JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #112 - April/May 2017 - 22

BUSINESS carbon
er of automotive composites,
for US$825 million. CSP is the
world's largest producer of automotive composite parts made using sheet moulding compounds
(SMC).
Carbon SMCs are riding high,
and in early November 2015,
MRC invested at its Vilshofen site
in Bavaria to produce 1,000 metric tons (MT) of carbon SMC per
year starting in September 2016,
with the possibility of increasing
the amount to 6,000 MT/year
in future if required by European
market demand. A few weeks
later, Polynt announced that it
would also invest in carbon SMC
in Germany (near Frankfurt) for
series applications. More recently,
resin producer Aliancys, Daimler,
and SMC specialist Menzolit announced their cooperation for
Mercedes vehicles.
Some aerospace equipment manufacturers are expanding into the
automotive sector, like Australian
company Quickstep which, after
"experimenting" with parts for
Thales' Hawkei armoured vehicle, is now producing carbon air
intake ducts for the Ford Falcon
XR6 Sprint.
There are clear cost pressures in
automotive, and research is ongoing to reduce these. Last summer, the Institute for Advanced
Composites
Manufacturing
Innovation (IACMI) launched
a collaborative project targeting a 15% cost reduction for
structural parts, with an impressive array of companies: Toray
Composites America, Zoltek,
Reichhold, Janicki Industries,
Globe Machine Manufacturing
Co., the Composite Recycling
Technology Center (CRTC),
American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA),
and Michigan State University
(MSU).

The energy market
In October, Mitsubishi Rayon
Co. (MRC) and Fiberline
Composites A/S created a
joint-venture to manufacture and
distribute pultruded laminates
for wind turbine blades, with
MRC supplying large-tow fibres
from its plant in Otake, Japan to
the joint-venture in Denmark.
Carbon fibre is used in energy
production, but also more and
more in energy storage, in particular in the form of pressure tanks.
Hexagon, a leader in that field,
has recently announced a number of partnerships. For example,
in April, it agreed to contribute its
filament winding expertise dedicated to pressure tanks towards
a joint development venture to
manufacture and market hydrogen storage tanks with Mitsui (for
the liners) and Toray (for the carbon fibre and its expertise in composites). They are especially targeting the upcoming Olympics in
Tokyo, where the Japanese government wants to demonstrate its
progress in the use of hydrogen in
the automotive field. In August,
Daimler chose Hexagon Lincoln
to supply the hydrogen tank for
its next generation of fuel cell vehicles.22 Aug 2016.
In October, Agility Fuel Systems
and Hexagon Composites
merged to create Agility Fuel
Solutions. The new structure is
also held by the investors of both
companies. That same month,
Hexagon Composites also
bought out Xperion.
Other significant investments
In October, LeMond Composites, under the direction of the
former Tour de France champion Greg Lemond, invested $125
million to manufacture low-cost
carbon fibre under a licensing
agreement for technology developed by Oak Ridge National
Laboratory. The plant in Oak

jec composites magazine / No112 April - May 2017

Ridge, Tennessee is expected to
enter into production within a
medium-term time frame.
In November, Teijin announced
that it would invest $600 million
by 2030 to produce carbon fibre
in Greenwood, South Carolina,
starting with the purchase of 1.8
million square meters of land.
The target markets are automotive and aerospace.
In early January 2017, Mitsubishi
Rayon Co. (MRC) acquired SGL
Group's carbon-fibre production plant in Evanston, Wyoming.
SGL had been having some financial difficulties due to overcapacity in the steel sector, where it
has its largest market for graphite
electrodes for smelting furnaces
- its "cash cow", so to speak. The
purchase should go into effect in
April 2017. MRC's decision is
motivated by the development of
large-tow carbon in the wind energy sector, in particular. The acquisition will add 1,000 metric
tons (MT) per year to MRC's existing capacity. Combined with
the expanded large-tow capacities at its Sacramento, California
and Otake, Japan sites (à finaliser
de 2700 - 3900 MT), this should
bring MRC's total capacity from
10,100 MT/year to 14,300 MT/
year sometime this year. MRC's
ambitious goal is for its carbon fibre and composites division to attain sales of 100 billion yen by the
year 2020.
Unfortunately, a temporary overcapacity in industrial fibres and
large tows is likely, but new automotive applications should be
forthcoming to absorb the surplus.
Recycling
Under increasing pressure from
governments, the entire value
chain for carbon composites is
obliged to address the recycling

aspect. Some past initiatives have
not stood up to time and the upward trend in recycling volumes
is reaching a critical point. We
now need lasting solutions.
In April, the Composite Recycling
Technology Center (CRTC) in
Port Angeles, Washington, announced that it had signed an
MoU with Toray Composites
America to pool efforts to recycle carbon fibres. In September,
CRTC received a State Grant
for Advanced Manufacturing
Equipment worth US$ 1.73 million from the Washington State
Department of Commerce to recycle carbon waste from the aerospace industry.
In January 2016, recycling company ELG Carbon Fibre announced that it had obtained AS/
EN9100 certification for quality management systems from
Bureau Veritas for "Recovery of
carbon fibre from manufacturing waste and end of life products" and "Manufacture of recycled carbon fibre materials and
products" for the aerospace industry. In 2015, this recycling pioneer disposed of more than 600
MT of recycled carbon fibres.
Certification should help it to obtain new contracts.
In February 2016, Toray and
Toyota Tsusho launched a carbon fibre recycling process that
uses energy-efficient thermal decomposition. The gases produced
as the resin decomposes serve as
a source of thermal energy for the
process. The plan is to build a pilot plant at the Handa site operated by Toyota Tsusho's subsidiary
Toyota Chemical Engineering.
And in December, Hexcel announced that it would invest in Carbon Conversions
Incorporated, based in Lake City,
South Carolina.
More information:
www.jeccomposites.com

http://www.jeccomposites.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #112 - April/May 2017