MOSCOW (MRC) -- Teijin Carbon Europe
GmbH, the Teijin Group's carbon fiber business in Europe, has upgraded to Tier 2
membership with the National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol, UK as a key
part of Teijin’s strategy to support next generation aerospace manufacturing
projects, said Jeccomposites.
Teijin
originally joined the NCC as an associate member in November 2018. As a global
manufacturer of carbon fiber, Teijin Carbon Europe is well placed to support the
NCC to advance its materials and manufacturing technologies. Many of their
digital automated deposition technologies were funded by the Aerospace
Technology Institute (ATI) as part of the NCC iCAP program (Digital Capability
Acquisition Program, an investment program for digitalizing composite
manufacturing, increasing production rates and quality while improving
efficiency and reducing costs), including the Ultra High Rate Deposition Cell,
which has two huge industrial robots that automate the aircraft wing production
process. The robots measure, cut, lift and place pieces of carbon fiber fabric
(‘plies’) with millimetric accuracy – laying 5m wide strips of composite
material, up to 20m long, in one precise movement.
This cuts the number
of fabric components required from around 100,000 to just 150 and therefore can
significantly reduce wing component build time. This has the potential to
revolutionize aircraft production and is playing a critical role in the Wing of
Tomorrow – a research and development program led by Airbus to deliver the next
generation of aircraft wings, which also includes UK-based Tier 1 suppliers GKN
Aerospace and Spirit AeroSystems.
Teijin Carbon Europe looks forward to
supporting the NCC and partners on various highperformance aerospace projects as
well as contributing to the UK composites community. As a Tier 2 member, the
company will provide unique carbon fiber non-crimp fabrics as well as thermoset
and thermoplastic prepreg materials for diverse applications in these projects
and in other NCC development programs.
Enrique Garcia, Chief Technology
Officer at the NCC, commented: "We’re delighted that Teijin are enhancing their
membership with the NCC, which will enable us to explore many more opportunities
for future collaboration. We have already established a fruitful working
relationship with Teijin, who have consistently provided us with materials, so
that we can continue to develop new processes and products across all sectors.
This strengthened partnership will make a valuable contribution to both the
NCC’s and Teijin’s future growth in the composites industry."
As one
strategic focus of its medium-term management plan for 2020-2022, the Teijin
Group is intensively accelerating its development of mid- to downstream
applications for aircraft. Teijin Carbon Europe has already been selected to
supply carbon fiber based Non-Crimp Fabric (NCF) to the Wing of Tomorrow
project.
Going forward, Teijin intends to further strengthen its carbon
fiber and its intermediate material business as a leading solution provider for
aircraft applications, targeting annual sales in this field in excess of USD 900
million by around 2030.
As mRC informed earlier,
Teijin Chemicals plans to resume production at its polycarbonate (PC) plant in
Matsuyama, Japan in early August, after preventive maintenance. Repair work at
this enterprise with a capacity of 130,000 tonnes/year began at the end of
June.
According to MRC's ScanPlast, the total
estimated consumption of PC granulate in Russia in January - May 2020 (excluding
imports and exports to Belarus) increased to 38,900 tonnes, an increase of 19%
relative to the same period in 2019 (32, 700 tonnes).
Taiyo Petrochemical
Co. Ltd. manufactures petrochemical products. In particular, the company
manufactures and markets styrene monomer. |