Advanced materials engineering group, Versarien has partnered with undisclosed European private label consumer products manufacturer and supplier, to develop alternative solutions for packaging.

The collaboration aims to provide alternative solutions for packaging as well as enhance existing products utilizing graphene enhanced polymers.

In order to enhance existing products, the partners will incorporate Versarien’s Nanene few-layer graphene nano-platelets into polymer structures.

Additionally, the companies will test several formulations comprising existing polymeric packaging materials with graphene loading to evaluate the feasibility of the nanocomposites in packaging solutions.

Versarien CEO Neill Ricketts said: “The incorporation of graphene into packaging materials has the potential to reduce plastic usage, increase the mechanical strength of packaging materials and improve their ability to be recycled.

“These are important goals for any consumer goods manufacturer as we all seek to reduce the impact of plastic packaging on the environment.”

The company said that the use of graphene in packaging systems offers improvements in terms of moisture barrier, material strength and weight reduction, all with a reduction in plastic usage.

Versarien and its partner will initially focus on the development and evaluation of rigid materials for blow moulded bottles.

The team will also assess the processing parameters to include cooling time, part shrinkage and recycling potential.

Recently, Versarien partnered with plastic manufacturer Luxus to develop a graphene enhanced polymer supply chain in the UK to enable the production in volume of graphene enhanced plastics.

Luxus is engaged n manufacturing high quality thermoplastics from prime and recycled polymers. It supplies plastics to the automotive, packaging, civil engineering and a variety of other sectors.

Under the agreement, the partners will utilize Versarien’s Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets into polymers to enhance mechanical strength and other properties.