OCSiAl, the world’s largest manufacturer of graphene nanotubes, has opened its second technical support center, this time in Shanghai, China. This is yet another step in expanding its global activities and will lead to further improvements in the company’s technical support for its Asian customers and to the development of innovative products such as a nanotube concentrate for lightweight sports equipment including bicycle rims and frames, helmets, baseball bats, and hockey and tennis rackets.
The new TUBALL CENTER Shanghai has 12 laboratories for developing nanotube technologies in batteries, plastics, coatings, composites and elastomers, and for performing rigorous product quality control. The 150 unique units of equipment are designed to help OCSiAl provide its local customers with an even faster response and tailored technical support, and to develop customized solutions.
The opening ceremony took place last week and attracted almost 200 experts from various industries that use or test TUBALL nanotubes, including CATL, BYK Additives, Daikin Industries, Elkem Silicones, Kusumoto Chemicals and Lishen.
“The launch of TUBALL CENTER Shanghai shows that OCSiAl shareholders have full trust in the Chinese market,” said Dechun Fu, Managing Director of BYK Greater China. “OCSiAl products can provide our customers with immeasurable added value. In many critical application fields, BYK has already worked closely with OCSiAl and has achieved a number of successful results, and we hope to continue to work together to develop a wider range of nanotube applications.”
Thanks to their unique properties, graphene nanotubes are frequently called a “wonder material” and, when introduced into standard materials, they can create new materials with unprecedented properties. Their recent rapid transformation from laboratory to industry material has been possible thanks to OCSiAl’s first-ever mass-production technology for the synthesis of high-quality graphene nanotubes and to the company’s development of a wide product line of nanotube concentrates that enable handling of nanomaterials at standard industrial production sites.
“Here in the TUBALL CENTER Shanghai we have recently locally developed a totally new product for reinforcing composites. This is a real game-changing product for a number of consumer goods,” said Jason Wang, OCSiAl China Composites Technical Support Engineer. The new nanotube product allows the production of lightweight sports equipment such as bicycle rim and frames, helmets, baseball bats, and hockey and tennis rackets, and of gas cylinders with greatly improved impact resistance. Some of these products have already been launched on the market.
