Sweden-based Graphmatech develops and produces novel graphene-based nanocomposite materials, under the Aros Graphene brand. The company recently secured an investment from ABB and Walerud Ventures, and the company's CFO, Björn Lindh, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had to him.

Q: Thank you for your time Björn. Can you give us a short introduction to Graphmatech's Aros Graphene materials, and how it differs from other graphene materials on the market?

Graphmatech has invented the novel material, Aros Graphene that keeps most of graphene's features, while making it easy to use in large industrial scales by preventing agglomeration, which is a key challenge for the use of graphene. Aros graphene is produced in powder form and can be used as additive, as coating or even in 3D-printing. The market introduction and launch of first products, filaments and thermal paste, will be introduced to the market in 2019.

Q: Can you tell us about your current production capacity for Aros Graphene materials?



Hundreds of Kilograms as of 2018. Our plan is to secure enough capacity for tons in 2019.

Q: You recently received an investment from ABB and Walerud Ventures. Congratulations! Can you tell us the plans for the new funds? Do you intend to increase production capacity?



ABB and Walerud Ventures are the very best choice of investors we can find in Sweden, so yes we are very happy to have them on board!



The main targets of the investment is to start selling volumes to industries and to be able to deliver.



Q: ABB is focused on power, automation and robotics technologies... where do you see graphene applications in this market?



The focus is in thermal management, including thermal plastics, thermal paste etc. We are also working on long term applications such as electrical contacts, energy storage and lubricant-free systems.



Q: One of your products is a 3D printing filament. We have heard from many users that graphene for 3D Printing is not living up to its promise. What real world applications are being enabled by your 3d filaments?



Our ambition is to soon be able to launch products with state-of-the-art conductive filaments for polymer 3D-printers. If we succeed we will sell filaments that can be used even for the simplest 3D-printers on the market, where you can print light weight heatsinks, electrical curcuits, sensors as well as most electrically and thermally conductive components.



Q: What do you think will be the most exciting graphene applications in the future?



I believe graphene will quite soon disrupt the energy storage markets, which will make a great difference in the shift to sustainable energy including the shift to electrical cars.



But there are so many markets graphene could disrupt, so it's hard to tell where it will make most impact in the end.



Q: Where do you see Graphmatech in 3-5 years?



Our slogan is "Graphmatech - bringing the World into the graphene age", which tells something about the size of our ambitions. Since we have a technology that is "the missing link to large volume industrial applications of graphene" I believe we have a unique position to play big already from day 1. Therefor ABB invest in us for believing we have the potential of being "Sweden's next large industrial company".



In 5 years I believe we are on a fast growing journey to reach above. At least we should be able to be the shining star in Europe in the quickly growing graphene industry.



Q: Where do you see the graphene market in 3-5 years?



In 5 years graphene could start to disrupt "low-hanging-fruit" markets, such as thermal management, battery additives and conductive plastics. Large volume production from graphite of enough good quality of graphene for above applications should not be an issue. Certainly the graphene market will have exploded, but will not yet have reached more than a fraction of it potential, which is rather 20-30 years away.

Thank you again Björn, and good luck to both you and Graphmatech!