SNS: Special Letter: An Inflection Point For Advanced Materials

In This Issue
Week of 4/3/2017
Vol. 22 Issue 13

FEATURE: Special Letter: An Inflection Point for Advanced Materials

• Making “Model Materials” Real
• Silicon Carbide
• SiC Fiber Innovation
• Wet-Laid Nonwovens of SiC Fibers
• Additive Manufacturing: 3D-Printed Composites
• Opening Doors of Innovation
• An Inflection Point for Advanced Materials
• About Trevor Rudderham

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Publisher’s Note: SNS members and FiRe participants are aware of the extensive work we have put into, and continue to put into, the SNS Carbon Trifecta (www.carbontrifecta.org). The recent addition of Andrew Himes as director of network orchestration has just intensified our work toward seed funding, additional R&D, and international business cooperation on converting CO2 to graphene and other valuable materials.

A critical part of this work has been understanding and promoting advanced materials, already a true pivot point in product design and manufacturing. In this work, no one has been more inspiring, pragmatic, businesslike, and scientifically active than Haydale. With a headquarters in Great Britain, customers around the world, and new products and markets being produced and addressed every quarter, CEO Ray Gibbs has made this company into a real 21st-century powerhouse.

One of Ray’s more recent moves was to do a merger with a US firm to create Haydale Technologies Inc., led by CEO Trevor Rudderham; both Ray and Trevor joined us at FiRe last year. Ray has been active in working with us at the Carbon Trifecta, and I am delighted to note that HTI will be one of our 2017 FiReStarter companies, while Haydale will also join us as a FiRe Channel Partner. We could not be prouder to be allied and working with this great company.

As you will discover from Trevor’s discussion this week, these companies are turning dreams into solid stuff, “model materials” into commercial products, with properties and processes that would have seemed like a fantasy just a few years ago, but which now create incredibly strong, varied, and light-weighted materials fit for this new age.

For members interested in what will convert 3D printing from a hobby/prototype existence into a new wave of manufacturing, thanks to just such materials, just read on. – mra.