Due to the nature of the business, a number of Toray employees will remain present at all times on our production sites to ensure the safety and security of our staff and facilities. In accordance with the guidelines set out by the French Government, other employees will work from home during this period or will be asked to work reduced hours. 

Under these exceptional circumstances, the company is doing everything it can to meet its customers’ requirements.

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The company will keep pushing ahead with R&D for this new material to foster carbon recycling, collaborating with other entities in developing applications to sustainably tap hydrogen energy and shrink environmental footprints.

Absorption- and adsorption-based facilities conventionally separate carbon dioxide, biogas, hydrogen, and other gases. The issue with such setups, however, is that they are large and consume a lot of energy, resulting in heavy carbon dioxide emissions. Gas separation methods employing membranes have thus attracted considerable attention. But despite ongoing research, no membranes have yet combined satisfactory gas separation performance and durability.

Toray’s new material is chemically stable because it comprises carbon, and offers outstanding gas permeability. The material employs thin, flexible fibres, so when it is used to support gas membranes a module can house many of them. Modules can thus be compact and light. Such support makes it possible to combine a range of gas separation layers.

Toray looks to contribute to the swift commercialisation of advanced separation membranes that are vital to materialising eco-friendly natural gas and bio-gas purification and hydrogen production.

Harnessing its polymer technology enables Toray to create a porous carbon fibre with uniformly continuous pores and carbon. It is possible to set nano-through micro-level pore sizes for porous structures. Another possibility is to create a hollow fibre-shaped porous carbon fibre in the centre of a fibre.

Prospective applications leveraging the adsorption properties of Toray’s new material include electrode materials and catalyst carriers (base substances for fixing other substances) in high-performance batteries. The company will collaborate with several partners in efforts leveraging its new material in a drive to commercialise more advanced gas separation membranes.

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The longterm aim of the venture is to manufacture high-pressure hydrogen carbon fibre cylinders for fuel cell vehicles in the Japanese market, a world leader in the transition to hydrogen-based energy.

The plan would integrate and leverage the high-pressure cylinder manufacturing technology of Hexagon Composites, a leading manufacturer of carbon fibre-reinforced high-pressure cylinders, the comprehensive capabilities of Mitsui, including its customer assets and marketing know-how, and the capacity of Toray to supply competitive, high-quality carbon fibre and develop new technologies.

The development of lighter parts and materials to reduce energy consumption by transportation equipment, especially in motor vehicles, is seen as an important approach to the solution of this problem. The market for lightweight materials, such as carbon fibre, is expected to expand rapidly.

Hexagon Lincoln, Mitsui, and Toray are motivated to contribute to the Japanese government plans to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics the starting point for the creation of a hydrogen society by commencing domestic production of high-pressure hydrogen cylinders as functional components for these fuel cell vehicles.

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Toray and Toyota’s proposal for highly efficient recycled carbon fibre manufacturing relies on an innovative and energy-efficient thermal decomposition method. In this method, combustible decomposition gas from matrix resin is used as the energy source for the thermal decomposition process, which typically consumes the most energy in carbon fibre recycling. As a result, the companies expect to achieve a large reduction in the amount of energy consumed in the recycling process.

The companies plan to build a pilot plant within the Handa Plant operated by Toyota Tsusho’s wholly owned subsidiary Toyota Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture; President: Toshio Araki). With an eye towards future commercialisation, the facility will demonstrate energy-efficient recycled carbon fibre manufacturing technologies while promoting the development of new applications for recycled carbon fibre.

The successful development of recycled carbon fibre and its applications will require collaboration with a wide range of customers to explore the possibilities for specific types of parts and materials. Toray and Toyota Tsusho will leverage their respective expertise and know-how to jointly implement carbon fibre recycling initiatives and contribute to the creation of a recycling-oriented society for the entire carbon fibre life-cycle.

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Delta Group is engaged in the development and supply of prepreg, primarily for the premium automotive sector. So far, Toray has been enhancing a cooperative relationship with the Delta Group through supply of carbon fiber Torayca, and this stock acquisition significantly reinforces its carbon fibre business in Europe along with Composite Materials (Italy) s.r.l (abbr. CIT) it established by acquiring the carbon fibre textile and prepreg business from Saati S.p.A. in January this year.

Having both CIT and Delta Group under its umbrella while at the same time expanding products that exploit their respective strengths, Toray are able to respond to market requirements that are getting even more sophisticated, especially to conquer new frontiers in the carbon fibre composites industry. It also enhances Toray’s structure to offer solutions to customers at each level of its own integrated supply chain by combining its French and German subsidiaries that produce and distribute carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) parts.

Under the current medium-term management program Project AP-G 2016, Toray positions the Carbon Fibre Composite Materials Business as one of the Strategically Expanding Businesses and is pursuing business expansion through active investment of management resources. Going forward, it will continue to drive forward further business expansion through sophistication of the business by enhancing its supply chain in each region of Americas, Europe and Asia.

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The new frame improves rider isolation from the road surfaces, and helps reduce fatigue. Jaguar’s engineers have applied their knowledge and experience in aerodynamics and ride analysis to help create an overall performance increase of 4.6%, and 50% improved comfort for the riders over rough terrains from the previous bike.

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Pinarello’s partner Toray has given the company exclusive access to their T1100 1K Dream Carbon with a Nanoalloy Technology that gives the carbon fibre composite materials both strength and flexibility, while it enables nylon resins to change shape like rubber and absorb the shock when rapid and strong external force is applied.

