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PARIS, March 17, 2003 — Nanoledge SA was created two years ago by three material engineers from a research lab in the south of France with an agenda that sounded simple: They wanted to industrialize the process of carbon nanotube production.
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Now, the company has decided it’s time to take that process to the next level. In what Nanoledge General Manager Karl Gedda called a major “strategic shift,” the company will develop a range of nanotube-based microfibers out of its patented process, hoping “to transfer the fabulous properties of the carbon nanofibers into a macroscale material.” The results could lead to advances in textiles and ultrastrong polymers
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In the process, Nanoledge hopes to pick up some new customers. So far, the company has had very different types of clients. “On one hand there are the chemists and material companies that are looking to add some new properties to their existing polymers, for example. On the other hand, there are groups mainly from the aerospace, energy or other industries,” Gedda said.
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“The new products we are co-developing with our customers are not yet on the market, but we hope the first ones to be sold by 2006,” he said, adding that the very first product of the company was a tennis racket developed with Babolat, “which does not include many nanotubes, but proved that we could get nanotubes out of the lab to the street.”
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But Nanoledge needs to go beyond mere proof that it can produce nanotubes if it’s going to make it in the increasingly crowded space. The next step is to establish relationships with customers.
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“There is a strong relation and interaction between a carbon nanotube producer and its customer,” said David Tomanek, a nanotube expert who organized an international conference on the subject in 2002 and chairman of Rosseter Holdings Ltd., another nanotube producer.
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“It is not possible to sell nanotubes without a deep knowledge of the products or the applications they will be used for,” Tomanek said.
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That’s why Nanoledge decided to shift focus. The company doesn’t want to be seen as simply a producer of nanotubes. “Our job is to design innovative, multifunctional material that fits our partners’ needs. In many cases, Nanoledge not only designs the high-performance materials but also produces the microfibers,” Gedda said.
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Then there is establishing a rhythm between price and production. “As of today Nanoledge can produce about 150 grams of single-wall nanotubes per day, which was a big jump from the 4 grams a day the public laboratory we spun off was able to produce,” Gedda said.
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Still seem a little slow? Not really, Tomanek said. “First, I’m not sure that there is a market today for such productions. Second, you have to consider that some applications require very small quantities of nanotubes. For nanotube-based microchips, we speak about milligrams.”
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And, even if there is a “virtuous circle” yet to be created between nanotubes and their applications, it’s not quantity that counts right now. It’s price.
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For Peter Harris, a nanotube expert in the chemistry department at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, it simply costs too much to make the best types of nanotubes.
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“It is important to distinguish between fullerene-related nanotubes, produced by arc-evaporation, and catalytically produced nanotubes,” Harris explained. “Fullerene-related nanotubes are much more perfect in structure than the catalytically formed ones, and have much superior properties. But at present they are far more expensive to produce. Therefore the challenge is to find a way of mass-producing the fullerene-related tubes at low cost.”
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That’s precisely Nanoledge’s challenge. “Our goal now is to design a new generation of reactor which will be a breakthrough: a continuous and automatized process able to boost our production yield and bring nanotube production costs way down.” Gedda said.
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Tomanek envisions a future in which nanotubes are available with “multiple qualities at multiple prices.” For that to happen, all agree, prices need to dramatically decrease in the next few years.
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“With our single-wall synthesis program,” Gedda said, “we hope to reach a market price of less than $100 per kilogram in 2005.”
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Company file: Nanoledge SA
(last updated March 17, 2003)
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Company
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Headquarters
Cap Alpha, Avenue de l’Europe
34830 Clapiers
France
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History
Founded in March 2001 as a spinoff from the GDPC Lab of the University Montpellier, Nanoledge worked in tandem with Babolat to develop tennis rackets made from nanotube-based materials.
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Industry
Advanced materials production
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Employees
10
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Small tech-related products and services
Nanoledge specializes in the large-scale production and commercialization of single-wall carbon nanotubes using an arc discharge approach. Among the many applications for carbon nanotubes are: composite materials, nanocomponents, visual display technologies, enhanced batteries and biosensors. Nanoledge is now moving into the arena of nanotube-based microfiber and composite material manufacturing, which could lead to advances in textiles, ultrastrong polymers and substrates.
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Management
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Investment history
In February 2002, Nanoledge received $780,000 in first-round funding from CDP Capital Technology Ventures (round leader), Emertec and SORIDEC. The company expects to enter another financing round in the second quarter of 2003.
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Revenue
2002: Nearly $110,000
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Selected strategic partners and customers
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Barriers to market
Barriers to success in carbon nanotube manufacturing include the crowded nature of the niche and the rapid changes in manufacturing processes and techniques.
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Competitors
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Goals
Short range: “To improve existing material with carbon nanotubes,” said Nanoledge General Manager Karl Gedda. “Thus we are working on nanotube chemistry to better integrate them into polymer matrix. The first materials will be produced in joint development and are therefore coatings and high performance composites.”
Long range: “The design of a range of high-performance nanotube microfibers that can be used either for their electrochemical properties or that could compete with carbon fibers.”
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Why they’re in small tech
“Nanotubes are at the frontier of small tech and classic material design,” Gedda said. “I like frontier concepts and frontier areas always proved to be full of ideas and opportunities.”
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What keeps them up at night
“Soon, it will be the next round of fund raising,” Gedda said. “But for the time being, it’s enjoying my children. Explaining to a 9-year-old boy how nanotech will maybe make his ‘Stars Wars’ dreams come true, is quite fun. At the moment, though we’re still stuck on molecular chemistry. He recognizes water, oxygen and carbon nanotubes. It’s good training to talk about small tech to outsiders!”
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Contact
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Recent articles
Babolat hits tennis industry with high-tech nanotube rackets
French firm hopes to get PR bounce out of nanotubes in tennis rackets
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— Research by Gretchen McNeely