Toray Advanced Composites will use BASF thermoplastic resins to produce continuous fiber-reinforced tapes for automotive and industrial applications.
Toray Advanced Composites (Morgan Hill, California, USA) and BASF (Wyandotte, Michigan, USA) have signed a manufacturing and supply agreement focused on the production of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic prepreg tapes for the automotive and industrial markets. Toray Advanced Composites will use BASF's super medium PA6 (polyamide) engineering thermoplastics to produce glass or carbon fiber reinforced tapes.
For many years, BASF has been an important partner of Toray Advanced Composites. "This new supply agreement enhances our ability to make high-quality, affordable prepreg tapes for our customers," said Keisuke Ishii, CEO of Toray Advanced Composites.
According to the company, this supply agreement increases production capacity and provides wider commercial availability of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics, which they say will enable advanced materials to be used in a range of lightweight structural components, such as industrial market. For example, these companies say that automakers can use new materials to design and rapidly produce optimized parts at lower costs, while using the latest manufacturing methods, such as automatic stamping and overmolding.
"By developing innovative lightweight composite technology for automotive applications, this partnership underscores the firm's strong commitment to drive sustainable solutions," said Jeff Dealemeida, vice president of North American Performance Materials Transportation for BASF.
Toray Advanced Composites' continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics are said to be compatible with a range of BASF's super-medium compounds, enabling them to produce more efficient and versatile parts with fewer steps and less labor than traditional methods.