Teijin has integrated its development and marketing of automotive-use carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRTP) in a move that the company says will strengthen its business in this value-added form of CFRP.
Earlier this year Ford and DowAksa said they were accelerating joint research to develop high-volume manufacturing techniques for automotive-grade carbon fiber, aiming to make vehicles lighter for greater fuel efficiency, performance and capability.
Teijin's Automotive Business Development Group launched on 1 April 2015 as a new entity directly under the Carbon Fibers & Composites Business Unit. It is responsible for marketing thermoplastic CFRP formerly handled by the Teijin Composites Innovation Center and thermoset CFRP formerly handled by Toho Tenax, the core company of the group’s carbon fibers and composites business.
Teijin Composites Innovation Center reforms its function and will focus on developing technologies for individual projects, the company says.
Teijin developed Sereebo, the world’s first mass-production technology for thermoplastic CFRP with a one-minute takt time, in 2011. Current efforts are focused on developing automotive CFRP products for global automakers in Japan and other countries. Toho Tenax, which spearheads Teijin’s carbon fibers and composites business, is developing automotive-use products such as high-efficiency thermoset CFRP and rapid-curing carbon fiber sheet pre-impregnated with matrix resin.