by Liz White, editor
While just about everyone active in the PU sector knows that many polyurethane components are made in the form of fibre reinforced composites, it is also true that polyurethane’s position in the spectrum of composites is rather ill defined. It’s certainly not the first resin people think of when talking about composites, which are traditionally massive structural parts for use in aerospace, trains and trucks and, more recently, wind turbine blades.
As Alberto Zarantonello, managing director of the Cannon Afros division, pointed out, “Today polyurethane is utilised already to make composite parts. Polyurethane and glass fibre is not something new...
“So there is a possibility here [at the JEC 2010 show] to show customers that are normally in the composites area that PU is also a resin ... that can give some material with important properties,” he said, adding that using PU with glass fibre, either cut from rovings or preformed from a glass mat, is standard knowledge for polyurethane machinery developer Cannon.
Asked whether PU is generally considered as a composites resin, René Perennes, sales manager, for French rigid foam maker Saitec SAS said: “No: but that’s why we keep coming [to JEC]. It’s true that we have the insulating uses, but we also offer foam structural material. People using other materials are interested in PU as an alternative also,” he added.
Saitec was again one of the very few PU processors present at JEC. Asked why so few PU companies were there, Perennes commented that this is because, “It’s a new approach. For the windmill blades, they don’t use PU, but they show interest here in the use at JEC. We had today all the biggest people, Siemens Windpower, for example, all looking at PU potential,” he said.
Discussing this potential for PU’s use in bigger composite parts, Perennes said it is mainly for economic reasons: PU is not cheap, he said – until you compare it to the materials turbine blade makers are using at the moment — PVC foams and PET foams.
“We can have more or less a similar product for this type of application,” Perennes feels.
Saitec has always been able to produce a good combination of polyester and PU, “so its one of the possible outlets in the windmill sector,” he said.
Zarantonello commented that PU’s value as a composites resin, “has not really been delivered as a message so far to this kind of industry. ... “I think polyurethane as a resin in this market still has to be discovered.“ But he feels that this will not always be the case: PU resins “in the future will do more for the composites or RTM market than can be imagined today.”
Input from the materials side needed
While PU processors were not much in evidence at JEC, PU raw materials suppliers were more prominent than three years ago. So it appears that they are keen to position PU materials among the offerings for composites resins.
This may in part answer the question of how PU will become more prominent in the composites sector.
As Cannon’s Zarantonello observed, “It’s for the polyurethane people to get focused on this matter.” That is something the raw materials suppliers seem enthusiastic about, if the views of Peter Vanacker, head of the polyurethanes business at Bayer MaterialScience, are typical.
Asked if PU is likely to become more mainstream in composites resins, Vanacker said; “It’s changing. You see in the automotive industry that the big OEMs are aligning themselves in the composites world with partnerships — not necessarily with PU — to replace steel.” Here Bayer itself has, “some very interesting developments in replacing steel in car roof modules,” he added. “Also if you look at pultrusion, that has been a challenge in the past, but we have some very strong technology here and I see pultrusion really coming through,” Vanacker continued.
BMS has carried out a lot of work on pultrusion of PU and has various ventures in the US to commercialise the technology.
Vanacker commented that polyurethane window frames made by pultrusion have a better insulation factor than other materials, and pointed to many other uses in flooring for containers, utility poles and more, in a 24 May interview prior to the PU China 2010 event in Shenzhen, China.
Discussing composites at the same event, Melanie Maas-Brunner, senior vice-president for BASF’s polyurethanes business in Asia-Pacific, observed that there is a need, “especially in solar energy and wind energy, to make some clever innovations on how to position PU materials there.” Maas-Brunner said, “I think in the solar business in China there is something to come, [as there is] also in wind energy.” She noted, as other commentators did, that in these high-tech industries, composites are currently, “very much based on epoxy and some more expensive materials. Then we have to think of how can we bring in PU material which might add stability, or might act as a glue for the blades of the wind turbines.” For BASF, Maas-Brunner said, “something that might be of interest long-term might be solar energy. We have some developments for solar panels with glazing materials from the business we acquired from Recticel.” Discussing the idea that some parts of the sector have a fixed mindset about composites materials, Maas-Brunner added: “We have to show some benefits there, and we are constantly working on that,” noting that BASF has innovative technology pipelines in this sector.
