The plant features Teijin’s proprietary mass production technology for carbon fibre thermoplastic components, which is reported to reduce cycle times required for moulding composite parts to less than 1 minute. This makes the process attractive to car makers wanting to mass produce carbon composite parts.
With its new pilot plant, Teijin aims to accelerate collaboration with automotive companies worldwide, as well as develop other applications.
The company's development work is being spearheaded through a collaborative effort involving the Teijin Composites Innovation Centre in Japan (Teijin’s R&D hub for its carbon fibre composites business) and the Teijin Composites Application Centre in Michigan, USA, a technical centre which opened in April 2012.
- In December 2011 North American car maker General Motors (GM) and Teijin Ltd announced plans to co-develop carbon fibre composite technologies for potential use in high-volume GM vehicles. “Our relationship with Teijin provides the opportunity to revolutionise the way carbon fibre is used in the automotive industry," said Steve Girsky, GM Vice Chairman. (See GM and Teijin collaborate on carbon composite automotive technology.)
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