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Vittoria’s Graphene+ Tech: Detailed look at a revolutionary material

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Back as winter was setting in we had the chance to travel to northern Italy to visit the headquarters of Vittoria-partner Directa Plus, who have developed some of the most advanced graphene manufacturing and applications to hit the cycling industry. We have seen a lot of hype on this new material that promises to revolutionize everything from helmets, to wheels, to tires, and even clothing textiles. But to be honest we had been (and to some degree continue to be) a bit skeptical. A lot of the talk about graphene is filled with hyperbole and such thick marketing-speak, that it is hard to accept claims of bigger, faster, stronger, and at the same time lighter.

So we were definitely more interested in not just claims of improvements, but the actual behind-the-scenes science that should back up the claims. So we sat down with both the Vittoria product development team and the Directa Plus scientists who developed their own proprietary graphene solutions for cycling, dubbed Graphene+. Then in the meantime, for the couple of months it took to get Directa Plus and Vittoria to agree to let us publish some unique details of their protected patented processes, we’ve been riding tires with the new tech to see how they perform in the real world. Join us after the jump as I try to both explain and illustrate how Graphene+ might really have the potential to revolutionize the tire market, both on and off the road…

Graphene

Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_Graphene-nano-platelet-model
images courtesy of Vittoria, Directa Plus & our original photography

The first thing to know about graphene is that it is essentially just carbon atoms grouped together at a very small-scale, as in a material from just one atom thick. The Graphene+ (G+) version we’re talking about here mostly that Vittoria is using though isn’t a single atom layer, but tiny disks of graphene that are then evenly mixed in with some other materials to improve their function or performance. The continuous single layer concept is actually quite problematic, as a single layer on the outside of a material it would be subject to wear, while putting it in the middle of a composite material it would act as a barrier and be difficult to transfer loads across.

Relying heavily on the physical properties of materials for the bulk of their products Vittoria sees material research as the future of their sector of the bike industry. And they see the development of graphene as similar to the modern development of commercial plastics.

Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_Graphene-plasma-super-expansion Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_Graphene-exfoliation+concentration

While all of this graphene is being put into Vittoria wheels and tires now, the development of the process and its applications comes from the company Directa Plus, of which Vittoria is a part owner. What that also means is that all the patented tech we’ll get into here is exclusive to Vittoria. So while it may get applied to the products of other companies in other industries, for the cycling wheel market Graphene+ isn’t likely to show up in any of Vittoria’s competitor’s product lines. That doesn’t mean that some variation of elemental graphene won’t continue to show up in other products, but from what we’ve seen it’s not very easy to actually create the material at a useful scale, and even harder to combine it with other materials to actually produce performance benefits without causing other problems.

Graphene Production

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Directa Plus produces all of the Graphene+ that Vittoria uses in their Lomazzo, Italy research and development facility. To do that, they start with raw graphite and superheat it to about 10,000°C (a temperature beyond that of the surface of the sun) with some type of plasma system to create the graphene. This is more than 3x the temperature that causes the graphite to sublimate (jump straight from a solid to a gas) and when they cool it down a completely new crystalline graphene structure is formed that super-expands the carbon leaving a fluffy, incredibly light black material that Directa Plus has also applied to absorb contaminants in the case of oils spills.

Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_production-line-development-lab-mural Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_production-line-development-lab

The process of breaking down the material to such a nano-scale is done entirely with heat not chemicals, so the physical change is totally clean, with no adverse environmental impact. This also makes it easier for Directa Plus who have their R&D lab right next to the clean-room production line and their offices in the next building in the historical industrial tech park on the edge of Lomazzo.

Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_Graphene-Plus-micro-nano Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_Graphene-Plus-work-flow

The first step of the process of turning graphite to Graphene+ also greatly expands the material. It’s then through a series of further steps (which Directa Plus didn’t want to reveal) that the material is further refined and brought back down to a higher density and more uniform and controlled physical shape, which enables its application in composite materials.

