The CPI (Centre for Process Innovation) Graphene Centre has opened its doors for business.
The new facility integrates with existing development facilities at CPI’s printable electronics and formulation centres based at NETPark, Co. Durham.
The new facility which will officially open later this spring assists companies to develop, prove and commercialise products using graphene technologies.
The centre offers access to scale-up capability in the development of graphene, printable and formulation based products, and aims to provide a joined up approach in materials development, technology scale up and applications integration to brings together the whole innovation value chain for new and innovative graphene-based technologies.
The centre was created by the UK government and funded by Innovate UK to support the commercial growth of the UK graphene industry, and operates two specialised facilities at NETPark in Sedgefield, Co. Durham.
It has a dedicated laboratory for the functionalisation and characterisation of Graphene at a significant scale, which is produced by a variety of process routes.
The second facility is based in CPI’s printable electronics facility and is focused on device development and testing covering membranes, sensors, energy and electronic applications.
Graphene – first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004 – is tipped to transform many products.
Its electrical and thermal conductivity, optical purity and mechanical strength could be used in high-capacity batteries, flexible screens, ultra-fast transistors and other electronic components, super-bright lasers and materials from sports equipment to aircraft wings.
CPI’s Graphene Applications Centre will assess graphene-enabled materials based on a number of key properties, including electrical, mechanical, thermal and morphological, enabling end-users to build the business case to take up Graphene in their products and manufacturing processes.
Director of CPI’s Graphene Centre, Tom Taylor commented: “We already have a number of promising projects to focus on in industries such as Aerospace and Healthcare and look forward to developing the landscape for the application of Graphene in many other different industries”
