JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012 - 24

carbon survey
Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing (VCAMM). Within the 7th European Framework Programme, the EUCARBON project (for European Space Qualified Carbon Fibres and Pre-impregnated Based Materials) is a collaborative project aimed at developing carbon fibres in Europe for use in high demanding applications like satellite components. The consortium includes the Portuguese research and technology organization INEGI (Instituto de Engenharia Macânica e Gestão Industrial), the Acrylic Fiber Producer Fisipe, the satellite manufacturer Astrium via EADS Casa Espacio (Spain) and the composites testing laboratory CTL Tástáil Teo (Ireland). Fisipe has already its own carbon fibre pilot line. More will be said about this project in our next issue. We can also mention the Brazilian project to produce PAN-based fibres bringing together the Navy’s Technological Center in Sao Paulo (CTMSP), the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), the University of São Paulo (USP), the RADICIFIBRAS Company and the Brazilian FINEP agency. Harper recently awarded a contract for a complete research scale processing line but did not mention the name of its customer. Could it have been for this project? Dow Chemical recently created a Joint Venture with the Turkish company AKSA which already produces carbon fibre. This JV could change AKSA’s production schedule. Companies specialized in equipment for carbon fibre production such as Despatch, Harper International, Eisenmann, KYK or Litzer should be kept very busy given the numerous projects underway. PAN supply is obviously critical to the manufacture of carbon fibre. Great efforts have been made to build new facilities. Each player must secure supply. Toray has plans to build a PAN plant in France and SGL just bought most of the shares in Fisipe, a Portuguese Company, to diversify future supply of Precursor.

Conclusion
Despite economic uncertainties the carbon fibre market is clearly optimistic. We should witness a great expansion in the use of this material in the near future. There is great potential for improvement to carbon fibres when you compare their theoretical characteristics with the properties of currently produced fibres. Furthermore, all manufacturers are striving to increase their return on investment by producing faster and cheaper. PAN is for the moment the main precursor and will remain so until another cheaper precursor (at least in terms of the overall carbon fiber production cost) appears on an industrial scale. Several laboratories such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA are working on this. But for the time being, investments in PAN precursor are essential to meet the demand. n
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Large tow spool

©SGL Group

New Players
Carbon fiber is more than ever a strategic material. Many countries want to secure its supply for strategic and industrial competitiveness reasons. There are a large number of sites in China that produce carbon fibre (see Table1) but it is difficult to obtain precise data about production quantity and quality. Three companies in the Republic of Korea have production sites under construction or in the commissioning stages: Hyosung, Taekwang Industrial and Toray Advanced Materials Korea (TAK). Among other new players, we can mention Alabuga Fiber LLC in the Republic of Tatarstan which should have a nameplate capacity of 1,500 tons per year in 2014. This company belongs to the Russian company Composite Holding which also owns OJSC NPK Khimpromengineering (Argon & ZUKM companies) which produces carbon fibre in Russia.

The Saudi Arabia-based company SABIC also wants to produce carbon fibre. SABIC has signed an agreement with the Italian acrylic fibre producer Montefibre to use its technology. SABIC should start by building a plant in Spain and then a larger one in Saudi Arabia with a nameplate capacity of 3,000 tons. The Indian company Kemrock, which already has a small production facility, should start to draw large tow fibres in 2014. Australia is also planning to set up a research facility for carbon fibre innovation on the Deakin University’s Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds. The carbon fibre pilot plant will be part of an Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre (AFFRIC). This Centre is the result of collaboration between Deakin University, CSIRO (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation i.e. Australia’s national science agency) and the

24 jec composites magazine / No72 April - May 2012

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012