Teijin Group's carbon fiber business in Europe—Teijin Carbon has been upgraded to a Tier 2 supplier of the National Composites Center (NCC) in Bristol, UK. This is Teijin's support for the next generation of aviation An important part of aerospace manufacturing project strategy.
Teijin initially joined NCC in November 2018 and became an associate member. As a global carbon fiber manufacturer, Teijin Carbon is fully capable of supporting NCC to advance its materials and manufacturing technology. Many of their digital auto-deposition technologies are funded by the Institute of Aerospace Technology (ATI) as part of the NCC iCAP program (Digital Capability Learning Program, which is used to digitize composite material manufacturing to increase productivity and quality while increasing efficiency and Cost reduction) includes an ultra-high-speed sedimentation tank with two large industrial robots that can automatically execute the wing production process. The robot measures, cuts, lifts and places carbon fiber fabric ("ply") fragments with millimeter-level accuracy-precisely moving 5m wide composite strips at a time, up to 20m long. This reduces the number of fabric components required from approximately 100,000 to only 150, thus significantly reducing the manufacturing time of the wing components. This has the potential to change aircraft production and play a key role in the Wing of Tomorrow project. This is a research and development program led by Airbus, aimed at delivering next-generation aircraft wings, which also includes British Tier 1 suppliers GKN Aerospace and Spirit Aviation Systems.
Teijin Carbon Europe is looking forward to supporting NCC and its partners in various high-performance aerospace projects and contributing to the British composites community. As a Tier 2 member, the company will provide unique carbon fiber non-crimp fabrics and thermoset and thermoplastic prepreg materials for these projects and other NCC development projects.
NCC Chief Technology Officer Enrique Garcia (Enrique Garcia) commented: "We are very pleased that Teijin can increase their supplier qualifications in NCC, which will allow us to explore more opportunities for future cooperation. We have established a partnership with Teijin. A fruitful working relationship, Teijin continues to provide us with materials so that we can continue to develop new processes and products in various fields. This strengthened partnership will make a valuable contribution to the future development of NCC and Teijin in the composite materials industry."
As one of the strategic priorities of the 2020-2022 mid-term management plan, Teijin Group is vigorously accelerating the development of its aircraft mid- and downstream applications. Teijin Carbon Europe has been selected to provide carbon fiber-based non-crimp fabrics (NCF) for the Wings of Tomorrow project.
Looking to the future, Teijin plans to further strengthen its carbon fiber and intermediate materials business and become a leading solution provider for aircraft applications. The goal is to achieve annual sales of more than US$900 million in this field by 2030.