Materials company Haydale has been awarded a research and development grant from the Niche Vehicle Network to develop graphene powder composite tooling and graphene automotive body panels.
A grant of £249,600, of which Haydale will receive £120,000, has been awarded to the consortium led by Haydale along with Briggs Automotive Company (BAC), the manufacturer of the Mono, the world's only road-legal, single seat super car, and machine tool company Pentaxia.
Haydale says that it will research ways to reduce cycle times compared to existing tooling methods, as well as reduce weight and increase performance of component material. Whilst the focus is on the automotive sector, the company will also look at tooling materials across several markets, particularly where there are throughput constraints.
‘This collaboration will ensure major advancements in composite tooling resulting in a prepreg material that is ready for market launch,’ said Ray Gibbs, president, business development at Haydale. ‘We know that production throughput is a major issue in the carbon fiber composite market and this initiative can ease the bottleneck.’
This story is reprinted from material from Haydale, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
