Toho Tenax, the core company of the Teijin Group’s carbon fibres and composites business, says the expansion will be at its Mishima Plant in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan.
In addition to electronic device applications, Toho Tenax aims to expand into industries where demand for electromagnetic shielding is expected to increase, such as in aviation and electric vehicles. The company has set a sales target of over 2 billion yen in 2013.
Toho Tenax’s proprietary nickel-coated carbon fibre is produced by applying a nickel coating to carbon fibre, adding metal-equivalent conductivity to the mechanical characteristics of carbon fibre. The nickel-coated carbon fibre can then be moulded with resin into electromagnetic shielding components that prevent the malfunction of electronic components.
According to Toho Tenax, market demand for shielding materials is increasing year by year. The methods now commonly used to add this electromagnetic shielding are secondary processing methods such as adding metal plating to moulded parts. As this results in higher costs due to the increase in the number of processes, and environmental issues such as the need to dispose of solvents used in the plating process, the demand for more efficient, eco-friendly metal-coated carbon fibre is expected to increase.
Teijin is a technology-driven global group. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibres such as aramid, carbon fibres and composites, healthcare, films, resin and plastic processing, polyester fibres, products converting and IT.
