Toho Tenax Co Ltd has developed a new carbon fiber sheet prepreg that achieves rapid curing for increased productivity and features improved surface texture and formability.
The new prepreg cures in three minutes at 150°C and minimizes resin being expelled from the prepreg due to molding pressure. The result is an increase in production efficiency by a factor of many dozens, which will allow the company to raise annual production capacity to 50,000 carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) sets.
Toho Tenax has developed the prepreg initially for automotive applications, but will explore opportunities for aircraft and other fields to further expand its carbon fibers and composites business. Possible new fields include sports and general industry fields thanks to formability at low pressure of around 0.5Mpa. A flame-resistant feature now under development is expected to further expand applications to consumer electronics, vehicles and other general applications.
This story is reprinted from material from the Teijin Group, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
