The plant will be located at Teijin's Matsuyama Factory in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, and will involve an investment of over ¥2 billion.
It will feature Teijin's mass production technology for carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic components, which is said to significantly reduce cycle times required for moulding composite products to under 1minute.
Carbon fibre manufacturer Teijin reports that construction of the new plant will begin shortly. Operations are expected to commence in mid-2012.
Mass production of carbon composite products
Teijin says the new plant will enable it to accelerate its commercialisation of carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic components for mass-produced cars and other industrial uses, and strengthen its position as a global leader in carbon fibre composite products.
Teijin's proprietary mass production technology for carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic enables the integrated production of carbon fiber to composite products within 1 minute. Carbon fibre thermoplastic components are also recyclable.
To introduce this technology to car makers, Teijin developed an electric vehicle concept car earlier this year featuring a body structure made entirely of carbon fibre thermoplastic components and weighing only 47 kg – roughly 20% the weight of a conventional car body structure.
This technology is expected to find a wide range of applications in addition to cars, where certain levels of structural strength are required.
