Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) announced plans to build a carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) composite material pilot plant in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. MCC has a long history of successfully using carbon fiber reinforced materials in applications such as automobiles. The company also has a wealth of carbon fiber and plastic modification related technologies.
Recently, with the support of the Fukui Industrial Technology Center, the technology that can efficiently manufacture high-quality CFRTP with low porosity has been established through technical collaboration within the MCC Group. In the future, MCC will sell Kyron thermoplastic composite materials as a new product series and promote it to the Japanese CFRTP market that relies on imported products.
In the context of increasingly stringent environmental regulations, there is an increasing demand for lightweight aircraft and car bodies in the transportation sector. It is expected that the use of carbon fiber reinforced materials will increase because it is both light and strong. So far, thermosetting resin carbon fiber reinforced materials have been the main products in this field. Since CFRTP can shorten the production time of components and is easy to recycle, the use of CFRTP will increase significantly in the future.
MCC has world-class technologies related to PAN-based carbon fiber, pitch-based carbon fiber, and thermoplastics ranging from general-purpose to high-heat-resistant products. The company will actively expand the carbon fiber reinforced plastics business, use the power of the entire group to develop new products that can meet increasingly diverse and complex customer needs, and provide the best and timely solutions for the transportation sector with significant technological innovation.
In January 2020, MCC acquired German carbon fiber prepreg manufacturer c-m-p. C-m-p has the production technology of unidirectional/fabric prepregs and provides solutions for various markets, especially in the aerospace and automotive sectors. Through this acquisition, MCC will own prepreg plants in Europe, the United States and Japan.