Lionel Batty
About this Executive:
Name:
Lionel Batty
Company:
GrafTech International Holdings, Inc.
Interview Topics:
Advanced Energy and Environmental Technologies
Region:
Region 8 - Northeast Ohio
Lionel Batty is Director of Corporate Research and Development at GrafTech International Holdings, Inc.'s research & development center in Parma, Ohio. GrafTech is a global leader in graphite material science with more than 120 years of experience in the carbon and graphite industry. The company's global headquarters is located in Parma, Ohio.
GrafTech products, which include graphite electrodes, advanced carbon and graphite materials, and flexible graphite, are manufactured on four continents and sold in more than 80 countries around the world. Continuing a century-old tradition of global leadership, the employees of GrafTech are united in their dedication to common goals: continually improving productivity and safety, delivering the highest levels of quality and value to customers, and creating value for shareholders.
The company's history goes back to supplying arc carbons to the City of Cleveland, Ohio in the late 1800's, allowing the city to become the first in the world with electric street lamps. GrafTech has continued to innovate ever since, winning six R&D 100 Awards in the last seven years for revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market.
GrafTech has received funding from the Ohio Third Frontier for several projects. The Ohio Third Frontier is an unprecedented and bipartisan commitment to create technology-based products, companies, industries and jobs. Since its inception, the program has created or commercialized more than 500 companies and has attracted $3.5 billion in private investment to Ohio, a 9:1 return on investment. The State of Ohio also helped GrafTech move its global headquarters to Parma, Ohio in 2006 with the Job Creation Tax Credit.
As director of corporate research and development at GrafTech's Research and Development Center, Lionel has worked closely on many Ohio Third Frontier projects. He has been located in Parma, Ohio, since 1999. From 1997 to 1998 Lionel was Applied Technology Manager Europe for the electrode business in Paris, France, and from 1994 to 1996 he held a similar position for the specialty graphite business in Notre Dame de Briancon, France. Prior to that he held various technical positions at GrafTech locations in Clarksville, Tennessee and Sheffield, England. Lionel began his career with the company as a development engineer in 1983 at Parma. He is a BSc Chemical Engineering graduate of Imperial College, London, and has a MBA from Sheffield Polytechnic, England. Lionel also currently serves as chair of the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition, and vice chair of the Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering.
Q: What has your company been able to accomplish with funding from the Ohio Third Frontier? What did this mean to your industry?
A: GrafTech has received funding from the Ohio Third Frontier for several projects, some in the area of fuel cells, and two in the area of electronic thermal management, primarily for electronic devices like cell phones, laptops etc. The first project started in 2004, and we have three ongoing projects at the present time.
First, with the help of the Ohio Third Frontier, GrafTech was able to develop technology and install equipment for manufacturing of flow field plates for PEM fuel cells for automotive, materials handling (fork-lift trucks) and backup power installations. GrafTech customers are using these graphite materials in automotive, bus and fork lift fuel cell applications. In automotive/bus our products have accumulated more than 1,000,000 miles of road service, and more than a million hours in materials handling. GrafTech material is used in the Ohio State University Buckeye Bullet that broke the land speed record for an electric vehicle. We were able to get Department of Energy funding to develop this technology further, and as a result, President George W. Bush visited GrafTech in July 2007. We also won a R&D 100 Award, "the Oscars for Inventors", for this product in 2007.
Second, in the area of thermal management, GrafTech makes a thin, flexible, very highly thermally conductive graphite material currently used in leading electronic devices like laptops, cell phones and flat panel displays. The consumer electronics industry requested an even thinner and more thermally conductive material to enable next generation devices. We won a grant from the Ohio Third Frontier's Research Commercial Program (RCP) in 2007, and as a direct result, we are preparing to launch a new material, SS1500, in Fall 2009. This new material, many times more thermally conductive than copper, will position GrafTech to compete more effectively in today's thinner and more powerful phones and other portable electronic devices
In addition, our collaborators on this project have used this funding to successfully bring new products to the marketplace. Applied Sciences Inc. has reduced the production costs of two of its nanofibers, Pyrograf I and PR-25, to make them more competitive. Another collaborator, National Composite Center (NCC), has been working on making nanopapers out of nanofibers and nanotubes. Their work has come to the attention of NanoTechLabs of North Carolina. NCC's work impressed NanoTechLabs so much that they partnered with NCC to open a division of NanoTechLabs in Ohio named Buckeye Composites.
Third, as a collaborator in a University of Akron RCP, we used funding to support our product development in unique thermal management solutions to increase energy efficiency for radiant floor heating. Our graphite-based product provides more heat spreading capability and higher efficiency with easier installation than the conventional aluminum-based solutions in use today. The radiant floor product was also honored with a 2009 R&D 100 Award and is being launched commercially now.
Q: How does your company's product or service improve or change the industry overall?
A: Our products improve existing applications and products, particularly where lighter weight, better heat management, and improved energy efficiency are required. For example, our fuel cell work has enabled the fuel cell to be a viable energy delivery system for many applications; SS1500 enables thinner, more functional consumer electronics like cell phones; and radiant floor heating is an easier to install, more efficient and effective underfloor heating solution.
Q: What partnerships have you created with Ohio academic institutions that have served GrafTech well?
A: Through RCP funding we have developed and deepened our partnerships with Case Western Reserve University and University of Akron in particular. We have had many interns from area universities, in some summers as much as 20 percent of the people at our global headquarters and R&D center in Parma are interns. We have begun to develop a successful co-op program. So far most of our co-op students have been from Case Western Reserve University, primarily in chemical engineering.
Q: What is your company working on right now?
A: We have some Ohio Third Frontier and Department of Energy funded programs underway at present, most of them in the advanced energy area.
Q: Overall, what does the Ohio Third Frontier mean to your company?
A: The Ohio Third Frontier Program has been of great assistance in motivating and funding collaboration with value-add partners. The program's request for proposals process which stresses collaboration, and the availability of funding, has motivated us to proactively seek and cultivate meaningful partnerships with academic institutions and commercial companies throughout Ohio.
Q: What are the top three things that Ohio uniquely offers that you feel have helped make your business successful?
First, easy access to premier government laboratories to partner with, like the NASA Glenn Research Center and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Second, access to many, competent local industries in areas we are not experts in (for example, we need polymers for our products, but are not experts in polymer technology). Third, several high quality universities within easy reach to access new knowledge, find interns, and recruit new talent to support our growth.