Gerdau launches Gerdau Graphene
Brazil’s largest steel producer Gerdau has launched a new company called Gerdau Graphene, which will develop and market products based on Graphene materials. Gerdau Graphene will operate independently from its parent company’s steel business divisions. It will offer pioneering technology to the construction, industrial and automotive lubricants, rubber, thermoplastics, coatings and sensors industries in Brazil and in countries across North America. The new company is part of the portfolio of Gerdau Next, the new business division launched by Gerdau in the second half of 2020 to operate in new segments apart from steel.
Gerdau Graphene is also in the process of increasing its presence and capabilities in the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre at The University of Manchester. Gerdau Graphene will work in partnership with the University as part of a global strategic alliance, with the aim of becoming a leading developer of grapheme enhanced products in the Americas.
Gerdau has been researching Graphene for four years & Gerdau Graphene already has strategic alliances with major Graphene developers, including fellow GEIC Tier 1 Partner First Graphene, with whom Gerdau signed a memorandum of understanding in March 2021 to develop the market for PureGRAPH Graphene products in the Americas. In the Brazilian market, it has strategic partnerships in the automotive sector with Baterias Moura and SKF do Brasil to develop applications in energy storage, rubber, composites and coatings.
The birth and the discovery of new materials give the world great expectations. Graphene is the right example of it. Graphene is able to flow 100 times more current than copper at the speed 100 times faster than silicon at room temperature and its high thermal conductivity allows it to transfer heat 10 times better than copper and it’s 100 times stronger than steel. It’s virtually transparent to light and also flexible enough to increase up to 20% of its area. Besides, electrical conductivity does not disappear even when fully folded. Graphene can be said to be a super-power material because it is thin, bends well and even light. The problem is that this Graphene material has not yet been produced in bulk.
