Materials That Make Intelligence Tangible.

A functional polymer materials platform with 20 years of experience. Interface materials, from molecules to mass production.

Contact usExplore our capabilities

Our tactile interfaces

Four capability areas

Each project starts from your application.

  • Tactile & visuotactile contact materials, concept render
    Tactile sensing

    Tactile & visuotactile contact materials

    Material sheets, layered prototypes and project validation for tactile and visuotactile sensors.

    Multilayer composite · elastic recovery · sensing-compatible

  • Replaceable fingertips & gripper pads, concept render
    Dexterous hands & grippers

    Replaceable fingertips & gripper pads

    Samples, custom geometry and mounting/replacement concepts for fingertips and gripper pads.

    Hygienic protection · stable grip · replace as needed

  • Data-glove materials & packaging, concept render
    Teleoperation & motion capture

    Data-glove materials & packaging

    Protective layers, liners and mechanical packaging for sensors in data-collection gloves.

    Soft fit · sensor contact · packaging co-developed

  • Contact layers for curved e-skin, concept render
    Full-body humanoid coverage

    Contact layers for curved e‑skin

    Curved lamination, segmented coverage and pilot integration for electronic skin.

    Curved conformity · protection · signal path

Why NEWMAT

Four things every contact layer must get right

  1. 01

    Consistent

    • Repeatable, batch-stable materials
    • Drop-in replacement parts
  2. 02

    Durable

    • Abrasion-resistant contact layers
    • Strong, long-lasting bond
  3. 03

    High-fidelity

    • Tuned hardness and thickness
    • Optimized optical properties
  4. 04

    Scalable

    • Conformal shells and gloves
    • Ready for mass production

Our approach

Every layer tuned to your sensor architecture

A precision-engineered, multilayer material stack for optical tactile sensing.

Exploded view of a visuotactile sensor skin: skin-feel layer, wear-resistant layer, marker layer, soft silicone layer, rigid substrate and camera module

Consumable economics

High-value hand materials, designed as consumables. We design contact layers to be replaced, not rebuilt—so the fingertip stops being the first thing to fail, and the swap scheme fits your line.

Physical intelligence

From seeing to doing: contact feedback is the missing step

Only real contact tells a robot how hard it is pressing and whether an object is slipping. In a visuotactile sensor the material itself makes contact readable: the elastomer deforms, markers inside it shift, and a camera behind it reads the shift.

That is why the contact layer is a multilayer functional material, not just a cover: it links real contact to tactile sensing. We develop that layer; reading and acting on the signal stays with your sensing and control team.

Tactile & visuotactile contact materials →

How a visuotactile contact layer works An object presses on a multilayer elastomer. Markers inside the layer shift as it deforms; a separate camera behind the material reads the shift optically. Calibration and algorithms on the customer side then judge the contact state. CONTACTMATERIAL / OPTICS Marker shiftSeparate camera customer
  1. 01Contact
  2. 02Elastomer deforms
  3. 03Optical read-out

Product line

Hillmat — replaceable sensor skin for every robot application

Match your application to the right contact material. Final specifications are set with you for each project.

  • Hillmat-Pro: Humanoid hands · industrial
    Humanoid hands · industrial

    Hillmat-Pro

    Built for high-cycle manipulation in structured industrial environments, including humanoid platforms. ESD-safe, dust-repellent, high wear-resistance—consistent tactile feedback across repeated grasp cycles.

    • Industrial grade
    • Anti-static ESD
    • Dust-repellent
    • High wear-resistance
  • Hillmat-Medi: Medical & surgical robots
    Medical & surgical robots

    Hillmat-Medi

    Contact layer for manipulation in medical scenarios. Ag⁺ antimicrobial and fluid-resistant, designed around standard disinfection routines. Compliance is assessed per project.

    • Ag⁺ antimicrobial
    • Fluid barrier
    • Disinfectant-safe
  • Hillmat-Food: Food service & kitchen robots
    Food service & kitchen robots

    Hillmat-Food

    Contact material for food-handling scenarios. Steam-resistant and grease-repellent, designed for kitchen and food-sorting environments. Regulatory suitability is assessed per project.

