JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #39 - March/April 2008 - 81

THE WORLD’S LEADING COMPOSITES HUB > Stand G56 In April 2008, the Toho Tenax Group will commission a new carbon fibre line in Mishima, Japan. With an annual production capacity of 2,700 tons, it will be the world’s largest carbon fibre production line. The new line will produce Tenax® STS carbon fibre for high volume industrial applications such as wind turbines, automotive and offshore structures. In total, the Group’s yearly capacity will reach 11,800 tons. Anticipating the expected growth in demand for PAN-based carbon fibres, that should reach a 1015% annual rate and exceed 30,000 tons in 2008, the Toho Tenax Group has decided to invest in additional capacity. A new production facility is already under construction at Toho Tenax Europe GmbH, Germany, with a capacity of 1,700 tons. With this fourth production line to be commissioned at the Oberbruch site in August 2009, the Group will reach a capacity of 5,100 tons in Germany and 13,500 tons worldwide. Such expansion will enable www.tohotenax-eu.com Toho Tenax to meet the demand of the strongly growing global markets. Commissioning the world’s largest carbon fibre line Customer-specific insulation materials > Stand R 78 Steinbach AG’s newly installed manufacturing equipment is designed to produce sound and/or heat insulation materials specifically adapted to the applications of each customer. Combinations can be made from a wide range of sound absorbing foams, heavy layers from bitumen and thermoplastic resins, glass, basalt and silica fibre mats and more. All products can be supplied in a self-adhesive version for easy and quick application. Steinbach also offers a wide range of cover materials, e.g. aluminium foil, artificial leather, textiles, polymer films, which can be added onto the surface to meet customerspecific requirements. These surface materials can be either aesthetic or functional (easy cleaning, sealing against liquid penetration, etc.). The new products find wide application in vehicle building, www.steinbach-tech.de machinery, etc. Adhesives for multilayer > Stand N 71 structures Collano AG is a competence centre for industrial applications in the field of thermoplastic adhesive films. Multilayer films are a specialty segment. Multilayer structures have been used in food packaging for years to meet the need for water-tight sealing, oxygen barriers, piercing and tear resistance, impact resistance and security items, which was not feasible without combining different materials and thicknesses. Multilayered adhesive structures are less common, but equally interes-ting. They are ideal for bonding dissimilar materials such as metals and plastics, avoiding migration of low molecular species by integrating barrier layers, creating highmelting middle layers to limit the penetration of low-viscosity adhesives into porous substrates or textiles, providing the option of separating a high-temperature processing step from a low-temperature one in order to protect delicate substrates. Introducing functional layers considerably raises the value of an adhesive, as adhesion is no longer the only function. Additional benefits range from processing advantages to additional physical effects such as adding a melting barrier or a mechanical stress release layer, or even a sound barrier. Multilayer structures may also combine different adhesive technologies, such as a porous coating of a pressure-sensitive hotmelt adhesive for intermediate positioning of adhesive films. www.collano.com Advanced fibre reinforcements > Stand M 49 With the newly developed GS finishes, DIAB’s Divinycell sandwich core materials can be readily applied to curved surfaces. Here, the core is grid scored in both length and width directions, and a glass fibre scrim is applied to one surface. This allows the core to readily conform to the contours of moulds and curved surfaces without the build-up of internal stresses in the laminate. DIAB has now extended this concept with the addition of a grid-scored material, GS 60, which features a larger grid - 60 x 60 mm squares rather than 30 x 30 mm. The new GS variant is ideal for moulding areas that are of moderate curvature or flat as it provides additional weight savings and can reduce resin and/or core bonding adhesive usage by up to 50%. Typical applications for the GS 60 finished material are expected to be wind blades and nacelles, larger boat decks and hulls where hand lay-up, vacuum bagging or infusion are used. GS 60 finishing can be applied to all grades of Divinycell sandwich core. A combination of the existing and new gridscored material can be used for applications that feature flat, gently curved and tightly curved areas. In this way, the fabricator/-builder can optimise the component in terms of performance, weight and material usage. www.diabgroup.com No39 March-April 2008 / JEC Composites Magazine

http://www.tohotenax-eu.com http://www.steinbach-tech.de http://www.diabgroup.com http://www.collano.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #39 - March/April 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #39 - March/April 2008