CPI Approves Tender for Applications Centre

The UK’s Centre for Process and Innovation (CPI) has approved a supply agreement with Haydale, a leader in the development of enhanced graphene and nanoparticulate materials for provision of a standard HT60 R&D reactor, training and technical support. 

As part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, CPI has recently committed £14 million to create the UK’s Graphene Applications Innovation Centre which will build on existing capabilities at CPI and will provide facilities and expertise to help companies to develop, prove, prototype and scale up graphene based products and processes.

Haydale anticipate supplying R&D quantities of materials for functionalisation to meet CPI’s customer’s specific needs and support with company reactor installation requirements. Haydale and CPI have also agreed to work together on future R&D projects utilising the HT60 reactor.

Commenting on the supply agreement, Ray Gibbs, Haydale’s Chief Executive Officer, said “At the time that we announced our interim results in March this year, we talked about our intention to create functionalisation centres of excellence and this announcement is the first success in this part of our global growth strategy. CPI works with a number of manufacturing businesses mainly in Europe. Their market focus is very much aligned with some of our target markets, such as printed electronics, energy, aerospace and automotive. CPI conducted extensive due diligence on our technology and I’m very pleased they concluded that our HT60 reactor would be a significant and important addition to their already impressive array of advanced material processing equipment. We are delighted to supply a unit where the installation of this new reactor will instantly expand our own R&D reach and rapidly increase the number of potential customers able to test Haydale’s functionalised materials for their own specific needs.” 

Tom Taylor, Director of Future Business at the CPI, commented “Graphene is an area that holds great promise for CPI and the UK manufacturing sector. The key for the commercialisation of a technology is for industry to build upon current research expertise and prove the technology provides value at market ready volumes.”