Dr. Niles Fliescher, CEO, NanoMaterials

These days, nearly everyone can appreciate the importance of superior efficiency, be it on the larger scale or on the micro level. Companies of all sizes are increasingly focused on reducing their environmental impact while improving overall performance. Today it's about more than simply escalating one's productivity; it's an integral component of a company's role as responsible corporate citizen.

Fortunately, the two goals of improved efficiency and minimized environmental footprint often work towards one another. As companies strive to meet environmental goals - either based on their own pre-defined constraints or those of stricter government regulations - they are indeed discovering that improved performance is often an added benefit. Such is certainly true in terms of our own NanoLub® product line as well as our new Inorganic Nanotubes, which will be introduced to you shortly as you read ahead. It is our goal to illustrate, through this bi-monthly newsletter, the ways in which our products can positively effect on your performance - as well as contribute to the protection of the world we all inhabit.

We will begin with our feature article on NanoMaterials' flagship solution set, NanoLub advanced lubricant additives. NanoLub is the world's first commercial additive for lubricants that reduces friction and wear, based on our proprietary, nano-sized, spherically-shaped inorganic particles. We will review how, by incorporating NanoLub into your current lubricant, you'll achieve an improved product that delivers higher energy efficiency, enhanced power output, and ensures your device will run quieter, cleaner and cooler.

As mentioned above, we will also introduce to you our newest product offering, Inorganic Nanotubes. Specifically created to improve the intrinsic structure of various polymers, our multi-walled tungsten disulfide Inorganic Nanotubes are additionally used to strengthen both fibers and resins. Highly crystalline structures, they absorb significantly greater shock than carbon nanotubes, and are dispersed with far greater ease.

The publication of this newsletter further affords us the opportunity to keep our clients abreast of the latest industry happenings. For instance, we'll summarize relevant technical information while also highlighting pertinent publicity, exhibitions and fairs, advertising, and news. And if you care to make it interesting, we invite you and your colleagues to test your nano-knowledge with a bit of fun trivia and facts.

The world of nanotechnology is a fascinating place, one that continues to grow steadily and that's come to find a home in virtually every segment of industry. Achieving a uniquely superior product in a continuously evolving marketplace is as much on the minds of today's CEOs as our engineers. We hope you find the articles that follow both helpful and insightful.

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NanoLub - The Ultimate Lubricant Additive

As a general rule modern technology is dependent on, if not synonymous with, efficiency. Increased output power housed within a smaller engine footprint has become the global norm, requiring higher RPMs - and thus increased friction and heat. With added wear on engine structures comes the tangible need for a new standard in lubricant technology, one which couldn't be achieved through the traditional lubricant additive options. Fortunately, nanotechnology materials are well suited to meet these demands.

Currently a top industry focal point, nanotechnology materials are engineered from single atoms or molecules. The resulting nanostructures ensure new materials with unique and superior properties. With its beginnings in Israel, nanotechnology for lubricants initially stemmed from the discovery of three-dimensional inorganic compounds at The Weizmann Institute of Science, which were created as small-sized, multi-walled nanoparticles as opposed to the conventionally large, flat platelets. Due to their structure and chemical nature, such nanoparticles incorporate distinct properties not found in traditional materials, giving them a new appeal for use with many industry applications. A rapidly advancing field, the evolution of nanotechnology is projected to change the face of industrial lubrication.

Although nanotechnology is not a new discovery, it was long considered too costly an option when measured against more affordable, conventional lubricants. More recently, however, the industry has accessed a significant breakthrough, allowing for the advanced technology to become available at a competitive price point with the evolution of NanoLub^® RC-X additive for enhancing lubricating oils.

The NanoLub additive is the world's first commercial lubricant that reduces high load-level friction and wear, based on spherically-shaped inorganic nanoparticles. Designed to address the efficiency requirements of automotive and generator engines, NanoLub is formulated to ensure both low friction and anti-wear at extreme pressures, negating the need for two separate additives and thus decreasing formulation cost. Because NanoLub reduces noise and friction better than other additives, it improves energy efficiency, decreases heat production, and improves power output. By minimizing wear via a tenacious tribofilm - which remains intact even following an oil change - NanoLub ensures longer equipment life while also extending the maintenance interval. NanoLub delivers these special nanoparticles in an easy-to-use oil concentrate. The concentrate is specially formulated to avoid sedimentation and is easily mixed into a variety of host oils to improve their performance. With its uniquely strong structure, NanoLub provides excellent lubrication in extreme conditions in applications ranging from machines and tooling to engines and bearings, and is available in packages from 250 ml bottles to 1,000 litter IBCs.

Lubricants which incorporate inorganic nanoparticles, such as NanoLub, significantly reduce frictional losses and accordingly help vehicle manufacturers meet EU CO₂ emissions targets. For example, the effective coefficient of friction at the gear teeth in NanoLub treated gearboxes generally lies in the range of 0.04 to 0.08, with a resulting gain of transmitted power in the range of 0.3% to 1.5%. Considering the case of automotive gearboxes, if a lubricant could reduce the coefficient of friction by 20%, the mesh friction loss in a typical automotive gearbox would decrease from 0.8% to 0.64%. This would equate to a cost savings of 13 x 10⁹ Euro/year in the surface transport sector alone.

