Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 14

graphene

Courtesy of Jeremy Kemp at English Wikipedia

The hype Cycle

›› Continued from page 13
directly after this, the line starts gently
rising into a section named the 'Slope of
Enlightenment', before reaching the 'Plateau of Productivity'. This is where the
public becomes reacquainted with the
tech as commercial applications reach
the market.
With the Hype Cycle in mind, graphene
is somewhere between the enlightenment and productivity stages, as investors
and the wider public come back to take
another look at the technology. But Ricketts says that as better quality graphene
becomes more widely available, those applications which were until now unable to
benefit from the material will start to show
the true scope of possibility, ultimately
leading into the productivity phase.

GettinG it to market

Customers can bring their
idea to us and find out
how that works
Neill Ricketts, Versarien

3D printing with graphene can be used
to produce component prototypes

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While Versarien has been working with a
series of universities, including Cambridge
and Manchester, the company has also
worked with a series of 'catapult' centres,
including the National Composites Centre.
But Ricketts says the "jewel in the crown"
of the industry in the UK comprises the
National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the
Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre
(GEIC), both in Manchester.
"They're effectively a multi-million pound
playground for companies to discover
more about these technologies," says Ricketts, with some obvious enthusiasm.
Versarien is also based in Manchester
and Ricketts says that the company has
more of the same. "Using our laboratory,
customers can bring their idea to us and
find out how that works. We have a whole
range of facilities, including an extrusion
line, which supports prototyping to see
what can be done."
In addition to extrusion, the company further offers such processes as
graphene printing and a range of tests
for electronic and battery applications.
"There's a range of conventional plastics

and rubbers which can be mixed with
the graphene. We essentially offer a test
facility which is supported by government
money," he says.
In process, Ricketts says any testing is
backed by a non-disclosure agreement.
That allows a "frank and open" conversation about what the visiting company
has in mind. When that idea has been reviewed and there is merit in the proposal,
a cooperation or collaboration agreement
is drawn up to outline the objectives and
goals of the project.
Formal testing is generally carried out
at one of the catapult centres, the NGI
or GEIC. This is followed with the setup of a commercial supply chain. "This
is the way people should approach that
business model," advises Ricketts. "Come
and talk to us, we'll try and understand if
what's being proposed is achievable. We'll
demonstrate how we can actually do it
and then we'll talk about how that can be
introduced to the market."

maChine potential

As for hardware, materials combined
with graphene can be manipulated using standard machinery. At Versarien,
the company uses a normal twin-screw
extruder and other largely off-the-shelf
hardware. Process parameters might
have to be adjusted to accommodate the
additive, such as heating, cooling, etc.,
as graphene fundamentally changes the
thermodynamics of a material.
"If we're 3D printing a graphene-reinforced polymer, such as an ABS, we'll need
to increase the temperature by about
30°C at the melt head. That gives you an
indication of what's going on in that process, it's quite a big change," he says.
The increase in temperature might
indicate that a thermoplastic would be
best-suited to being combined with
graphene, but Ricketts points out that
Versarien has achieved successful processes using standard PP. Essentially, the
most suitable materials should be selected for a given operation based on the
constituent effects of the graphene additive, including temperature, material flow,
and pressures.
Third-party testing as to the suitability
of materials for a given process is carried
out by AAC Cyroma, a Banbury-based
moulder of components for use in automotive, construction and utilities applications. "Our customers will think it's a great
idea, but engineers want to see it working.
They want to know it won't affect their machines," explains Ricketts. "We can show
parts being injection moulded using polymers combined with graphene and that's
a big thing."
He puts forward that in presenting
these demonstrations, it will help build
up the supply chain and, looping back
around to an earlier point, help to reduce
the cost of the graphene product.
›› Continued on page 16

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Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019

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