VersarienCu is a family of copper open-celled metallic foams, of varying porosity and pore size, which act as the primary heat exchange element between the heat source within a device and the heat transfer medium, such as the cooling fluid. The three-dimensional nature of the Group’s materials gives rise to extraordinarily high surface area per unit volume and new levels of cell inter-connectivity – a feature which yields excellent thermal conductivity and increased convection – so any physical process that requires surface area will likely benefit from metallic foams.
By virtue of their porosity VersarienCu materials are light, with lower material and transportation costs, and have myriad potential applications, primarily where the functional characteristics of such a material can be exploited. The Group sees a particular opportunity to grow with the increasing demand for improved computing performance, such as in servers, workstations and industrial computing infrastructure.
Porous metals such as VersarienCu are considered to be biomimetic, in that they resemble the sponge-like structures of biological materials like bone and coral. VersarienCu can be engineered and optimised to offer a combination of both structural and functional properties, and it’s in this application that their benefits can significantly outperform those of traditional "monolithic" materials. These processes include heat transfer, heat exchange and exciter materials.
The Group is developing further products and applications of the Lost Carbonate Sintering ("LCS") process as a result of its existing commercial relationships and will continue to support the University of Liverpool in its work with porous metal technologies. Furthermore, the Company aims to continue to develop the intellectual property from the University of Liverpool collaboration agreement, while building a wider portfolio of IP by engaging with its academic partners, including the University of Salford and the University of Birmingham, together with the University of Liverpool, and the Technology Strategy Board.
Lost carbonate sintering is a powder metallurgically based solid-state sintering process for the creation of open-celled metallic foams. The method allows full control over pore size and number and is an environmentally benign and sustainable manufacturing process consisting of four main stages: