JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #64 - April 2011 - 5

a commercial aircraft programme or an automotive programme. We strongly believe that our technologies and products have a H. B., A. M. :We have strong great potential to optimise the owners that are backing us up. We reinforcement structures used in are profitable and have good the different areas of the composite support from our creditors. We industry and are confident we will believe that we have been able to grow in these directions based on show these actors that we have an the increased demand we see. interesting and strong business that JCM: Let’s conclude this is well prepared for long-term interview with technical topics profitable growth.
JCM: You are present on the sports and leisure (ice hockey stick, golf shafts, kite- and windsurfing boards), auto sport (Formula One, Le Mans and tourism championships), marine (yacht) and ultralight aircraft markets. You target the automotive, industrial (wind energy mainly) and aeronautical (JEC Award 2011 finalist in cooperation with EADS) industries. Your company needs to reach a critical size to penetrate these markets. What is your strategy?

JCM: How is your expansion financed? By your benefits, your shareholders or a stock market introduction?

H. B., A. M. : We believe it is and we have already done quite a lot of work on other fibres such as aramid, glass, PP and PBO. We can also produce hybrids of all fibre types. The business logics are there also for other fibres. It is a matter of time, opportunities to develop, customer interest and potential volumes that will determine when we will start to see TeXtreme® versions from other materials on a H. B., A. M. :We are engaged in larger scale. Moreover, our Tape evaluation programmes and test Weaving Technology is very well projects. We also work close to our suited to weave other types of customers in these fields to try to tapes, for example thermoplastic better understand the needs in UD prepregs, into a balanced, these markets and how our easily formable sheet. We also see existing or modified products can that it takes time for our customers best fulfil them. We have the to start thinking in terms of Spread necessary financial backing and are Tows instead of yarns. Spread set up to quickly expand our Tows give you much more capacity if we achieve approval for flexibility and open up so many a large-volume application such as new possibilities to optimise the
TeXtreme® is a range of Spread Tow Fabrics that provide in the USA in January 2011 and invested in additional capacity in February 2011 to meet the growing demand. Oxeon markets its products through two brands TeXtreme® and TeXero®.

you’re no longer bound to a certain tow size for a certain fabric weight (...)
(...)

About products

ultra-low weight, good mechanical properties and superior surface finish. The fabrics can be tailormade. TeXtreme® is now also available with tapes incorporated at different angles: +α/-β.
New +45/-45 TeXtreme® fabric

TeXero® is a range of Spread Tow dry carbon UD tapes that combine ultra-low weight with extreme stiffness in one direction. UD reinforcements can be considered as a standard item within the industry.

No64 April 2011 / jec composites magazine

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and R&D. Your products are based on carbon fibre. Can your spreading process be used with other fibres? If so, is the added value high enough to justify the use of your process?

reinforcement. That is, you’re no longer bound to a certain tow size for a certain fabric weight; you can easily combine different fibres if you are looking for certain characteristics, it is no longer a problem to create unbalanced fabrics, etc.

”

JCM: Are there specific R&D topics you would like to talk about, for example infusion, braids for large-diameter parts, dry impregnation of thermoplastics, or the percentage of your turnover devoted to R&D?

H. B., A. M. : Absolutely. One of our themes has been to develop a technology to produce a continuous-length Spread Tow Fabric with +α/-β variants, initially presented through the +45/-45 fabric showcased at the JEC Show in Paris. This ground-breaking material brings all the advantages found in TeXtreme® 0/90 fabric such as improved mechanical performance, weight saving potential, good handling ability, flatness and surface smoothness. Its balanced construction eliminates problems associated with symmetric plying of non-crimp fabrics (NCF) and unidirectional (UD) materials. With reduced labour and material waste, the production of composites becomes efficient. We always try to focus on innovations that are demanded by our customers. Our aim is to optimise the reinforcement in order to help optimise the product.
More information: www.oxeon.se

http://www.oxeon.se

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #64 - April 2011

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