For composites, Bayer’s Vanacker also noted that specifications are getting tighter and tighter, and needs more demanding, in terms of the window of mechanical properties and processing characteristics needed.
“Probably the issue we had in the past was that we did not always have the processing technology at the right level for reproducible products, and with a high efficiency in producing them,” he commented. But Vanacker stressed that, “this has moved on now.” BMS is also trying to combine different materials, “PU with polycarbonate and different coatings,” but as a composite that is easy to make in one run, the Bayer executive noted.
PU fighting epoxy in auto uses
In the automotive sector, where the big pressure is on to make lighter-weight parts, there is a sort of competition between epoxy and PU for high-end composites, where currently epoxy is winning, said Eugenio Toccalino, global market manager for Dow Automotive.
Automotive composites are also high on the agenda for plastics machinery expert KraussMaffei. “Composites is one of the topics for us,” stressed Frank Peters, managing director of KraussMaffei’s Reaction Process Machinery division (RPM). One reason behind this is that “All the electric car models require ... new interior design, lighter-weight components,” he said, in an interview in Paris at the JEC meeting.
“I think the industry is now looking for highvolume solutions. All the key OEMs are investing a lot of money and effort and have a big focus on the composites side, also mainly driven by the growing role of the electrical vehicles. That’s really nice to see and KraussMaffei’s expertise, from the thermoplastics to the thermosets, is really valuable,” for these customers, who can choose, from this portfolio, “the best solutions as they search for ways to save weight,” Peters said.
KraussMaffei has merged its sales organisations of its injection moulding and RPM divisions, to allow it to offer customers the best solution, said Peters, emphasising KM’s ability to offer, “the whole process chain from foaming to trimming, we have the machinery, the plant systems, we have the moulds.” As well as offering good potential for PU composites, Peters noted, as did many other commentators, that in RTM technology for epoxy parts, “we have had a lot of activity for the last 10-15 years or so.” And he stressed that this RTM focus has intensified in the last two years: “All the OEMs are looking at this technology as the mass-production route for composites,” Peters added. This has led to a deal at the JEC show, in which KraussMaffei signed an agreement with Dieffenbacher to offer complete packages for RTM processing of epoxies, with presses supplied by Dieffenbacher.
Other machinery suppliers also highlighted their current work on RTM with epoxies, including Cannon, who launched a high productivity ‘ESTRIM’ (epoxy structural reaction injection moulding) process for fast demoulding, and automated production, at the JEC 2010 event in Paris in mid-April.
ESTRIM can produce mouldings which are lightweight, thin-walled composites with complex shapes and large dimensions, using epoxy resins and carbon or other continuous fibres, said Cannon.
Another significant development from KraussMaffei, according to Peters, is that, “We also have here a new LFI head which can go up to 2kg/s total output, which we can run at up to 50-percent glass-fibre content.” Such high output, tightly controlled LFI technology, with high glass-fibre content is in demand by customers in the heavy truck industry, the agricultural vehicle sector and in housing and construction, he said.
This is significant because, as Peters noted, “if you manage to lift glass-fibre content to 40- 50 percent,” as it has done with this mix-head, “then you have good shot at competing better in composites.” At the composites show KM showed its expertise around the complete process circle from equipment for LFI (long fibre injection) and RTM, FCS (fibre composite spraying), dicyclopentadiene processing – “all thermoplastics and thermosets for composites, everything,” Peters said. “Something we learned out of the crisis was to exploit the synergies of injection moulding and RPM. We have formed a key account management for both divisions,” and Peters said this has been, “a great success.” Tier 1 suppliers like having a single contact point with a machinery supplier, he said.
In the context of how suppliers interact with part makers in this sector, Toccalino of Dow Automotive highlighted an interesting aspect.
