By Mandy Oakham
Imagine a dam built of a material 200 times stronger than steel which would also be able to tell a computer if a crack could soon appear.
This magical new material, graphene, will be manufactured at a new site in North Geelong by Imagine Intelligent Materials (IIM) which was opened this week by Assistant Industry Minister Craig Laundy.
The minister said the new site would manufacture a range of products using graphene and gave Geelong the opportunity to make its mark as an international manufacturing base.
Graphene is not only 200 times stronger than steel, but it is also 300 more times conductive than copper and has the potential to turn manufacturing materials into “smart materials” able to communicate with computers, according to its manufacturers.
Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre managing director Dr Jens Goennemann said that Geelong was a region of “industrial transformation”.
Dr Goennemann said that Geelong could lead the way not only in high tech research, but also in the commercialisation of that research.
“What we are developing here is the first commercial application of graphene and this means Geelong is now ahead of the world,” he said.
The new site has been made possible by a $250,000 investment from the Federal Government, in addition to $500,000 already invested into the Advanced Fibre Cluster located at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus.
