787 fuels Toray expansion

News

Japan’s Toray Industries this week announced its decision to expand domestic production capacity of its PAN-based carbon fibre Torayca.

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this week announced its decision to expand domestic production capacity of its PolyAcryloNitrile (PAN)-based carbon fibre Torayca.

The company plans to add two integrated production lines for carbon fibre covering polymerisation, precursor spinning, and carbonisation, and one production line for prepreg (carbon fibre sheets impregnated with epoxy resin ) at its Ehime Plant in Masaki-cho, Iyo-gun, Ehime prefecture.

Toray will spend around $232 million (25.0 billion yen) on expanding its facilities, which are expected to start operating in January 2007.

Toray is expanding its Torayca production capacity in response to the growing demand for composite materials for Boeing’s new 787 passenger aircraft, which is scheduled to enter service in 2008.

As the sole supplier of Torayca prepreg for the 787, Toray plans to start full-scale supply of prepreg from its US production site in 2006. With this expansion, Toray aims to establish a “dual source” supply structure built around its production sites in Japan and the US.

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