He feels that the supply chain for composites for automotive parts is not yet in place. He indicated that, at the JEC show, some gentle manoeuvring to develop such a supply chain may be evident.
“This is also where this event is interesting because there is a lot of evolution. You have the automotive OEMs who are very established. You have the raw materials suppliers like us, and the fibre suppliers. But in between there is nothing,” Toccalino said.
“It is not like injection moulding or flexible foaming where you have the supply chain fully developed,” he said. For composites, the preforming and pre-preg approach, “comes from aerospace and is not suitable to the needs of automotive,” he said.
“If you look at the part makers, the Tier ones, that doesn’t exist today,” and will have to appear, he said.
Toccalino said it is “very interesting to go around and get the signal from people who say, ‘yes we come here from aeronautics and aerospace and are interested in broadening our scope.” Also visible are people who are not in composites applications but who are already in automotive uses, who “want to get into composites because they say composites are a more differentiated and less commoditised segment today,” the Dow executive said.
“When I look at our customers today, people are positioning themselves along this supply chain — that does not exist,” at present, he said.
Auto success opens up potential
At machinery supplier Hennecke GmbH, Jens Winiarz, sales manager for composite spray moulding, also sees more focus on PU as a composites material. This follows, “as a result of having good product development with customers in the past, especially in the automotive sector,” he said.
This is now moving from automotive into non-automotive sectors, he said, citing reinforcement of bathtubs, using Hennecke’s composite spray moulding technology.
As other commentators noted, “With PU, typically a kind of mass-production already exists, with short cure times and rapid demoulding,” Winiarz said.
Epoxy needs longer curing times and it is harder to use mass-production approaches, said Winiarz. “This is a problem for conventional composite resins,” where PU may offer a good alternative, he noted.
Hennecke is focussing on offering the customer a kind of mass-production route for PU composites, as in the roof module of the Artega GT sports car, he added.
While huge aircraft parts will not go to PU, there are many other uses – automotive, truck/bus, boats and leisure vehicles such as caravans and campers, where “lightweight is more and more a driver,” Winiarz said.
He pointed to a part that looks like a wood composite, made by sprayed PU on a paper honeycomb core, for saving weight in interior parts for boats and caravans.
Hennecke’s multi-component mix-heads mean “we can produce composite parts with different processes in one machine. Heavy layers, compact material, foam — all on a singe machine,” Winiarz said.
Also, in the bathtub industry, Winiarz said, “as soon as they reach the DIN norms [German standards]... I am pretty sure they will jump to using the PU process.” Raw materials suppliers are close to testing to meet such norms, which is needed before the approach moves into the mass market, Winiarz indicated. Asked if there is real potential here, Winiarz said: “Yes. Today at the JEC show, we already had four or five producers interested in this type of application.” Winiarz also noted that Hennecke had seen a supplier of lamination materials on its stand, “wanting to know what is possible in PU.” This company was “very open that they were losing customers to PU,” he added.
In aerospace and rail uses, mass-transport uses, Winiarz noted that what may make PU a ‘no-go material’ is its lack of fire resistance.
As with Hennecke, Cannon Group is also seeing a lot of interest in development of reinforcement of sanitary wear, “with a target to replace the standard technology ... glass fibre sprayed with polyester material,” said Cannon’s Zarantonello.
Cannon supplies Sirtek in Italy, which ... “has had a decent success in this market” he said, with more than 30 customers around the world using this technique with Cannon machines.
Cannon worked with Sirtek, who is primarily a raw material supplier but also a technology transfer company, to develop the end-use.
Sirtek is selling “the technology, raw material, equipment, including our machine, he said. They also make prototypes and work on production so that the customer can test the new technique before making the decision to buy, the Cannon executive said.
Innovation in hull design
A recent development in personal watercraft (PWC) production has seen component supplier Camoplast, which is a willing innovator, exploit KraussMaffei’s ability to modify its technology, as well as a new system from Bayer MaterialScience, to make it possible to produce parts as large as a hull for a personal watercraft by a long fibre injection (LFI) process.