Despite the new suspension system the Dogma’s frame weighs just under 1kg at 990 grams. After laboratory tests, which ensured safety and efficiency of the new frame, the new bike was tested on the last 130km of the Paris-Roubaix route, with Sir Bradley Wiggins and Christian Knees. Over long and regular cobbles sectors, Pinarello performed comparative tests with the previous DOGMA K. The data collected by Jaguar showed that after repeated runs on the cobble sectors with both bikes the new Dogma K8-S allowed an 8% increase in speed, while expending 10% less energy.

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According to reports on the Nikkei, General purpose carbon fibre used in sports equipment like golf club shafts, tennis rackets bikes is now trading at $25 per kilogram on the global market, thats 15–25% higher than its lowest price, set back in 2012

Carbon-fibre used for general purpose manufacturing was often used in high end sports utility bikes, but now is being used in smaller bikes and more often. As for industrial use, the demand growing for carbon fibre among makers of pressure vessels, as the shale gas market grows in the United States.

Discounting for carbon fibre used in the general consumer market, generally regarded as high quality and made by companies in Japan is on the decline with makers directly competing with Taiwanese and Korean rivals less and less.

The prices for high end carbon used in the manufacture of aerospace and automotive parts and relatively flat, as end users have long-term contracts with the big carbon fibre manufacturers. Demand for carbon fibre used by the aerospace industry accounts for 20% of the overall demand.

Prices of general-purpose carbon declined on the global market between 2011 and 2013, due to strong overseas competition, since then the prices have risen although the price level for general purpose carbon is “still so low that makers are unable to make sufficient profits,” according to a Teijin representative.

Some makers have said they wound not want to throw cold water on the momentum for the wider use of carbon by raising prices unnecessarily with Japanese fibre makers hoping to attract demand from end users by using carbon as an alternative to metals and other materials. The environment for export is improving because of the weaker yen. Some market watchers, therefore, expect that carbon fibre prices may not rise steadily.

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According to multiple Asian news sources the company want to better utilise its advantages in carbon fibres for use in advanced technology markets, such as offshore pipes and components for satellites.

The company plans to integrate the carbon fibre business of subsidiary Mitsubishi Plastics, who manufacture heat-resistant carbon products into Mitsubishi Rayon, currently one of the largest producers of carbon in the world.

Industry insiders say that Mitsubishi is playing a bit of catch up with the other top manufacturers, in the last few years. Both Toray and Teijin have secured close ties with major aerospace and automotive manufacturers, while newcomers in other countries, such as South Korea have also improved their technological capabilities.

Its hoped that this integration of businesses will better utilise the company’s capabilities, increasing the flow of knowledge and innovation between both research and development teams.

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Toray will take over the assets of Saati’s plant located in Legnano, Milan in January 2015, when it will then start operations as Composite Materials (Italy) S.r.l., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toray, while Saati’s American composite business will still belong to the Saati Group.

In Europe, Toray currently is engaged in carbon fibre business starting from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor at its French subsidiary, Toray Carbon Fibers Europe S.A. (CFE), and CFRP parts business that uses carbon fibre fabric at its German subsidiaries of Euro Advanced Carbon Fibre Composites GmbH and ACE Advanced Composite Engineering GmbH (ACE). Through this planned acquisition of intermediate material business base, Toray establishes its own integrated supply chain, and would further strengthen the structure of Toray Group’s carbon fibre composite materials business in Europe.

Saati’s carbon fiber fabric and prepreg business has been expanding rapidly in recent years as a customer of Toray Group’s carbon fibre-related companies, especially of CFE, under the strong cooperation between the two companies. In particular, in the premium automobile field, it has been highly acclaimed by the market for its quick response to customer requirements, despite being a late entrant into the market. Going forward, Toray Group will transfer its technology to CIT while aiming to expand the business beyond Europe.

The post Toray Set to Acquire Carbon Fibre Prepreg Business appeared first on Composites Today.

The long-term contract extension is expected to take effect in 2015 and represents a significant increase in the material provided to Boeing by Toray. The two companies will also collaborate to improve the overall commercialisation of advanced composites in the aerospace sector, with specific attention being paid to consistency and performance of composites in production environments and an improved cost structure that is more competitive with metals.

John Tracy, Boeing chief technology officer and senior vice president for Engineering, Operations & Technology said;

This partnership is a great example of why Toray is the market leader in composite materials, their understanding of the technology is outstanding, but they also know there is much more we can do with composites in aerospace if we work together to improve the performance, processing and economics. Toray is working with us on that and we are happy to expand their work statement to include the 777X.

Boeing and Toray were amongst the first users of prepreg composites back in the 1970s. By 1994, assemblies including the empennage and floor beams were being produced for the 777 program, the first commercial airplane featuring structurally significant composite parts. That early success culminated in the launch of the 787 in 2004, the world’s first largely composite commercial airplane.

With this new agreement, Boeing will have contracts in place for more than 75% of the major structural material for the 777X. The wingspan of the 777X measures 6.95 metres longer than the span of today’s 777–300ER. Its raked wingtip and optimised span will deliver greater efficiency and significant fuel savings while being compatible with today’s airport gates.

Back in 2013, Boeing spent more than $4 billion on goods and services in Japan. Including this agreement for the 777X composite wing, Boeing expects to purchase an additional $36 billion of goods and services locally by the end of the decade, supporting tens of thousands of aerospace jobs.

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