Vittoria, the bicycle tyre brand famous for using graphene in its compounds, has invested 10 million euros in quadrupling its Brembate (Bergamo, Northern Italy) premises from 10,000 to 40,000 square metres. The expansion project will see the company add a Cycling Innovation Centre and Bike Park.
As we have all witnessed during the last 12 months, the recycled tyre business is experiencing something of a renaissance at the moment. And the abilities of wondering molecule graphene are well-documented. But what happened when you combine the two? The answer, according to one Greater Manchester-based startup is SpaceMat.
Versarien plc, which makes nanocompounds for tyre applications amongst other things, is was awarded a product development funding from the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), a part of the Ministry of Defence at the end of November 2020.
Versarien plc, the AIM-listed the advanced materials engineering group, announced on 7 January that it has appointed Dr Stephen Hodge as the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Dr Hodge joined the company’s board with immediate effect.
Gratomic Inc., a Canadian company focused on the mine to market commercialisation of graphite products, reports positive results from extensive testing of its graphene-enhanced tyres. It views these results as a “breakthrough in tyre technology that warrants deployment into the global tyre market.”
Research on graphene rubber composites, conducted by Linglong Tire and Beijing University of Chemical Technology has been audited by the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, according to the tyre company.
Canada-based Gratomic Inc. has signed a letter of collaboration with Perpetuus Carbon Technologies Limited to develop and market graphite-derived graphenes and graphene hybrids for tyre elastomers. According Gratomic, a number of end-user customers (which in this case means tyre manufacturers) are already road-testing tyres based on this material. Bicycle tyres, motorbike tyres, military tyres and race tyres are said to be key areas of interest.
The performance of Marangoni retreading products is expected to benefit from a new strategic collaboration between Marangoni and Directa Plus plc, a leading producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets. Under the terms of the agreement, both Marangoni and Directa plus will work together to develop a bespoke version of the Directa’s Graphene Plus (G+) for use in Marangoni truck and bus tyre retreading compounds.
A small beginning, but a beginning nonetheless: Advanced engineering materials group Versarien plc announced today that a “leading tyre producer, based in Europe” has placed a purchase order for its proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets. This order was cultivated via Versarien’s distributor OQEMA plc, formerly Lansdowne Chemicals Limited.
Directa Plus plc, a producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, announces that the Ufficio Brevetti e Marchi (Italian Patent and Trademark Office) has granted the Company a patent for the product and application of its new graphene-based solution for enhancing the performance of tyres. Specifically, the patent covers Directa Plus’ ‘elastomeric composition comprising graphene and tyre components comprising said composition’.
Continuing the theme of technological development, Linglong Tire – a top five Chinese tyre enterprise – exhibited a number of technological developments including its: a dandelion natural rubber-based tyre, a tyre featuring a graphene compound and a polyurethane tyre manufactured with 3D printing techniques.
Initial data suggests graphene tyres offer 1.5x better rolling resistance and better mileage, braking 2016 has been the year that graphene has been most clearly and most publically associated with tyres. And with initial reports suggesting this material could have a dramatic effect on rolling resistance (and therefore emissions) as well as treadwear, it seems […]
Sentury and Huagao launched their first electrostatic conducting graphene tyre at the 2016 China International Graphene Innovation Conference (GrapChina) on 22 September. The launch comes less than a month after Sentury and Huagao officially announced their cooperation on the product.
Shangdong Hengyu Technology has become the latest tyre manufacturer to announce that it is making tyres based on the Nobel Prize-winning material graphene. Other firms using graphene in tyres include bicycle tyremaker Vitorria and fast-growing Chinese manufacturer Sentury Tire.
According to the company supplying Hengyu with Graphene (The Sixth Element Materials Technology), Shangdong Hengyu has developed “tyre formulations” that the companies say demonstrates the positive impact of graphene on the performance of tyres.
On 3 August 2016 Sentury Tire and Huagao Graphene Technology Corporation hosted a ceremony marking the two firm’s cooperation on their first (and possibly the first) graphene high performance car tyre.
Qingdao information technology department vice director Wang Jian, deputy mayor of Qingdao Sun Mingming, China grapheme industry alliance secretary Li Yichun, chairman of Sentury Qin Long and Sentury president Lanny represented Sentury by attending the signing ceremony.
Vittoria
SpaceMat