Enhancing high-performance skis. Folsom Custom Skis specializes in customized, hand-built skis for its customers. After a careful prototyping and testing process, the company worked with hybrid materials supplier Mito Material Solutions to redesign its carbon fiber composite touring skis with graphene enhancement to create a lighter weight, higher performance backcountry touring option. Photo Credit: Folsom Custom Skis

In the materials world, graphene has attracted a lot of attention in the last few years. A one atom-thick layer of carbon atoms that is today available commercially in a number of formats that can be integrated into a composite or other material, graphene, even at very low loadings, has been demonstrated to enhance a part’s mechanical properties such as thermal and electrical conductivity, strength, fracture toughness and vibration damping.

Interest in the use of graphene additives is growing in many composite applications and end markets, but barriers to widespread adoption continue to exist, such as standardization and verification of graphene materials available (though this is being worked on by entities such as the Graphene Council and its members), as well as the design and processing challenges that come with incorporating a new additive into any existing product and process.