03/05/2012

'Look at Graphene', says BPF

Speaking from the Annual Meeting of the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network on 3rd May BPF Director-General Peter Davis urged the plastics industry to examine the potential of Graphene. He said 'Graphene is the strongest material ever measured, the thinnest material imaginable but with record thermal conductivity.  It’s obvious that Plastics can be the carrier material but graphene can also add massive innovation to existing plastics applications.”

The BPF welcomed the Government funding for Graphene in October last year.  Applications need to be found.  Potential markets are: conductive inks; barrier cloaking; semiconductors; composites; energy storage; flexible electronics.

Davis went on to say that the BPF’s recently published policy document in the BPF's recently published policy document the strong point was made that Innovation in Plastics can be “stimulated by research and development projects between plastics companies and our world class polymer universities, proximity to raw material supply, and close links with the important UK Design sector.”

He said “Customer needs innovation sparks such as the award winning Trinity football boot at 170g the lightest boot ever produced with plastics technology. In “The UK Plastics Industry: A Strategic Manufacturing Sector” the BPF called on the Government to increase R and D financial support for Plastics through the Materials KTN.

On the Government’s “Catapult” manufacturing - focussed research centres, plastics had much to contribute on the two new ones: Future Cities and Transport and he hoped they would involve the Plastics Industry.


ENDS


For all media enquiries, BPF logos and images, please contact Philip Law, on 0207 457 5011 or email plaw@bpf.co.uk

Notes for Editors:

The British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the plastics industry – representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.