Graphene for Automotive - Page 15

Directa Plus has enterd an agreement with an Italian re-tread company to produce graphene-enhanced tyres for buses and trucks. A pilot program using G+ will start this year with a commercial launch planned for 2019.

Marangoni will work with Directa’s G+ compound to produce a bespoke product designed for specifically for commercial vehicle re-treads. A compound that incorporates G+ will increase grip, durability and fuel efficiency and extend the life of a tyre, as per Directa.

Versarien has announced that it has secured a purchase order for the Company's proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets from a leading tyre producer, based in Europe.

Versarien will initially be providing 500g of Nanene for testing purposes, to explore the benefits of adding graphene to tyres supplied to the automotive sector. If successful, further orders would be expected.

Archer Exploration Limited recently announced a Collaboration Agreement with Flex-G (FlexeGRAPH) to jointly develop graphite and graphene based advanced materials for the thermal management of electric vehicle batteries, internal combustion engines, and high-performance computing systems.

The agreement includes advanced materials development, processing, evaluation and characterization, and in particular focuses on the development of thermal management applications using materials from AXE’s Campoona project.

Mr. Xu Jiang, president and general manager of China’s XFNano, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had for him regarding XFNano’s graphene materials, technology and business. Mr. Jiang founded XFNano in 2009, and he holds a master’s degree from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

Q: Hello Mr. Jiang, thank you for your time. Can you update us on your graphene production process and facilities?

In 2016, XFNANO put its new production line into operation, which yields an annual production capacity of 50 tons of high-quality graphene powder and 1,000 tons of graphene dispersion. We believe this can meet our customers’ demands for large quantities.

UPDATE: In March 2019, Surwon commented that the street-legal version of its graphene-enhanced tire would be prohibitively-expensive if it and its partner were to produce a finished version using the current rubber compound’s configuration. It appears that while Surwon sees potential for the tires, it may still be a ways to go before launching and arriving at competitive pricing. In April 2019, Surwon decided to discontinue its efforts to make a commercially-available graphene-enhanced road-legal tire.

Surwon Technology, a Hong Kong based materials developer, is reportedly conducting extensive testing on a wet weather tire that is reportedly capable of delivering significant performance improvements over the current "wets" used by racers during rainy periods on Grand Prix weekends.

Australia-based Talga Resources and its UK subsidiary Talga Technologies recently announced collaboration agreements to commence three UK Government Faraday Challenge battery programs. The execution of formal agreements follows the awarding of the grants under Faraday, a £246 million UK Government commitment over the next four years into battery development for automotive electrification. The initiative will encompass cell manufacture, modules, battery pack design/assembly and vehicle applications, and follows an undertaking by the UK Government to place a ban on new petrol and diesel engines by 2040.

Talga’s participation in the funding program of Innovate UK, the government development body, follows successful tests by Talga of its natural carbon materials and technologies in Li-ion batteries. Talga, together with its consortia partners, secured significant funding support under the ‘Innovation’ aspect of Faraday. Talga will receive a 70% rebate against its eligible costs, including salaries, consumables, equipment and contractor expenses. Talga’s participation in the programs range from 12-24 months and development activities will be led from Talga Technologies Limited in Cambridge UK, utilizing the Company's Swedish high grade graphite and functionalized graphene processed at Talga’s test facility in Germany.

Gratomic, formerly called CKR Carbon Corporation, recently announced that it is expecting to commercialize graphene-enhanced tires in 2018 as a result of its advanced R&D program to include plasma-generated graphene in tires to increase their strength and reduce their.

Gratomic’s graphene material is reportedly being tested in pre-production trials by 5 major tire manufacturers in Asia and Europe with a consolidated demand in excess of 5000 tonnes of graphene annually.

A U.S-based startup called Promethient Inc. has developed a new graphene-enhanced seat warmer technology that it says is more efficient and durable than similar available systems. The company has developed the Thermavance conductive heat transfer system, which uses conduction of heat as opposed to most of the other technologies that rely on transfer of heat through convection for the purpose of warming seats.

In the common case of convective seats, seats have to be perforated so that the air can be moved through the seating surface. This makes the surface of the seats more prone to damage from wear-and-tear and from water. In the Thermavance heat transfer system, however, Promethient uses a solid-state thermoelectric module and graphene in order to transfer heat directly to the occupant of the seat instead of first either heating or cooling the surrounding air.

Applied Graphene Materials, producer of specialty graphene materials, has announced results of its collaboration with Magna Exteriors and SHD Composites on the W Motors Fenyr SuperSport tailgate. The product is being presented by Magna at the 2018 JEC conference in Paris. The collaboration has seen Magna enhance the tailgate of W Motors' performance-focused supercar using AGM's graphene-enhanced Epoxy Prepreg, supplied by AGM's commercial partner SHD.

This development follows the launch of a range of AGM graphene enhanced prepreg materials by SHD in March 2017, with SHD subsequently developing an industry-leading graphene enhanced epoxy prepreg system - MTC9810. MTC9810 is a tangible demonstration of the ease by which AGM's "process-ready" graphene dispersions can be adopted by the composites industry, with minimal disruption to existing manufacturing routes, and deliver cost effective performance gains. MTC9810 is supported by a strong mechanical database that exhibits outstanding mechanical properties, particularly in fracture toughness, interlaminar shear strength and fatigue life.

The PolyGraph project, a 4-year development project with aims to develop new production techniques to deliver industrial scale quantities of graphene-reinforced thermosetting polymers, has published its results.

The POLYGRAPH (Up-Scaled Production of Graphene Reinforced Thermosetting Polymers for Composite, Coating and Adhesive Applications) project brought together 14 partners, including SMEs, companies, universities and a research center, and has reportedly led to the identification of the most suitable materials and production techniques for graphene-based coatings, adhesives and composites. Once the graphene market reaches maturity and material prices drop , these new products could appeal to a vast range of industries.