Redefine Air
What if you could change the behaviour of air?
We’ve been doing just that using Carbon Air technology for over a decade.
The journey continues with a new company. Sorpra.
Who We Are
Sorpra was created to carry forward the work of Carbon Air, a spin-out from the University of Salford.
We are a team of scientists and engineers with a passion and understanding of multi-scale porosity materials and their effects on air. We can simulate and model pneumatic and acoustic interactions with extraordinary accuracy.
The story started with loudspeakers. Activated Carbon had been shown to dramatically reduce the stiffness of air in the back volume, which in turn improves bass response of the unit.
You can make a small loudspeaker behave like a larger one. Or increase the volume of an air spring or air store, without changing the external dimensions. All down to the magic of Sorption
Our Technology Platform
Ten patent families
Thirteen years of know-how and testing with some of the largest automotive, mobility and audio companies on the planet.
Through the TruTune brand, sales of thousands of inserts and piston replacements for every major brand of mountian bike air fork around the world, with shocks and more to come.
And a range of felt and monolith materials that change the behaviour of loudspeakers from subwoofers to smartphone microspeakers.
All expanding space with the same basic idea
The Applications
Auto Air Springs
Carbon Air technology uses sorption and heat sinking to control gas behaviour, reducing air chamber stiffness without changing geometry or pressure. This creates three core benefits:
Comfort
Improved ride quality with lower dynamic stiffness
Downsizing
Smaller air springs and system-wide savings
Tunability
Fine-tuning of existing hardware, including greater rate-change authority in multi-chamber systems
Bike Suspension
The Trutune “Flow” and “Hit” inserts transfrom the behaviour of all major models of air forks. The key benefits:
Increased mid-stroke support
A more linear spring curve
Less sag, more travel
The component runs at higher pressure, but still feels more compliant dynamically
More grip and control
The tyre maintains more contact with the ground
Find out more at www.trutune.co.uk
Air stores
Air suspension systems need compressed air tanks
For cars, buses, trains and trucks.
In tests, sorption-based air storage can cut the volume of tank needed by 40% in typical usage.
Contact us for more detail on how much space you can save
Microspeakers
Working with three universities, and in collaboration with some of the leading mobile phone handset manufacturers, Sorpra’s proprietary polyhipe-based monolith material extends microspeaker bass response by up to 3dB.
Unlike activated carbon, the material is both hydrophobic and electrically insulating
Unlike zeolites used in many microspeakers, the material comes in monolith form, suitable for pluack-and-place automation, and requiring no filtered carrier.