This hull is used on the Sea Doo on our cover for this issue — a craft which was also on display in Paris at the JEC show.
KraussMaffei customer Camoplast Inc. makes plastic hulls and decks for PWCs, more commonly known as jet skis. A leading PWC producer, Sea-Doo, asked Camoplast to develop a lighter hull to boost speed and performance, and save manufacturing costs – but without loss of strength.
Camoplast’s solution combined KraussMaffei’s LFI process with a new PU system, Baydur 814, from BMS. The PWC hull, measuring 360 x 90 cm, is the first application of this technology.
PWC hulls have traditionally been produced using Sheet Moulding Compound — glass-fibre reinforced polyester resin. Camoplast concluded that the best way of meeting customer specifications was to use a modified LFI process capable of producing a strong, lightweight hull with an excellent surface finish.
In the LFI process, the glass fibres are discharged into the mould simultaneously with the PU system in a single process. The mix-head, mounted on a robot arm, is equipped with a chopper which cuts fibres to length. The robot moves the mixing head over the open mould during the pour process. The mould is then closed to give the product its final shape. The main challenge in producing a large PWC hull using this process is PU’s very short curing time.
KraussMaffei helped by modifying its proven LFI process to boost glass-fibre output rate from 180 to 300 g/s to deliver a high-strength structural part.
At the same time BMS developed a unique system that cures in 60 s, much longer than the 10 s for conventional systems.
This allows the PU/glass-fibre mix to flow readily into narrow interstices, which is necessary to produce parts with integrated ribs for extra strength.
Replacing SMC with PU has benefits for Camoplast and the end customer. PU’s lower density means that the whole craft is lighter and can accelerate faster.
A hull produced using CLF (Camoplast Long Fibre) weighs 30 percent less than one made conventionally.
“The hull is the biggest, but also the most vulnerable component of a PWC – it comes into contact with waves that could smash it,” explained Yves Carbonneau, engineering manager at Camoplast. For the best possible drive characteristics the hull must be optimised structurally and mechanically, “but it must nonetheless be as light as possible. We use a light material with integrated reinforcing ribs. This is how we achieve the necessary strength to withstand even big waves and to provide the safety that PWC drivers want.” Another factor in choosing PU is that polyester contains styrene and releases volatile organic compounds, posing a risk for the environment and for production workers, said KraussMaffei.
PU and the LFI process give faster production, a higher level of automation and a production system with a smaller footprint, the company said.
Lighter auto composites
“What we see in automotive is big pressure on lightweight, the OEMs are clearly driving towards lightweight concepts and at the moment the major pressure ... is on high-end composites,” said Eugenio Toccalino, global market manager for Dow Automotive, in an interview at the JEC event.
For body applications, he said, these are more epoxy driven, “because if you look in the body of the car, there is 300 kg of metal. Theoretically if you use carbon fibre composites, you can cut that weight by 50 percent,” he said.
Following BMW’s announcements about its new Megacity electric vehicle, which is going to use carbon-fibre composite panels, Toccalino said, “this area of carbon fibre composites, high-end composites, that is for me really the breakthrough news of the last year.” He thinks that, for reliability reasons, “the first generation of these high-end composites will be epoxy based. Automotive OEMs are “pretty risk averse,” he said, which means epoxy technology will be used at first, “because it comes from aeronautics, from a very established industry that exists for a long time, and it is a robust, proven solution. “But there will be more and more space opening up for new materials, such as PU,” Toccalino said.
“You also have to look at the affordability [with carbon fibre], which today does not allow you to make 100 000 units a year,” Toccalino said, adding that, “there are a lot of initiatives to reduce cycle time, to lower the cost of the fibre.” At JEC, “you see the fibre suppliers presenting their latest generation products [and] you see suppliers like us involved in epoxy, that shows faster cycle times,” Toccalino said.
But he also noted that, “When you talk about cycle times, I think why not PU?” Dow has done trials and PU works, Toccalino said. “The cycle times are significantly lower and the raw material cost is significantly less.” Dow is spending more time on epoxy because it is where there is more pressure, but it is also working on PU because that has been used for SRIM (structural reaction injection moulding, now being called RTM, resin transfer moulding), for a long time. We are not reinventing it, we are adjusting it,” he added.
