FAQs

1.   What are nanospheres™ and nanoskin™? How do they work?
A.   They are a new method of giving consumer products the ability to stay chilled or hot for up to 10 times longer than other traditional materials.  They are lightweight, flexible, low material-use with excellent insulating properties so making them suitable for any application where maintaining temperature efficiently and cost effectively is important.

2.   How large is ‘nanometre’?
A.   The prefix ‘nano’ is derived from the Greek word for dwarf.  One nanometre (nm) is equal to one-billionth of a metre, 10-9m

3.   Is that the same as nanotechnology, which has been in the news a bit lately? 
A. It is important not to confuse terminology, so when we refer to nano technology we are simply talking about engineering which occurs at a molecular scale (i.e. very, very small).  Nano technology should not be confused with genetic engineering and some life sciences research; the materials and processes involved in our technology are all proven and considered safe and are not being tampered with at a structural level.  To be clear, this is not a new area of materials research but it is a new material design to bring some specific benefits to certain markets, the fact that the materials can be measured at nano scale allows us to use the expression ‘nano’. 
        
4.    What possible applications does it have? How big do you see the market?
A.  The technology has a wide range of applications from keeping food and drinks cold to advanced building materials and insulation. We’re concentrating, at the moment, on the food and beverage industry because of the size of the market and the trends towards consumers wanting cold products which stay colder for longer.  This extends into all areas of the packaging industry where temperature regulation is needed, in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, from pizza delivery boxes, to carrier bags to ice cream cartons.

The canned beverage market alone is expected to exceed 250 billion cans per annum by during 2007, and the major drinks vendors are creating many new and exciting new packaging formats and brands which are sold around the world in huge volumes.

5.  If it is going to be using it in food, has it passed all the necessary regulatory tests?
A. We will not be incorporating our products into food.  However, we are using materials which have been in use by food companies in the past, so they have passed the necessary approvals.  We would expect that our products will be verified and as necessary tested by our partner companies wishing to use nanoskin™