The first stage will involve the establishment of a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility to produce and sell Versarien’s proprietary Nanene graphene nano-platelets. Versarien will provide its intellectual property on a licensed basis together with production know how, while the other joint venture partners will provide the factory and funding for plant and equipment. Versarien says its patent protected manufacturing techniques allow Nanene to be manufactured in large volumes at market leading prices. It produces high quality graphene nano-platelets with a majority of sub-10 layer and a significant number of sub-5 layer materials. The quality of the process has been independently verified by several leading UK universities and independent manufacturing and testing has shown, for example, that Nanene-enhanced carbon fibre composites results in an up to 52% increase in mechanical properties. The plan to build the new China-UK Jinan Graphene Industrial Park follows the recent announcement of a collaboration agreement with a global textiles and apparel manufacturer which will focus on the incorporation of graphene into fabrics and assess its suitability for inclusion in high performance sportswear. Utilising Versarien’s graphene ink technology developed by the company’s subsidiary, the collaboration will involve the incorporation of graphene into textiles via yarns and fabric finishes. “We have been afforded great support from the Chinese government and we are working with all parties to deliver this facility in record time and to capture the excitement and support for our Nanene product in China,” said CEO Neill Ricketts. “It is important for us to have facilities close to manufacturing centres worldwide and we will continue to build on this base. We have negotiated significant Chinese government support to protect our IP and this agreement follows from the meeting with President Xi Jinping at the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester in October 2015.”
