JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #101 - November/December 2015 - 9

www.dell.com

Expansion

CST Composites secures
AUS$1.4M government funding
Advanced carbon fiber filament
winder and pultruder, CST Composites (Sydney, Australia) has
secured a AUS$1.4 million (US$1M)
grant from the Australian Government,
as a part of a AUS$5.7 million (US$4M)
project investment to increase production capacity, continue development of
its filament winding process technology,
and to enter new markets. The grant was
a part of the Australian Government's
$50 million manufacturing transition
programme
that provides
assistance to
help manufacturing
businesses
become more
competitive
and sustainable, enabling
a move or
expansion into higher value or niche
manufacturing activities. The manufacturing transition programme projects
were awarded through a highly competitive, merit-based process, and based on
advice from an expert technical committee to ensure the projects have a sound
commercial basis.
www.cstcomposites.com

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries completes composites facility expansion
The company completes expansion of
aircraft production facility at Shimonoseki
Shipyard & Machinery Works, in order
to increase production capacity for wing
components of Boeing 787 Dreamliner's
main wing boxes. Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has completed
facility expansion at the Aircraft Shop of
the Yamatomachi Plant of its Shimonoseki
Shipyard & Machinery Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, in preparation for
production increase of composite wing
boxes for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
MHI expanded the facility in response to
Boeing's plan to increase the 787's production rate from the current 10 airplanes per
month to 14 by the end of the decade. The
expansion at the Shimonoseki facility will
enable to increase production capacity
of stringers, reinforcement structures integrated into the wing boxes, which have
been produced at the Aircraft Shop since
2006. For increased stringer production,
production machinery will go into operation sequentially: including an autoclave
for curing and shape-forming the layered
composite prepregs under high temperature and high pressure, and cutting
machines for machining of components.
www.mhi-global.com

Toray to expand carbon fiber
prepreg business in Europe
The Group decided to acquire 55% of
outstanding shares of Italian prepreg
manufacturer Delta Tech S.p.A, making
Delta Tech and its wholly owned subsidiary Delta Preg S.p.A into its subsidiaries.
Delta Group is engaged in the development and supply of high-quality prepreg,
primarily for premium automobile
applications. It has been highly rated by
the market for its wide range of products
and services that meet customer needs,
and diligent technical services allying
with customers. So far, Toray has been
enhancing a cooperative relationship
with the Delta Group through supply
of carbon fiber Torayca, and this stock
acquisition reinforces its carbon fiber
intermediate business in Europe along
with Composite Materials (Italy) s.r.l
it established by acquiring the carbon

fiber textile and prepreg business from
Saati S.p.A. in January this year. In coming years, Toray will accelerate product
development in Europe by leveraging its
high-grade, high performance prepreg
technologies. Further, having both CIT
and Delta Group under its umbrella at
the same time, and expanding products
that exploit their respective strengths,
enables Toray to respond broadly to the
market requirements that are getting
even more sophisticated, especially to
conquer new frontiers in the carbon fiber
composites industry. It also enhances
Toray's structure to offer solutions to
customers at each level of its own integrated supply chain by combining Toray
Carbon Fibers Europe S.A., a French
subsidiary which produces carbon fibers
from precursor and distributes it, as
well as Euro Advanced Carbon Fiber
Composites GmbH and ACE Advanced
Composite Engineering GmbH, German
subsidiaries that produce and distribute
carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP)
parts.
www.toray.com
Porcher partners with
Airbus Helicopters to develop
a thermoplastic rotor
The company specialized in textile
reinforcements and thermoplastic
composites materials, used its howknow in thermoplastic matrices for the
design of the rotor, a centerpiece of the
Airbus H160 civil helicopter. After five
years of joint work on this innovative
composite thermoplastic technology, the
new H160 helicopter, with its Spheriflex
rotor, was launched.

Development

Alienware products will contain recycled
carbon fiber, with plans to expand across
these two product portfolios in 2016.
Dell estimates that by partnering with
Sabic, it will prevent 820,000 pounds of
carbon fiber from ending up in landfills.
The recycled carbon fiber materials have
an approximately 11 percent smaller
carbon footprint than simply using virgin
carbon fiber. Since Dell began pioneering
its closed-loop recycled plastics supply
chain in January 2014, the company has
recycled 4.2 million pounds of closedloop plastics into enclosures for new Dell
products. These plastics were used in
more than 30 flat panel monitor models
and three Dell OptiPlex desktops available
globally, with plans to scale across servers
and other products in 2016.

The high performance prepreg material
was developed from a thermoplastic resin,
and required special weaving and high
temperature impregnation expertise. This
project has allowed Airbus Helicopters to
master the processing and production of a
CFRP composite part.

No101 November - December 2015 /

www.porcher-ind.com

jec composites magazine 9
http://www.dell.com http://www.toray.com http://www.mhi-global.com http://www.cstcomposites.com http://www.porcher-ind.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #101 - November/December 2015
