JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #99 - September 2015 - 4

point of view: The future of mass production

Cytec: a strong focus on time savings,
productivity and automation
At the end of April, Cytec Industries Inc. opened a new kitting facility
in Toulouse, France. This is a key milestone for Cytec in its strategy
to bring manufacturing capabilities for value added products and
services closer to its customers. The site's inauguration was an opportunity for JEC Composites Magazine to interview the President
and CEO of Cytec about some of the company's developments in the
field of composites.

interview
Shane Fleming
Chairman oF the Board, PreSident and
ChieF exeCutive oFFiCer
Cytec Industries Inc.

Shane Fleming: As eve-

ry investment we make it is to
bring value to our customers,
here by reducing labour cost,
production time and waste,
and by improving quality and
repeatability. In this new facility we can manufacture large
vacuum bagging consumable
kits for applications such as
aircraft wings or wind turbine
blades. This facility benefits from our long standing
expertise in consultancy and
design of complex kits and

JCM: This new facility will be
close to your customers. In
the near future, will you invest
more in Europe? In which
technology?

S. F. : We will continue to

invest in Europe to support
our customers. In fact, we have
two ongoing capital projects
today: the first one at our
facility in Germany to expand
our resin supply capabilities
for RTM applications such as

JEC Composites Magazine:
What is the aim of your new
kitting facility near Toulouse?

shaped bags. This new site of
our Process Materials division
perfectly complements our
legacy business where we have
supplied structural materials to the aerospace market
for almost 50 years. It is the
European equivalent of one of
our US facility.

Automotive is going
to be the exciting
market you'll see us
focus on.

About Cytec
* 2 billion US dollar sales in 2014
- Aerospace Materials (50%)
- Industrial Materials (16%)
- In Process Separation (20%)
- Additive Technologies (14%)
* 4,600+ global employees
* 34 sites in 11 countries
* 1,800+ patents

* Key markets:
- Aerospace
- Mining
- Automotive
- Agriculture/ agrochemical
- Defence
- Electrical/electronics

4 jec composites magazine / No99 September 2015

the LEAP engine. At the same
time, we are also investing in
new capabilities in Heanor,
England, to support the grow-

ing automotive market. And
we'll continue to expand our
European capabilities as required as the industry grows.
We are looking at a range of
technologies to convert composite materials into parts:
pultrusion, high-pressure hot
compression moulding, highpressure RTM, robotic lay-up,
ATL...
Our new process demonstration centre in Heanor, which
will be fully operational before
the end of the year, will be
dedicated to OEMs, tiers and
engineering companies; showing them with real equipment
what is feasible in terms of
automation and how we can
work with them. This large
investment mainly targets the
automotive sector, but the
aeronautics sector should also
take advantage of the progress
made in automation, that will
help them reach their ramp-up
targets. We also have developed snap-cure thermoset
resins and thermoplastics in
our aerospace line.
JCM: Will you continue to
invest in carbon fibre? Will you
develop large-tow precursor by

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #99 - September 2015