Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Haydale Announces Collaboration Agreement with Swansea University’s Welsh Centre for Printing and Coatings (WCPC)

Home > Press > Haydale Announces Collaboration Agreement with Swansea University’s Welsh Centre for Printing and Coatings (WCPC)

Abstract:
Haydale, the company focused on enabling technology for the commercialisation of graphene, is pleased to announce that it has signed a research and collaboration agreement with the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating (WCPC), one of the world's leading research and development centres for printing and coating processes, based at Swansea University. The collaboration aims to further refine and develop Haydale's proprietary ink formulations to fully commercialise graphene based inks and coatings to realise their true potential in industrial and commercial applications.

Haydale Announces Collaboration Agreement with Swansea University’s Welsh Centre for Printing and Coatings (WCPC)

Swansea, UK | Posted on July 12th, 2014

The initial focus of the agreement is for Haydale, with its range of nano materials and functionalisation capabilities, and the WCPC, with its extensive formulation skills and industry knowledge, to jointly produce a number of specifically targeted inks and coatings.

The WCPC will develop and refine commercial ink formulations provided by Haydale to meet the growing interest in graphene-based inks and coatings. The collaboration is also looking at the exploitation of functionalised graphene and other carbon nano-materials developed by Haydale in areas such as transparent conductive films, barrier coatings and 3D printing. Professor Tim Claypole, College of Engineering Swansea University and Director of Welsh Centre for Printing and Coatings, will lead the work on behalf of the WCPC.

The collaboration offers Haydale a unique opportunity for testing and further developing its functionalised materials for specific customer applications and target markets. The multi-disciplined staff working at WCPC includes many post-doctoral and PhD researchers from both industrial and academic backgrounds offering a wealth of expertise and capability to Haydale. Whilst Haydale has successfully developed functionalisation technology, it has been looking for ways to increase its offering of "intermediate products" as part of its longer term strategy.

Ray Gibbs, CEO at Haydale, comments, "Working with the WCPC is a key element of our focus on inks and coatings and is a great fit for us. Having access to a wide range of nano materials and then using our unique functionalisation process means we can provide the most appropriate material for the WCPC to use. In turn with the resources and capability at the WCPC means we can move quickly on product development. We have already successfully produced a consistent quality conductive ink that we are now starting to market. This collaboration is all about taking the next step towards the commercial uptake of our inks by demonstrating that we can successfully functionalise the right material to meet specific manufacturing needs."

Prof Tim Claypole, founder and director of the WCPC, Swansea University, added: "This is a good example of where the expertise and facilities of the WCPC, which have been developed with the support of the Welsh Government Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme, help a leading edge Welsh company grow its highly innovative product portfolio."

"A crucial part of this project is the development of standard operating procedures for the manufacturing process that will ensure a highly consistent, quality product. These will form the basis for any future scale up to commercial production. This understanding of the manufacturing tolerances for critical parameters will also be fed into International Standards."

"The WCPC will further benefit from this project as it will have an improved understanding of the operating and quality assurance procedures. It will then be able to apply these to research into the creation of inks and coatings based on other novel materials".

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About Haydale Ltd.
Haydale has developed a patent pending proprietary scalable plasma process to functionalise graphene and other nanomaterials. This enabling technology can provide Haydale with a rapid and highly cost efficient method of supplying tailored solutions to enhance applications for both raw material suppliers and product manufacturers.

Functionalisation is carried out through a low pressure plasma process that treats both organic mined fine powder and other synthetically produced nanomaterial powders producing high quality few layered graphenes and graphene nano platelets. The process can functionalise with a range of chemical groups, where the amount of chemicals can be tailored to the customer needs. Good dispersion improves the properties and performance of the host material and ensures it delivers as specified.

The Haydale plasma process does not use wet chemistry, neither does it damage the material being processed, rather it can clean up impurities inherent in the raw material. The technology is a low energy user and most importantly environmentally friendly. The Haydale method is an enabling technology where working with a raw material producer can add value to the base product and tailor the outputs to meet the target applications of the end user.

Haydale, based in South Wales, housed in a purpose built facility for processing and handling nanomaterials with a laboratory facility, is facilitating the application of graphenes and other nanomaterials in fields such as inks, sensors, energy storage, photovoltaics, composites, paints and coatings.

About The Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating:

The WCPC, founded in 1995, is a world leader in research and development of printing and coating processes, with extensive expertise in screen, flexographic, lithographic, rotogravure, digital and pad printing. The WCPC facility is based in Swansea Wales and operates out of Swansea University. The specialist laboratories are fully equipped for sample analysis and material characterisation. In addition there are printing services provided by a four station roll to roll flexographic press and a two station sheet fed lithographic press, enabling WCPC to produce and manufacture both packaging products and research prototypes on site.

The multi-disciplinary staff is made up of PhD and post-doctoral candidates in industrial and academic fields, working alongside support staff. WCPC prides itself on its willingness to invest in new technology and its commitment to remaining at the forefront of the printing and coating industry. Working out of Swansea University it offers research projects which utilise the expertise of academic and industrial knowledge to develop industrial solutions and test prototypes for end user products.

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Contacts:
David Bertram
The Scott Partnership
1 Whiteside, Station Road
Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, CW4 8AA, UK.
Tel: + 44 1477 539 539
Fax: +44 1477 539 540

+44 (0)1269 842946

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