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The end result here is what they call Graphene+ nano platelets, which range in thickness from about 1 to 10 atoms thick (0.35-4nm) and lateral dimension between 500-10,000nm. (Just for frame of reference since this nano-scale is pretty hard to grasp, that means the nano platelet could be 1/1,000,000th of a millimeter thick and 1/1,000th of a millimeter in diameter. That would make it just 3 carbon atoms thick, and 3000 atoms across.)

Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_production-line-last-stage-packing-detail Directa-Plus_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_Graphene-packing

As alluded to above, getting the carbon down to a single atom width isn’t actually the end goal. Creating a graphene mono-layer is not really desirable (for cycling). While it can be incredibly strong itself, the monolayer is exceptionally slippery. It effectively acts as a barrier between materials on either side of it. Exposing it directly on the outside of a product would make the extremely thin layer susceptible to wear, and embedding it inside of a composite would make it almost impossible to bond to on either side.

Graphene in Wheels & Tires

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So what Directa Plus and Vittoria did was figure out a way to uniformly and consistently distribute their nano platelets in a composite matrix. For carbon fiber applications, like their use in wheels and other components, Vittoria is able to evenly mix the Graphene+ nano platelets directly into the resin before impregnating the fibers. In doing so, they increase the thermal character of the resin. Graphene actually makes the resin thermally conductive which allows the carbon to conduct heat as well. Now typically composite resins do not conduct heat, which is what makes standard carbon wheels have such a heat buildup problem as a result of braking.

In addition, Vittoria claims that the nano tech makes the resin stronger leading to a stronger composite and wheel. That let them develop a tubeless clincher bead that they were confident could handle significantly higher pressures (much higher than the 8bar/116psi minimum standard they were working with) even if heat build-up were still a concern. That also lets them use at times one less layer of carbon fibers in the layup, while producing the same strength, so again they can reduce weight. The end result is a complete rim that Vittoria says is stiffer and more durable, while shedding a bit of weight from their previous wheelsets.

 

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Inside of tires the Graphene+ is even a little easier to see how it performs. The Graphene nano platelets get aligned in the rubber, and move as the wheel rolls.

Vittoria_tires_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_SEM-Corsa-Isotech-without-Graphene_2500x-magnification Vittoria_tires_Graphene-Plus_production-tour_SEM-Corsa-Isotech-with-Graphene-Plus_2500x-magnification_s

Vittoria didn’t want to elaborate as to how they align the platelets with the direction of travel (perpendicular to the radius of the wheel), but it seems to have something to do with the pressure as the rubber is extruded, compressed, and the tread pattern is rolled in. The important aspect is that the parallel alignment of the nano platelets that you can see a bit of in the SEM image (above at right) allows them to act together.

 

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Under low stress, just rolling along, the platelets stay parallel to the road surface and that slippery single layer graphene bond actually reduces rolling resistance. Then under braking the rubber of the tire starts to deform, the front edge of the platelets turn down in the rubber matrix, and you end up with more edge grip. That is said to also improve cornering grip, as the same thing happens as the side edges of the platelets turn down with the flexing of the base rubber.

Then past the point of rubber deformation, the platelets are said to snap the rubber back to shape more quickly leading to even lower rolling resistance.

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The Graphene+ tech can then be applied to varying degrees in both trail and road tires. Vittoria mixes in different amounts of platelets into multi compound tires for improved structure and grip where needed, while using harder faster rolling rubbers where they can.

On the mountain tires that means the orange & light blue compounds in the 4C tire can offer more support, while the harder red with G+ and softer blue with G+ can deliver a very fast rolling tire that has still long-wearing but grippy shoulder knobs. On the 4C road tires you end up with a similar solution that gets a fast rolling grey center, more sticky cyan shoulders, and super grippy purple edges, supported by the underlying stiff and fast red rubber that will never touch the road.

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The end result is said to be better control of the performance character of each type of rubber in a multi-compound tire, without as much of the wearing downsides of the softer, more grippy rubber that is usually required to maximize performance.