So using lightweight composites can save up to 100 kg in a vehicle body. But Toccalino pointed out that this requires carbon fibre, and he reiterated that the first generation will be epoxy.
Every 100 kg of weight saved in a conventional vehicle corresponds to 8- 10 g/CO2 per km that is saved, “a big amount,” he said.
And for horizontal surfaces such as roofs or bonnets, “those you can do today with PU/LFI (long fibre injection), the technology is there,” Toccalino said.
He feels plastics face big competition from aluminium — also as a result of the conservatism of the sector. “Aluminium is a metal, it gives good weight saving against steel, so the OEMs may be happy to use it as a first step,” he said.
Pointing out that “We had plastic body panels, we had RIM (reaction injection moulded PU), these were around a long time ago,” Toccalino noted that, in the meantime steel and aluminium have improved, these technologies have “not been standing still.“ And while there is considerable pressure for weight saving in conventional vehicles, “There is clearly much more value in electric vehicles,” Toccalino stressed.
This is because, with the limitation of range, and the weight and cost of the battery, every kilo of weight saved on the vehicle becomes worth 3 or 5 times the same saving on a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, he said.
“Clearly you can afford higher-cost solutions for an electric vehicle, that may not be affordable for PU for turbine housing At the JEC event, Bayer MaterialScience highlighted a polyurethane spray system as the top solution for RLE International GmbH in its attempts to optimise its manufacturing process for wind-turbine nacelle housings.
Cologne, Germany-based RLE, a specialist in mobility and energy solutions, wanted to optimise production of these housings, which deaden the sound of the gear mechanism and need to have longterm weather resistance, a BMS statement said.
Using Multitec from BaySystems, two half-shells are manufactured first to form the nacelle, then a gel coat layer is applied before the multi-component system is sprayed directly into the open mould without adding glass fibre.
More layers of Multitec are then applied using glass fibre reinforcement to add stiffness, before circular inserts are placed in the moist surface, the statement said.
More foamed layers from the PU system create additional stability and act as insulating mats. “Using this integrated production method, the entire sandwich construction is also much lighter than with the conventional process, and the time needed is just a fraction of what was previously required,” BMS said.
In the US, Bayer MaterialScience llc is also looking at the viability of polyurethane composites reinforced with carbon nanotubes for use in blades for 1.5+ MW wind turbines.
Reinforcing PU systems with carbon nanotubes during the resin phase can create as much as a 50- percent increase in strength-to weight ratio – when the resin component of the composite is modified to percolation levels of 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent, said BMS.
Polyurethane-based systems can also use bio-based components and can be tailored to eliminate the post cure step, which can reduce energy costs.
PU for turbine housing
At the JEC event, Bayer MaterialScience highlighted a polyurethane spray system as the top solution for RLE International GmbH in its attempts to optimise its manufacturing process for wind-turbine nacelle housings.
Cologne, Germany-based RLE, a specialist in mobility and energy solutions, wanted to optimise production of these housings, which deaden the sound of the gear mechanism and need to have long term weather resistance, a BMS statement said.
Using Multitec from BaySystems, two half-shells are manufactured first to form the nacelle, then a gel coat layer is applied before the multi-component system is sprayed directly into the open mould without adding glass fibre.
More layers of Multitec are then applied using glass fibre reinforcement to add stiffness, before circular inserts are placed in the moist surface, the statement said.
More foamed layers from the PU system create additional stability and act as insulating mats. “Using this integrated production method, the entire sandwich construction is also much lighter than with the conventional process, and the time needed is just a fraction of what was previously required,” BMS said.
In the US, Bayer MaterialScience llc is also looking at the viability of polyurethane composites reinforced with carbon nanotubes for use in blades for 1.5+ MW wind turbines.
Reinforcing PU systems with carbon nanotubes during the resin phase can create as much as a 50- percent increase in strength-to-weight ratio – when the resin component of the composite is modified to percolation levels of 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent, said BMS.