Such astounding potential savings, coupled with an anticipated demand for the product, prompted NanoLub to construct a unique, global manufacturing plant in Israel featuring cutting-edge production technology. With its significant manufacturing capacity, the plant produces NanoLub additives for international consumers at a competitive price point, solidifying a dependable partnership with NanoLub clients for both current and future endeavors.

The concept of nanotechnology is steadily becoming ubiquitous throughout the industry.  With its modern appeal, competitive value and undisputable benefits, NanoLub is the solution that is rapidly evolving as the new standard.
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Product Launch

INT 15-100 - Inorganic Nanotubes - For the Strongest Nanostructure

With revolutionary chemical properties and a unique physical structure, NanoMaterials introduces WS₂ Inorganic Nanotubes as the newest component to its nanotechnology-based product offering. Both incredibly robust and impact resistant, these Inorganic Nanotubes naturally lend themselves to an array of high-tech safety materials such as bullet-proof vests, helmets, car bumpers, and more. With their wholly unique properties, these Inorganic Nanotubes are indeed stronger than either steel or Kevlar, the standbys of the past, and thus exceptionally well-suited for incorporation with many materials for use with a host of applications.

This application range of Inorganic Nanotubes extends far beyond ballistic protection materials or polymer composites-based equipment alone. Because Inorganic Nanotubes are actually semi-conductors, they are suitable for use with products including advanced, high-resolution flat panel displays or as tips for atomic force microscopes (AFMs). Additionally, Inorganic Nanotubes are natural complements to such rapidly-evolving industries as nano-electronics, fuel cells, ultra-filtration membranes and catalysts. Encompassing a series of unique optical properties, Inorganic Nanotubes enable a variety of further applications in the fields of nanolithography, photo catalysis and beyond.

Strictly in terms of structure, these, together with its Inorganic Nanotubes are comparatively long when measured against their diameter, and this high aspect ratio high crystallinity and shock wave resistance, makes their unique chemical makeup and robust physical structure suitable for a wide variety of applications. In a series of laboratory research studies administered by Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Harold Kroto, NanoMaterials' Inorganic Nanotubes demonstrated the strength to endure pressures equating to 21GPa or a 210 tons per square centimeter. Note the structural dimensions of 15 microns in length and a mere 0.1 micron in diameter! In more illustrative terms, the diameter is small enough that a thousand Inorganic Nanotubes could fit inside the circumference of a single human hair.  

Working alongside a dedicated research group at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, NanoMaterials has furthermore designed a new type of reactor which enables the production of pure Inorganic Nanotubes, thereby eliminating the need to separate them from the rest of the material produced - while also increasing production output to commercial quantities. The resulting effort symbolizes yet another milestone in NanoMaterials' unique nanotechnology-based product series. More than a product breakthrough alone, this development represents a major advancement in the quest to meet the increased demands of an industry in a state of constant evolution.
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NanoLub enters the Serbian Market

Last month, our Sales Manager, Mr. Alberto Rubens was invited to Serbia to participate in RNB's launching of a new family of lubricants based on our own NanoTech additives. The products were launched under the brand Galax and include a top-up engine oil additive, an industrial heavy duty oil and an extreme pressure grease.

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Nano in the News - Ads & Publicity

As nanotechnology continues to gain press worldwide, NanoMaterials has enjoyed some opportunities and coverage of our own.

• Recently our NanoLub products were featured in Lube Media Magazine, a well-known publication in the industry and popular reference tool for relevant industry topics and technical news. To read the article press here 
  
  
• NanoMaterials CEO, Dr. Niles Fleischer  presented at a recent industry conference. Held in early February in Ooty, India the event was devoted to the topic of "Lubricating Greases - Future Prospects." India itself actually represents approximately 10% of the global lubricant market, and the presentation was well-received by those in attendance, inspired by the technological advancements driving the nanotechnology industry.
  
  
• NanoMaterials was also featured in the AddNano newsletter  as a supply chain provider of nano materials. The consortium  is comprised of 15 partners from 5 EU member states as well as two from Israel, with membership representing all parts of a prospective nano material supply chain in the lubricants industry.

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Nano Knowledge - Just for Fun
Considered a work of fine art, the first nano-size book was published on April 7, 2007 by the Nano Imaging Facility of Simon Fraser University. Entitled Teeny Ted from Turnip Town and written by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, it is the world's smallest published book.

• The prefix "nano-" comes from a Greek word meaning "dwarf"
• If a person shrunk to the size of one nanometer, the thickness of a single piece of paper would appear 170 kilometers tall
• Mayonnaise does not taste like oil, water, or eggs due to unique nano-scale interactions between its ingredients
• Optical tweezers use light to manipulate particles as small as a single atom

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