The wizard of Smoltek

Smol­tek has made a major break­through: suc­cess­fully grow­ing car­bon nan­ofibers (CNF) on an A4-sized area. This achieve­ment, detailed in our latest news and press release, under­scores the sig­ni­fic­ant value of Smoltek’s intel­lec­tu­al cap­it­al. As a share­hold­er or investor, it’s cru­cial to under­stand this value and how we pro­tect it. This art­icle explores what we have achieved, our strategy for mon­et­iz­ing it, the import­ance of our people, and how we are com­mit­ted to pre­serving the intel­lec­tu­al cap­it­al they represent.

Revolution in CNF production

Almost two dec­ades ago, Dr. Shafiq Kabir, founder of Smol­tek, bought a used plasma-enhanced chem­ic­al vapor depos­ition (PECVD) react­or cham­ber from Chalmers Uni­ver­sity of Tech­no­logy. It was needed for grow­ing car­bon nan­ofibers. The react­or cham­ber was the company’s first, affec­tion­ately known intern­ally as “Dav­id.” Among the nerdier share­hold­ers and investors, it’s known as the 6‑inch machine because it was used to grow car­bon nan­ofibers on 6‑inch sil­ic­on wafers. It still can, but now “Dav­id” has been rebuilt to grow car­bon nan­ofibers on a titani­um sub­strate slightly lar­ger than an A4 sheet (21×29.7 cm).

“With recent modi­fic­a­tions, ‘Dav­id’ can now pro­duce cell mater­i­als up to A4 size, a stand­ard for indus­tri­al applic­a­tions,” says Ellinor Ehrn­berg, Pres­id­ent of Smol­tek Hydro­gen. “This allows us to sim­ul­tan­eously pro­duce up to 150 pro­to­types of 2×2 cm, or 24 pro­to­types of 5×5 cm, or a single pro­to­type at A4 size.”

With a fur­ther modi­fic­a­tion planned, Smol­tek will be able to pro­duce up to 2,000 square meters of cell mater­i­al per year.

Demand is already knocking

Why would Smol­tek pro­duce 2,000 m² of cell mater­i­al per year? There are no cus­tom­ers, after all.

Quite the opposite!

“In fact, cus­tom­ers are already knock­ing on our door,” Ellinor Ehrn­berg, says. “While they may not order large quant­it­ies of cell mater­i­al on day one, they rely on our cell mater­i­al and expert­ise to devel­op their products.”

The devel­op­ment pro­cess, which typ­ic­ally spans 2–5 years, begins with pro­to­types that require cell mater­i­als in sizes of 2×2 cm and 5×5 cm. From there, they move to A4-sized cell mater­i­al for build­ing entire stacks, even­tu­ally lead­ing to sub­stan­tial orders for full-scale production.

At each stage—from ini­tial pro­to­types to stacks and pre-series production—Smoltek gen­er­ates rev­en­ue by sup­ply­ing both the essen­tial cell mater­i­als and the R&D ser­vices that enable cus­tom­ers’ devel­op­ment efforts. By the time these cus­tom­ers are ready for mass pro­duc­tion, a volume fact­ory will be cap­able of pro­du­cing up to 200,000 m² of cell mater­i­al per year, includ­ing sizes lar­ger than 1 m².

One part­ner com­pany exclaimed in amazement: ‘Is it true?!’

Ellinor Ehrn­berg, Pres­id­ent of Smol­tek Hydrogen

The genius behind the breakthrough

To achieve A4-sized cell mater­i­al pro­duc­tion, Shafiq Kabir and oth­ers at Smol­tek Hydro­gen redesigned “Dav­id.” Among oth­er things, the react­or cham­ber was giv­en a lar­ger top elec­trode and a lar­ger heat­ing plate. It sounds simple. But it is any­thing but.

“Shafiq is a wiz­ard,” says Ellinor Ehrn­berg. “No one out­side Smol­tek thought it pos­sible to grow car­bon nan­ofibers on a sur­face as large as A4. But with his unique expert­ise and sys­tem­at­ic approach, Shafiq took on this seem­ingly impossible task and proved the naysay­ers wrong.”

Ellinor Ehrn­berg continues:

“Since we pub­lished the news of our break­through, the res­ult has attrac­ted much atten­tion from research­ers and col­leagues world­wide. One part­ner com­pany exclaimed in amazement: ‘Is it true?!’ They were stunned by the res­ult. It shows that Smol­tek has a unique pos­i­tion in the market.”

Safeguarding our intellectual capital

Smoltek’s unique pos­i­tion stems from our highly qual­i­fied research and devel­op­ment and the intel­lec­tu­al prop­erty it gen­er­ates. This expert­ise has solid­i­fied Smoltek’s pos­i­tion with its largest and longest stand­ing investor as a com­pany with sig­ni­fic­ant, but not fully recog­nized, poten­tial.

To pro­tect this intel­lec­tu­al cap­it­al, Smol­tek takes every pos­sible meas­ure, includ­ing secur­ing exclus­ive rights to use the res­ults of our R&D through pat­ents. But even more cru­cial is Smol­tek Hydrogen’s com­mit­ment to nur­tur­ing the team behind these remark­able achieve­ments, ensur­ing they thrive and grow while mak­ing Smol­tek an attract­ive employ­er that draws top tal­ent worldwide.

Cultivating a winning team

Ellinor cred­its much of the company’s unique cul­ture to the sup­port­ive and open-minded lead­er­ship of Shafiq Kabir and Fabi­an Wenger, Head of R&D.

“Fabi­an and Shafiq cre­ate an atmo­sphere where every­one feels val­ued,” Ellinor explains. “They are gen­er­ous with their know­ledge and always approach­able, encour­aging open dis­cus­sion and col­lab­or­a­tion. Their pos­it­ive, inclus­ive approach brings out the best in every­one on the team.”

From the begin­ning, Smol­tek Hydro­gen­’s co-founders, Ellinor Ehrn­berg and Fabi­an Wenger, have been com­mit­ted to build­ing a safe and col­lab­or­at­ive cul­ture. No ques­tion is too trivi­al to ask and no idea is too out­land­ish to sug­gest. They believe in cre­at­ing an open, wel­com­ing envir­on­ment where every employ­ee feels safe, val­ued and appreciated.

This cul­ture pays off through loy­al employ­ees who go the extra mile for the com­pany and each oth­er. A small but telling example is when the team framed the first A4-sized cell mater­i­al and hung it in the office.