Polyurethane-based systems can also use bio-based components and can be tailored to eliminate the post cure step, which can reduce energy costs.
Diversity pays of for Saitec
For Challens, France-based foamer Saitec SAS, “Last year was a difficult year because we are involved with the coach building sector, providing panels for refrigerated trucks,” said René Perennes, sales manager at the 75-employee company.
“We had a deep recession in that field of activity,” but now in the wake of the economic crisis, things are getting better, he added.
From its site near France’s Atlantic seaboard, Saitec also supplies the boat industry, a luxury market also hard hit by the downturn, Perennes agreed.
Now Saitec is focussed on developing a wider range of products and such diversification is paying off: “We managed this year to launch new products and we also had activities in buoyancy foams for offshore activity,” covering both syntactic foams for deep-sea uses and traditional foams for surface uses, he said, speaking 14 May at the JEC show.
“We also have new flooring to meet the ‘Peak’ regulation on night noise in residential areas in parts of Europe,” which is mainly in force in the Benelux area so far. But Perennes thinks this will become a European-wide regulation. “We have heard it from the Netherlands and it’s coming in France,” he said.
“So we are a small company, but this year will be much better, due to the diversification we have undergone,” Perennes said.
Turnover at Saitec fell about 40 percent in the crisis, he said and will be back to roughly €15 million this year, he said, close to its pre-crisis figure in 2007.
It makes both PU and phenolic foams, and for truck insulation, it offers slabstock cut into sheets for truck makers to fit into panel-sided containers.
“We provide slabs, blocks, customised cuttings, shapes for all industries — and for the gas industry for pipes,” Perennes said.
Discussing phenolic foam, Perennes said, “For us, in France it is a small business and very specific, because we sell to the nuclear waste treatment sector.” Here special air conditioning units use the foam for heat absorption, he said. Saitec also sells phenolic foam to Saudi Arabia for insulating heating/ventilation/air-conditioning units.
Perennes said the benefit of using phenolic versus PU is in fire and smoke classification — where phenolics reach a higher classification than the PU.
“But the difference is not that much,” he noted.
Some 30 percent of Saitec’s business is in polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam, which has better flame retardance than standard PU foam. But the panel truck uses are still PU, and remain large outlets, Perennes said.
Nevertheless PIR is growing: “We developed a foam which complies with the CINI rules for cryogenic applications – for LNG (liquid natural gas) pipelines which work at very low temperatures.
This is a growing business for Saitec which has only just entered the sector, said the Saitec manager.
“We are rather confident in the future because we are small company, with a lot of new products and we are tapping sectors where we have good growth prospects,” Perennes concluded.
Perhaps PU is too flexible?
For Dow, its ability to offer both epoxy and PU “really has benefits,” said Eugenio Toccalino, global market manager for Dow Automotive. It’s a way “to offer customers a material neutral approach, for thermoset solutions,” he added. “There are applications where epoxy is really required and there are applications where epoxy is clearly overdesigned.
And this is not just in automotive but also in industrial uses,” Toccalino continued.
Epoxy’s strength and stiffness are advantages, but the toughness of PU and its cycle times are also advantages. Raw material costs are better for PU, while media resistance is better for epoxy, said Toccalino. “So you have clearly a spectrum of applications where epoxy is the best solution, a spectrum where PU is the best solution” and then a region of overlap.
“I see a lot of development on the epoxy side, maybe because it has been slower in past years and restricted to the high-end uses like the pre-pregs and infusions, but now you have RTM coming up and that is faster,” Toccalino said.
“If you want to go to high-end composites using fibre and want to preform the fibre, the fact that you use PU or epoxy is irrelevant. So the point is the ability ... to go to shorter fibres,” he continued.
For PU there are easy technologies that allow chopping and adding fibres into the polyol or adding a stream of fibres into a sprayed system.
“Overall I see the spectrum of PU technology being bigger. You have more flexibility with PU: so much flexibility that I think sometimes it leads to confusion with PU,” Toccalino said.