Vittoria claims the top-level race tires end up being 3x longer lasting. The Graphene+ embedded rubber become stronger so effectively harder, which means it wears slowly but still reacts in braking. So far our use of the Corsa Speed tubeless clincher seems to back that up. With a bit under 1000km on the tires so far, they really do look almost new from a wear perspective. We’ve actually been trying to test their durability on some rough surfaces, so they do have a number of tiny cuts, but so far it hasn’t resulted on a flat out on the road. As for the Mezcal mountain tires, we’ve only put a hundred or two kilometers on them so far, and they seem to grip well and still look as new. We’ll spend a lot more time on both tires, as well as probably the new cross tires and even possibly the new Classics-ready wide tubulars when they are available, and will report back on their long-term durability and performance.

Vittoria claims that now with G+ added to the rubber, the tires are now “intelligent”, becoming effectively harder or softer depending on rider needs. It is an interesting idea, and we are curious to see how the claims stand up to the test of time.

Vittoria.com

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17 Comments
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jRapha
jRapha
7 years ago

Riding Prototype Conti tires right now, who knew that resurrecting unicorns than harvesting and incorporating unicorn dust into my tires could reduce my rolling resistance while improving my average mph by 10!

Crotchety Old Man
Crotchety Old Man
7 years ago

That’s some pretty amazing sounding technology! I’d be curious to see if it’s true. I dearly love the Vittoria Corsa tires but they just didn’t last long enough. If I find these with the new compounds I’d give them a shot. It also makes me more willing to try a set of their mountain tires for winter as well.

BrianB
BrianB
7 years ago

Real test data with simple tensile test specimen for the carbon laminate and friction studies on the rubber compound would help a lot with convincing people. I have seen many papers on the effect of “nano” additives in the resin of laminates and there are no significant positive effects in what I have seen so far. I need an objective report on the benefits – until then I am very skeptical.

Ryan S
Ryan S
7 years ago

At the strong suggestions of my LBS, I’m about to put some Mezcals on my MTB…the first non-Schwalbe tires ever to be mounted on it. We shall see.

Ryan S
Ryan S
7 years ago

Putting some Mezcals on my MTB soon, hoping for good things.

JasonK
JasonK
7 years ago

There’s a great deal of hand-waving in this article, but it’s hard to tell who the waving hands belong to. Some parts of this article sound like a press release poorly translated from Italian. To wit: “…they increase the thermal character of the resin.” The author’s description (or understanding?) of the physics involved is vague at best.

The article asserts that “resins typically don’t conduct heat.” A resin that didn’t conduct heat at all would be an extraordinary discovery. (Silica aerogel is about as close as we’ve gotten to a perfect insulator). All resins conduct heat. They just don’t do it very well compared to most metals.

But the author is a journalist, not a materials scientist. Even so, there’s a certain uncritical tone here. Vittora’s graphic claims that adding graphene to their product improves heat dissipation by 10 percent. Meanwhile, the text implies that thermal conductivity (i.e., heat dissipation) is improved to a great degree. I wouldn’t call 10% a great improvement in conductivity.

Moreover, the same graphic asserts that graphene makes Vittoria’s wheels both 24% more flexible *and* 50% stiffer, which is paradoxical to say the least. Yet the author accepts this without question.

Whether the confusion is due to poor translation, marketing spin or less-than-rigorous reporting, these claims are problematic. They should be regarded with a jaundiced eye until they’re proven in the real world. That said, Continental has shown measurable benefits from their broadly similar Black Chili technology, so maybe there’s something here. Time will tell.

Cryogenii
Cryogenii
7 years ago
Reply to  JasonK

Pays not to be too snarky, without high degrees of personal vigour.

You can indeed increase flexibility (the extent to which something can be bent) and stiffness (the resistance to bending) to get something that requires more effort to bend but can bend further before breaking.

Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden
7 years ago

I won’t comment on the benefits (perceived or real) of the introduction of graphene(ish) plates into bike parts, but there’s a good deal of misinformation in the comment about how environmentally friendly their process is due to the use of heat as opposed to “chemicals”.

Heating sh*t up to make the reaction product is about the most old-school and inelegant way to process material. We are at a time where the benefits of low-energy processing should be clear and chemical containment, reuse, and cleanup are all relatively trivial. Chemistry is good.

Also – the fact that they promote the formation of “graphene” by intercalating the layers prior to the thermal shock basically negates the entire comment. Something (“chemical”) is introduced into the layers, most likely to weaken the interlayer C-C bonding. Otherwise the process likely wouldn’t result in a layered product.

Come on bikerumor – science only works if you don’t preach hearsay. Otherwise it’s about as credible as [insert your favorite conspiracy theory here].

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago

Sounds promising. I read a BBC article about Graphene years ago and wondered how long it would be before it showed up in the bike industry. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I believe in 2010 the Nobel prize in Physics was awarded for the creation of Graphene.

Paper thin electronics, better water filtration….. Lots of application possibilities, but it seems cost is keeping graphene from hitting the market in a big way.

Robin
Robin
7 years ago
Reply to  bearCol

Yes the 2010 Nobel Prize was “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”; however no one has yet to scale up production and use of graphene to take advantage of its properties, especially in a commercial setting. I’m not sure that what Vittoria is doing is that ground breaking. As always, I think it’s wise to wait and see what, if any, real data Vittoria provides and more importantly what, if any, data independent testing reveals.

andy
andy
7 years ago

You can rest assured bearCol this stuff is not Graphene. There is absolutely no real Graphene available comercially – period.

Tom
Tom
7 years ago

Yet Head is putting a layer of it in many of their skis, and has been for a few years.

Grapheme
Grapheme
7 years ago
Reply to  Tom

And tennis rackets before that.

Cryogenii
Cryogenii
7 years ago
Reply to  Grapheme

‘Grapheme’! Now that’s funny!

Joe Murray
7 years ago

As per usual NO TALK about what it might do to the environment.

Hal Kennedy
7 years ago
Reply to  Joe Murray

Look up current real world applications of graphene. You will see that the above claims by Vittoria are smoke and mirrors.

Coach
7 years ago

For those interested in some actual ride/race experience with the Vittoria Graphene tires:

We at Team Africa Rising/ Team Rwanda Cycling have been testing the tires for about a year now and received our first shipment of production tires 5 days prior to the Tour of Rwanda in November 2015. For the uninformed Rwanda is called “The land of 1000 hills”, you are either going up or down riding in this country.
Our team rides Pinarello Dogma F8 frames with Campy Super Record equipment and Reynolds wheels. We are running the Vittoria Open Corsa G+ 25mm tires and pressure 6.5 front 6.8 rear. Without any doubt I can say that the Vittoria Grapene tires transformed our riders from riders being dropped in the descents to riders that dropped everyone on the descents. This includes riders from Europe, USA and South Africa. And most significantly in the rain. Personally I am a fanatic about good equipment and especially good tires as the descents were always one of my favorite parts of racing and few riders could keep up with me. These tires will be game changers in the peleton. Teams that do not use them will start the races at a disadvantage. The cornering capacity of the tires are significantly better than I have ever experienced and our riders are gaining more confidence in descents riding on these tires. With three teams of 5 riders in the Tour of Rwanda we had only 3 flats in 8 days. The data shows less rolling resistance and the feel of them riding definitely confirms this.
One could argue the claims for as long as one wants but the best test is to go out and get a pair and see for yourself. The tires will speak for themselves. Team Rwanda Cycling has now completed the Continental Champs in Morocco (with three medals), Tour of Algeria, Cameroon and Eritrea on them and the consensus is still the same as our first impressions.
I feel it is one of the most significant breakthroughs in cycling equipment we have seen in a long time.

Team Africa Rising

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