction and reduce total manufacturing costs.

Haydale Graphene Industries recently stated that it has entered a memorandum of understanding with Nanospan India to collaborate on developing advanced nano composites for the Indian market.

Nanospan, a graphene application development firm based in India, will work with Haydale to develop composites focused on the defence, aerospace and energy sectors in India.

Applied Graphene Materials recently updated on the successful completion of the exploratory phase of its development program with Airbus Defense and Space. The program aims at using graphene for satellite applications.

Now, AGM states that based on the success of the initial work, both parties are collaborating on a final product development phase, with a desired target to qualify the material for flight use and first application by the end of 2017 or early 2018.

In a recent speech, Virgin Atlantic president Sir Richard Branson raised the prospect of planes being made entirely from graphene within 10 years. Counting on graphene's mechanical strength and light nature, he hopes the aerospace industry could welcome light, durable planes that will cut fuel expenses, among other advantages.

He was quoted saying "hopefully graphene can be the planes of the future. 10 years down the line. They would be massively lighter than the current planes, which again would make a difference on fuel burn." Branson likened the push for graphene planes to urging Airbus and Boeing to make planes from carbon fibre, a battle he won. Boeing's latest 787 Dreamliner planes are made from 50% carbon fibre and other composite materials, as opposed to the traditional 100% aluminium. They use 30% less fuel than their standard alternatives.

Applied Graphene Materials, in a recent update, said it made "significant progress" in all of its core markets of composites, coatings, oils and lubricants. Among the reported highlights of its work is its graphene-enhanced epoxy prepreg system MTC9800 to be shown at the JEC World exhibition later this month, after a year and half collaboration with SHD Composites.

In addition, the company has recently completed the first phase of a development project investigating the application of its graphene for resin infused Aerospace structures. During 2016 it continued work on its development program with Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus Group SE, although details of this work are still subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

The government of Xiangyang, China, has recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Hubei Institute of Aerospace Chemical Technology. Under the agreement, the two sides will jointly build the China Aerospace Graphene Industry Base in Central China.

Graphene has many potential applications in the aerospace industry, like strong and durable composites, high-performance sensors, various functional coatings, batteries, supercapacitors and more. Recent examples of progress made in this field include a graphene-based UAV made by UK collaboration, a graphene-enabled composite with potential uses in the automotive and aerospace industries, a collaboration between Versarien and the Spain-based CT Engineering to develop graphene-enhanced composite components for the aerospace industry, a novel coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy, that was proven effective at melting ice on a helicopter blade and more. To read more on the latest graphene advances in the aerospace field, click here.