ROARK- Now Europe’s Largest Graphene Producer

Graphene- The “wonder” material that nobody could produce on a scale large enough or at a price competitive enough for it to be widely adopted by the various industries desperate to incorporate it into their products.

A raft of development companies, littered with PHDs from all over the globe have come up with various methods of obtaining the highly desired “few layer graphene”. Unfortunately their attempts have consistently been unsuccessful, stopped either by the inability to scale up their processes, or acceptance that their processes contain all kinds of nasty solvents that make it environmentally unsustainable to produce.

Step forward Roark (www.kraor.co.uk), a UK-based manufacturer who have developed a method that is both scalable and contains no solvents or other nasty chemicals. In fact there are only two substances used in their production method- Natural Graphite and Ethanol. Roark are able to produce up to 80 tonnes of Few Layer Graphene (1-3 layers) per month. That is some 15 times the production capacity of their closest European rival and puts them in the top 3 globally. The other two producers being US and China based.

CEO Mike Atkinson explains further- “The challenge with Graphene has always been 3-fold.

“Firstly being able to produce it without surfactants or oxidisation, at scale.

“Secondly being able to produce it a price that makes it competitive with materials for which it could be substituted for.

“Thirdly reassuring manufacturers regarding the quality of the graphene- ultimately the market is awash with “Fake Graphene”, which has 5+ layers, this material is relatively easy to produce, but is essentially useless for most technology based industries. The “real graphene” has between 1 and 3 layers and we must instil confidence in industry in respect of them understanding what they are buying is “real graphene” and not “fake graphene”.

“We encourage any companies in Europe to come to us if they are considering adopting graphene in to their manufacturing. We can provide the continuous volumetric supply of 1-3 layer graphene at a very competitive rate. We are also the only company, globally who can create any sized single layer graphene sheets on any substrate”.

It is great to see a UK-based company leading the way in advanced materials manufacturing in an age where often the United States and China dominate.

Any queries to info@kraor.co.uk