January 18, 2019 Source: CompositesPlus

In 2018, global carbon fiber and its composite materials are frequent, and below, Xiaobian chronologically counts global carbon fiber production enterprises and carbon fiber production and preparation technology related events.

1. SGL develops new carbon fiber grade SIGRAFIL® C T50-4.8/280

In February 2018, SGL announced on its official website that SGL Group developed and began the continuous production of innovative carbon fiber, thereby expanding its material portfolio. The fiber called SIGRAFIL® C T50-4.8/280 has a high modulus and is ideal for aerospace applications.

2, the United States 4M carbon fiber company uses plasma oxidation technology to produce carbon fiber

In February 2018, Woodland Holdings (Knoxville, Tenn.) announced that it had submitted an amendment to Delaware to change the name of the company to 4M Carbon. The company also announced that it will focus on the manufacture and sale of high-quality, low-cost carbon fiber using plasma oxidation technology, rather than just licensing the technology. 4M claims that plasma oxidation technology is three times faster than conventional oxidation technology, while energy is less than one-third that of conventional technology. And these claims have been validated by many international carbon fiber producers who are in the process of negotiating with many of the world's largest carbon fiber manufacturers and automakers as initiators of low-cost carbon fiber.

3. Harper and US carbon fiber manufacturers signed an order for 90 million US dollars of carbon fiber production equipment

In March 2018, Harper International, a leading manufacturer of heat treatment equipment, announced that it had signed an order for carbon fiber production equipment worth about $90 million. Orders include the industry's most efficient furnaces, low temperature carbonizers, high temperature carbonizers, integrated energy recovery and exhaust gas treatment systems. Harper said that it was signed a well-known international company, but did not disclose the name of the customer.

4. Dongli invested 90 million US dollars in Hungary to build a factory

In March 2018, Japan’s Toray said it would increase its carbon fiber capacity in Hungary in order to meet the needs of Europe’s growing wind power industry. The plant, located in northern Hungary, will cost more than $90 million to build, a new plant in Zoltek.

5. Hexion and Kangde Composite Materials cooperate to develop large-scale carbon fiber production technology

In March 2018, Hexion (Columbus, OH) announced that it had signed a contract with Conde Composites Co., Ltd. to jointly develop a large-scale production of carbon fiber, which will be used in automotive and other markets.

6. Germany's Fraunhofer launches new process for melt spinning of PAN-based carbon fiber precursor

In April 2018, the Fraunhofer Applied Polymer Research (IAP) presented the latest ComCarbon technology. This technology greatly reduces the production cost of mass-produced carbon fiber. It is well known that in the conventional process, half of the production cost of PAN-based carbon fibers is consumed in the production of raw silk. Since the raw silk cannot be melted, it must be produced by an expensive solution spinning process. “To this end, we have developed a new process for the production of PAN-based yarns, which can reduce the production cost of raw yarns by 60%. This is an economically viable melt spinning process with specially developed meltable PAN-based Copolymer," explains Dr. Johannes Ganster, Minister of Biopolymers at the Fraunhofer IAP Institute.

7. Teijin broke ground on carbon fiber infrastructure in South Carolina, USA

In June 2018, Teijin Co., Ltd. announced that it had broken ground on the construction of its new carbon fiber production facility, its wholly-owned subsidiary Teijin Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd. (TCF). The ceremony was held on June 1st at the TCF venue in South Carolina, USA. Teijin aims to become a company that supports the future society and will further develop its carbon fiber business from a long-term perspective to reduce its environmental footprint and meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations around the world.

8. India's Reliance Industrial Co., Ltd. announced the construction of India's first carbon fiber production line

In June 2018, Reliance Industries Ltd. announced in its annual report that it is investing in India's first carbon fiber production line to meet Indian aviation, defense and industrial applications.

9, Toray will increase production of 20% carbon fiber, aiming at wind power and automobile demand

On September 11th, Toray will invest up to 20 billion yen to increase production. Toray plans to increase its carbon fiber capacity by 20% and will invest up to 20 billion yen in Hungary and Mexico to expand the plant. Globally, demand for carbon fiber from offshore wind power and pure electric vehicles (EV) will expand. Dongli, who has a global share of 40%, will enhance its international competitiveness through preemptive investment. By 2021, Toray will increase the annual production capacity of the US subsidiary Zoltek's Mexico plant by 5,000 tons, and by 2022 will increase the capacity of the company's Hungarian plant by 5,000 tons. The increase in production is not for high-performance products such as aircraft, but for the production of "large tow carbon fiber" products with high production efficiency and low price. Toray's current production capacity is about 47,000 tons. In addition to this investment, it also decided to increase production of 5,000 tons in another Hungarian plant, with a total capacity of more than 60,000 tons.

10, Hexcel Hexcel officially opened a new raw silk and carbon fiber production line in France

In October 2018, Hexcel officially opened its new carbon fiber plant on the Les Rochs-Roussillon chemical platform in ISère, France. The new 37-acre plant is dedicated to the production of carbon fiber and polyacrylonitrile precursors.

11. Japan Toray's new high compressive strength and high modulus carbon fiber M40X

On November 19th, Japan's Toray official website reported that Japan Toray has developed new carbon fiber to achieve higher tensile strength and tensile modulus, and the TORAYCA® MX series will expand its product line. The company will also use the MX Series carbon fiber to produce prepregs to facilitate a variety of applications. The new carbon fiber M40X announced this time, Japan Toray can control the internal structure of the fiber at the nanometer scale, while making the fine carbon grain orientation uniform. The M40X maintains the same modulus of elasticity as existing products while increasing strength. The new carbon fiber has an elastic modulus of 377 GPa and a tensile strength of 5.7 GPa when processed into a bundle.

12, South Korea Hyosung developed 24K high strength medium carbon fiber

In December 2018, according to foreign media, the Korean Hyosung Advanced Materials Co., Ltd. Carbon Fiber Business Unit developed a new type of high-strength medium-mold carbon fiber. At present, this type of carbon fiber has only 24k tow products, and 6k and 3k products are coming soon. Hyosung official said that the tensile strength of this type of carbon fiber product is higher than the existing medium modulus carbon fiber on the international market. The performance indexes of the new high-strength medium-mode carbon fiber are as follows: 24K carbon fiber, tensile strength 6120 MPa, elastic modulus 293GPa. This product is available in both sizing (for thermoplastic resins) and standard epoxy sizing agents.