“I think sometimes people look at the wrong technology for the right application and vice versa.
This is always where it is important to say, Is it LFI or another process?” the Dow expert concluded.
A composites tradition
Richard Morrison, president and ceo of Molded Fiber Glass Companies, and honorary chairman of the JEC Composites Show 2010, has been in the composites sector for over 40 years and had words of wisdom for those disturbed by the recent crisis: “The one thing that I have learnt ... is that you are never as smart as you might appear when things are going well nor are you as stupid as you might appear when you’re facing a headwind ... It’s important to maintain a steady focus.
Enjoy going downwind and work like heck going upwind.” Morrison’s company was a pioneer in the use of composites in automotive components.
“The watershed event for our company and for composites, at least in the US, was the decision by General Motors to build the Corvette using fibre glass.” In 1954 the Corvette began to be built, but lack of initial success here saw MFG move into boats, and such diversification has become key to Morrison’s philosophy.
“As a private company, to be tier 1 to a very large OEM... to have the majority of your business with that OEM is a very dangerous place to be,” he said, at a press conference during the JEC show.
Today, “Renewable energy is really our number one market. We started in the 1980s with blades that we thought were huge, at 8.2 m. Today they are 40, 50, 60 m. We also participate in solar energy and are interested in anything that is renewable.” MFG is possibly typical of composites moulders in that it has a long list of resins that it uses – including some polyurethane.
“Moulding composites is difficult, it’s a chemical process, not a mechanical one and things can go wrong,” Morrison observed. “So, clearly the execution of what you are doing is important.” Morrison stressed that it is important to get business via other material systems, not from another composite maker... “If you’re taking a tool from somebody you’re not growing the market.” Also, “The market for composites in the US in 2009 was down 30 percent,” Morrison emphasised.
If a healthy growth rate is 5 percent... “You can see that there’s enormous excess capacity in this system,” he said.
As a result, composites suppliers are challenged to grow at a faster rate than 5 percent per annum, “otherwise it will take just over five years to get back to where we were,” he said.
Carbon fibre for Megacity vehicle
SGL Group and BMW Group announced 6 April 2010 that they would invest $100 million in a new carbon fibre plant in Moses Lake, Washington. The companies’ joint statement said this new facility is an important element of their strategy “to commercialise viable manufacturing of ultra-lightweight carbon-fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP), for use in future vehicles.” BMW said the fibres from Moses Lake will be used exclusively for its upcoming Megacity Vehicle.
This new vehicle for urban mobility – set to be launched before 2015 under a BMW sub-brand – will be assembled in Leipzig, Germany.
CFRP components will be made from fabrics made in the US at the BMW plant in Landshut, Germany, plant and sent to Leipzig for assembly.
A €73.5 BILLION SECTOR
JEC president and ceo Frédérique Mutel said the group’s latest composite study highlights five main trends. “First we have very high growth everywhere on all sectors, all markets for the composite industry but of course the biggest growth is in Asia,” she said.
Second is the development of injection processes and more use of automation, Mutel said. “The third trend is very high growth rate of thermoplastic versus thermoset,” and fourth is the rise in wind energy applications. A fifth trend is increasing penetration in aerospace.
The composites industry is valued at €60 000 million ($73 500 million) worldwide, with North America representing 36 percent, Europe 33 percent and Asia and Rest of the World (ROW) 31 percent.
“We produced 8 million tonnes of composites materials in 2009: 35 percent in North America, 22 percent in EMEA and 43 in Asia- Pacific/ROW,” said Mutel (pictured).
“You can see that Europe and America are higher value compared to Asia and the rest of the world — mainly because of the production of very technical parts. So, Europe, led by Germany, represents around 2 million tonnes or only 26 percent in volume, but is around one third of the worldwide composite market value. Mutel said.
This is mainly due to a high level of value-added applications, especially in aerospace and wind energy. In average unit price applied by processors to their customers, again there is a discrepancy, a gap between North America and Europe, at around €8.4/kg compared to €5.5/kg in Asia.”
