Haydale (AIM: HAYD), the global advanced materials group, is pleased to announce that through its Taiwanese operation, Haydale Technologies Taiwan ("HTW"), it has started to supply commercial quantities of its functionalised graphene ink to a major print house in Taiwan. The graphene ink is used to print test strips in the self-diagnostic biomedical sensor device market for diabetes monitoring. Haydale believes its graphene ink is the first of its kind being used in volume in this market.

Commercial order secured

Following over a year of market testing, evaluation and gaining regulatory approvals, including extensive production quantity in-line testing, HTW has now started to deliver its graphene screen printed inks as part of a recent 100kg order secured from a leading Taiwanese printer. Haydale's graphene ink is proving to be a high quality, more stable, and consistent product, replacing the established graphite and carbon inks used extensively in producing the test strips for this significant global market. HTW continues to supply evaluation and pre-production graphene inks to a number of printers in this market sector.

In addition, as a second phase some customers are now trialling an all-carbon sensor utilising HTW's graphene-enhanced ink that is aimed at removing the need for the expensive silver conductive ink tracks extensively used today. The outcome is a more environmentally friendly (potentially recyclable) product. If achieved, Haydale believes this breakthrough could have a significant effect on the industry.

High quality inks

HTW is starting to gain significant market attention due to the quality, stability, adhesive properties and consistency of its graphene inks compared to the widely used graphite and other carbon materials available today. A crucial metric used by the specialist printers to measure the repeatability and accuracy of sensor readings delivered by the inks they use is its coefficient of variation or C/V ratio, where a low percentage indicates a high consistent, repeatability factor. Reports received by HTW from printers using its graphene inks have shown an exceptionally low C/V ratio of approximately 0.5%, demonstrating an accuracy rating of over 99%, which is believed to be well above the industry norm.

David Banks, Interim Executive Chairman at Haydale, commented: "Our Taiwan facility is only 15 months old and, from a standing start, has now developed a range of functionalised graphene inks that are gaining market acceptance where repeat sales have pleasingly started to occur. Over the last four months, HTW has supplied over 100Kg of inks to 12 print customers at various stages of evaluation.

Haydale's operations in Thailand and South Korea have also been busy promoting HTW's graphene and specialty inks capabilities and receiving excellent feedback, as demonstrated by our recently announced Star RFID development agreement. All of this commercial activity improves our sales visibility and we look forward to continued success in this region."

Ray Gibbs, President, Business Development at Haydale, commented: "The tireless work from our Taiwanese team in developing world class functionalised graphene inks with a market leading C/V ratio is paying off.  Having now established market acceptance with the supply of commercial volume for a high quality printer, armed with excellent third-party test results and customer endorsements, we can also see market demand for this high-performance product in Europe and especially the US."

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Notes to Editors

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. With expertise in graphene, silicon carbide and other nanomaterials, Haydale is able to deliver improvements in electrical, thermal and mechanical properties, as well as toughness. Haydale has granted patents for its technologies in Europe, USA, Australia, Japan and China and operates from six sites in the UK, USA and the Far East.

For more information please visit: www.haydale.com

Twitter: @haydalegraphene