NEWS COPY
The blackest material known to man, Vantablack® has been applied to a consumer product – a Lynx Black can – for the first time and will be available for public viewing for a limited period. The material is so dark it confounds the human eye, and is the closest most people will ever get to staring into a black hole.
Lynx commissioned the ground-breaking project with Vantablack developers, Surrey Nanosystems, to create the world’s blackest consumer product by coating the iconic Lynx can with Vantablack material, creating a truly unique experience for those viewing it.
Taking 400 hours to produce over a four-month period, the Lynx Vantablack can is so dark that it removes all texture from its surface. Those staring at the material will experience greatly reduced perceptions of depth with virtually no reflection as all shape and contours are lost. Creating an odd sensation, people say they find hard to comprehend what they are looking at when gazing into the Lynx Vantablack can.
Made of carbon nanotubes that are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, the material applied to the product looks more like an abyss than a physical substance, making it impossible to work out the edges of the famous can. Compared with a standard black chalk board that absorbs 93% of light, the coating on the Lynx Vantablack can is so black that it absorbs a staggering 99.965% of the visible light spectrum, conducts heat seven and a half times more effectively than copper and has 10 times the tensile strength of steel.
David Titman, Lynx Marketing Manager, said: “To be the world’s first consumer product wrapped in this material is really exciting. This is the most innovative project we have ever worked on – the material was an obvious fit for our new product range, Lynx Black, understated and slick, whilst pushing the barriers of science and technology and giving people a truly unique opportunity to view it’.
Ben Jensen, Chief Technology Officer at Surrey Nanoystems, said: “This is a ground-breaking moment for Vantablack as it’s the first time we’ve created a product for consumer viewing, by coating a Lynx can with the blackest material known to man. We’re thrilled to be able to give people the chance to experience the can and it’s unique “black hole” like qualities.
The Lynx Vantablack can is now on display for people to experience at the Lynx Black Space, on Dray Walk in Shoreditch. Black Space is open until 2nd August (11-12 Dray Walk E1 6QL).
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