    • Food-handling scenarios
    • Steam-resistant
    • Grease-repellent
  • Hillmat-Lite: Service & consumer robots
    Service & consumer robots

    Hillmat-Lite

    Lightweight, long-lasting contact layer for service robots operating in home and commercial environments. Hydrophobic, low-maintenance.

    • Hydrophobic
    • Lightweight
    • Long-lasting
    • Low-maintenance

Work scenarios

New scenarios for robots are familiar ground for us

Our understanding of contact, protection and real working conditions comes from years of glove coatings used in six kinds of workplace. The same requirements now reach robots.

  • Concept illustration (laboratory): a white service robot wearing blue disposable nitrile gloves, pipetting into sample tubes at a bright lab bench with coloured reagents
    01LaboratoryCleanliness and sensitivity
  • Concept illustration (pharmacy): a white service robot wearing blue disposable nitrile gloves, picking a medicine box from shelves of colourful boxes
    02PharmacyGentle handling and protection
  • Concept illustration (supermarket): a white service robot wearing blue disposable nitrile gloves, arranging apples and oranges in a produce aisle
    03SupermarketGrip and maintenance
  • Concept illustration (industry): a white service robot wearing blue disposable nitrile gloves, inspecting metal parts on a bright production line with yellow robot arms
    04IndustryWear resistance, continuous work
  • Concept illustration (home): a white service robot wearing blue disposable nitrile gloves, washing a plate in a sunlit wooden kitchen
    05HomeWet conditions and cleaning
  • Concept illustration (medical testing): a white service robot wearing blue disposable nitrile gloves, placing a blood sample tube into a rack of colour-capped tubes in a hospital lab
    06Medical testingProtection and consistency

Built for

Designed for teams building the next generation of touch

  • Visuotactile sensing teams

    For optical visuotactile sensor architectures, including marker-based and custom designs: consistent marker deformation and a clean optical path.

  • Humanoid hand teams

    Fingertip-scale form factors and replaceable contact layers for dexterous-manipulation R&D and deployment.

  • Industrial gripper teams

    Durable contact materials for high-cycle contact in structured environments; ESD-safe and dust-resistant options.

  • Robotics OEMs

    Repeatable formulations, documented specifications and a materials engineer on the project—from samples to manufacturing transfer.

Cross-industry materials platform

Proven in gloves, rail, auto and PV—now for robotics

Materials and engineering experience from glove, rail transit, automotive and lightweight-PV applications. Our work rests on functional polymer design, interlayer interfaces and precision compounding; the same development method now serves robotics.

  • Glove coatings

    Long-term supply to glove manufacturers; the source of our understanding of contact, protection and real working conditions.

  • Rail transit

    Multilayer coating systems and application processes for demanding rail projects, from material development to on-vehicle validation and stable supply.

  • Automotive

    Wheel powder coatings and coatings for composite parts that reach end vehicles through key components.

  • Concept illustration: a large lightweight flexible PV module laminated flat across the roof of a white electric car, cell grid visible

    Lightweight PV

    Lightweight composite front sheets that bring solar to roofs glass cannot cover and to the roofs of low-speed vehicles.

About NEWMAT and our R&D and manufacturing capabilities →

Team

One team from lab formulation to production line

A cross-functional materials team taking formulations from the lab to manufacturing.

  • Capability

    Materials R&D

    Full-stack formulation from molecular design to coating application, built over years of functional-polymer work.

  • Capability

    Sensor interface engineering

    A dedicated visuotactile materials group: silicone tuning, marker-layer optimisation and optical characterisation, working directly with robot-hand teams.

  • Capability

    Manufacturing & scale-up

    A lab-to-line path proven in industrial coatings.

How we work together

From first conversation to manufacturing transfer

  1. 1

    Requirement definition

    Task, current problem, structure and interfaces, environment, targets and how success will be judged.

  2. 2

    Material screening

    Candidate formulations and material systems are compared against the agreed requirements.

  3. 3

    Prototyping

    Samples and layered prototypes are made to fit your geometry and interfaces.

  4. 4

    Project validation

    Tests run under conditions agreed with you; results feed the next iteration.

  5. 5

    Manufacturing transfer

    Process definition and small-batch preparation once the design is stable.

Engineering & validation in detail →

Contact

Ready to build a better tactile interface?

Contact us