TWI tech underpins renewable energy and aerospace projects
Above: Solar Sharc.
Over £3.5 million of combined UK and EU funding is being used by Opus Materials Technologies to develop a portfolio of market-ready coatings for use in three projects over the next two years.
The projects include:
• Icemart - the development of an ice-repellent coating for aeroplanes, maritime vessels, powerlines and wind turbines, which is designed to remove the need for ice to be manually removed using costly machinery or products.
• Solar Sharc - a durable self-clean coating designed for solar modules, designed to prevent the surface build up of dust, sand, salt, and ash on solar panels.
• Always Clean – Rolling out of the Solar Sharc self-clean coating solar modules in locations with adverse environmental conditions.
Alongside these projects, which have key funding from Innovate UK and Horizon 2020, comes the upcoming full launch of the Sharc Matter website (www.Sharcmatter.com), which will see TWI’s VitoNano Technology made available for purchase.
This ecommerce platform will allow silica nanoparticles to be functionalised with one or more chemical groups, thus allowing users to create materials for their bespoke requirements including uses such as improved abrasion resistance, improved repellence, improved solvent resistance, improved barrier properties, enhanced stiffness, and increased heat distortion temperatures.
The Icemart, Always Clean, and Solar Sharc projects are being rolled out over the next 24 months, with the Sharc Matter platform set to launch in early 2018.
