LONDON, UK: Haydale Graphene Industries has been awarded a SMARTCymru grant from The Welsh Government that will enable the Ammanford-based company to progress with the development of its anti-counterfeiting ink technology, PATit.
The has a total cost of £169,000 and is expected to take six months to complete. The SMARTCymru grant, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, will cover circa 50% of the anticipated project costs.
PATit is an anti-counterfeiting technology that uses graphene-enhanced, high-performance conductive inks and proprietary software codes for brand and security protection that is non-copiable and does not require expensive printing processes or electronic chips (NFC / RFID).
PATit has been developed to address a market need for smart disruptive technologies in the security tag sector. The anti-counterfeiting technology is planned to be manufactured in Wales.
Funded by SMARTCymru, which supports growth of Welsh industry by increased investment in research, development, and innovation, PATit aims to provide a mass market anti-counterfeiting technology that addresses the current market need for secure low-cost anti-counterfeiting technologies.
Central to the overall performance of PATit is Haydale’s patented plasma enhanced surface functionalisation process, which allows the surface chemistry of nanomaterials such as graphene to be altered to improve the physical and electrical properties.
PATit is innovative to existing technologies for brand and security protection by using proprietary software codes and a speciality graphene-based conductive ink. This enables counterfeiting devices to read the unique ink when printed onto a product label or other material. The Project will also focus on the development of the mobile app software and secure server system required to store and read the PATit codes. There are now several Patents approved for PATit including the EU and US.
PATit has also been shortlisted for a 2022 British Engineering Excellence Award in the ‘Materials Application of the Year’ category. The winners will be revealed at a gala lunch on 18th March to be held in London at The Landmark Hotel.
David Davies, UK Managing Director at Haydale, commented: “The funding will build on the already significant developments Haydale has made in ink development using our patented plasma functionalisation process. With the award from SMARTCymru grant, Haydale’s path to commercialising its anti-counterfeiting technology, PATit, will be accelerated allowing us to further develop our graphene-enhanced functionalised inks.
“The aim is to be able to provide the PATit technology to the mass market to meet the need for affordable high volume brand protection and provide a step to green environmentally friendly anti-counterfeiting products that we believe will surpass technologies currently available.”
Haydale is a global technologies and materials group that facilitates the integration of graphene and other nanomaterials into the next generation of commercial technologies and industrial materials.