Mitsubishi Chemical's official website announced that its carbon fiber composite SMC material was selected by Toyota for use in the new Lexus luxury coupe LC500 and LC500h, which were released in March 2017, for the production of door inner panels and trunk inner panels .
The SMC sheet developed by Mitsubishi Chemical is a CFRP intermediate material, which is obtained by cutting carbon fibers into several centimeters long and immersing them in resin. After the SMC is processed quickly (usually in 2-5 minutes), the parts required for production can be obtained through the molding process. Compared with the prepreg molding process, the SMC process has the molding advantage of complex parts, which gives engineers more flexible product design capabilities.
This time, Mitsubishi Chemical's SMC sheet can be favored by Toyota, thanks to the following advantages, including substantial weight reduction, substantial performance improvement, and significant increase in production capacity of complex components. The use of Mitsubishi Chemical's SMC sheet is the second attempt by Toyota. The first cooperation between the two parties began in February this year. The tailgate structure of Toyota's new Prius PHV hybrid car uses Mitsubishi Chemical's SMC sheet. Mitsubishi Chemical stated that it will continue to promote the application of its carbon fiber composite materials in the automotive field in the future.
According to Mitsubishi Chemical's medium-term business plan, by 2020, the company's sales target for carbon fiber and its composite materials is 100 billion yen.