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Sumitomo joins DuPont Tepex venture
Sumitomo joins DuPont Tepex venture DUPONT and Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI) have entered into an exclusive global cooperative agreement for the sale and supply of SHI’s high-speed forming presses as part of DuPont’s Tepex thermoplastic composite system. DuPont will market SHI’s presses to all world markets as an essential part of the Tepex system. Tepex is a continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composite material. The Tepex system consists of custommade preforms, SHI presses, production toolCAD/CAM softing ware packages and other enabling technolosuch gies, as joining, decoration and machining. DuPont will market through a global network of Tepex shops organi-
I
Bike helmets are one of the application areas to benefit from DuPont and Sumitomo s Tepex agreement.
zed around a franchise structure. SHI will develop and supply DuPont with custom-made, high-speed forming machines that are suitable for creating products made from thermoplastic composites. The press will take custom-made consolidated laminate sheets consisting of thermoplastic resins, such as nylon or polyethy-
Mitras buys Fibron Technology THE Mitras Group has enlarged its customer base and gained new technology by acquiring Fibron Technology, based in Bassum, Germany. Staff at the two companies were informed after returning to work from the Christmas break. Fibron Technology, part of Fibron GmbH, was formerly Im-Tech International GmbH and was bought from Shell in January 1994. It has 140 employees and DM25 million turnover. Mitras boosts its turnover to DM200 million through the acquisition. Mitras had apparently been considering buying
Reinforced Plastics February 1995
Fibron Technology for a long time. It benefits by gaining more customers in the sheet moulding compound (SMC) field. Fibron Technology is an SMC and glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) producer which also has a bulk moulding compound (BMC) facility. It has resin transfer moulding (RTM) technology which it uses to make battery cases, and is also involved in supplying Airbus with parts. An added bonus for Mitras is access to the research into thermoplastic pultrusion that Fibron had been working on.
lene terephthalate (PET) reinforced with a variety of fibres, such as Kevlar, carbon, glass or hybrids and form them into composite products. Tsutomu Kurihara, executive managing director of SHI says, “We expect to develop and supply in excess of 100 custom-made press systems over the next 10 years to high-technology DuPont Tepex shops. These machines will form Tepex parts in cycle times of 30-60 seconds”. J. Michael Bowman, vice-president and general manager of DuPont Advanced Material Systems, says that DuPont has developed a new generation of thermoplastic composites which couples the performance of thermoset aerospace composites with lower costs required for many
non-aerospace applications. “The combination of Tepex material systems, a fully automated, continuous lamination process, and the SHI high-speed forming machine allows for the mass production of high-performance composite products”, he says. Tepex will be initially marketed in three main areas: recreation, protection and transportation. Applications include helmets, footwear, bike components, snowboards, skis, body and ballistic protection, automotive panels and seats, and aircraft interior containment cases.
Val&ie Curie-Nodin; Du Pont de Nemours (Deutschlandj GmbH; tel: + 49- 6172- 8719 70; fax: + 49-6172-871991.
High hopes for fibreglass in South Africa FOLLOWING their successful seminar tour to East Africa, Acoustical Fibreglass Insulation (AFI) and NCS Resins are optimistic that demand for fibreglass in Africa will increase. The majority of East African users, mainly in the household product (sanitaryware) and automotive bodywork sectors still use hand lay-up methods, says Mike Myers, marketing director at AFL “Low-priced fibreglass was dumped in Africa by European and Far Eastern manufacturers in the past,
but thanks to improved prices and more efficient manufacturing methods, we can now offer competitive prices.“AFI also hopes to broaden the use of fibreglass around the continent. Users were advised of recent technological developments at the seminars. AFI’s agent in Zimrecently babwe has seen a boost in demand from Kenya, Zambia and Zaire, reports Plastics
Southern Africa. NCS Resins; tel: f 2731- 7016- 700; fax: + 273 I- 722-206
I
Bike helmets are one of the application areas to benefit from DuPont and Sumitomo s Tepex agreement.
zed around a franchise structure. SHI will develop and supply DuPont with custom-made, high-speed forming machines that are suitable for creating products made from thermoplastic composites. The press will take custom-made consolidated laminate sheets consisting of thermoplastic resins, such as nylon or polyethy-
Mitras buys Fibron Technology THE Mitras Group has enlarged its customer base and gained new technology by acquiring Fibron Technology, based in Bassum, Germany. Staff at the two companies were informed after returning to work from the Christmas break. Fibron Technology, part of Fibron GmbH, was formerly Im-Tech International GmbH and was bought from Shell in January 1994. It has 140 employees and DM25 million turnover. Mitras boosts its turnover to DM200 million through the acquisition. Mitras had apparently been considering buying
Reinforced Plastics February 1995
Fibron Technology for a long time. It benefits by gaining more customers in the sheet moulding compound (SMC) field. Fibron Technology is an SMC and glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) producer which also has a bulk moulding compound (BMC) facility. It has resin transfer moulding (RTM) technology which it uses to make battery cases, and is also involved in supplying Airbus with parts. An added bonus for Mitras is access to the research into thermoplastic pultrusion that Fibron had been working on.
lene terephthalate (PET) reinforced with a variety of fibres, such as Kevlar, carbon, glass or hybrids and form them into composite products. Tsutomu Kurihara, executive managing director of SHI says, “We expect to develop and supply in excess of 100 custom-made press systems over the next 10 years to high-technology DuPont Tepex shops. These machines will form Tepex parts in cycle times of 30-60 seconds”. J. Michael Bowman, vice-president and general manager of DuPont Advanced Material Systems, says that DuPont has developed a new generation of thermoplastic composites which couples the performance of thermoset aerospace composites with lower costs required for many
non-aerospace applications. “The combination of Tepex material systems, a fully automated, continuous lamination process, and the SHI high-speed forming machine allows for the mass production of high-performance composite products”, he says. Tepex will be initially marketed in three main areas: recreation, protection and transportation. Applications include helmets, footwear, bike components, snowboards, skis, body and ballistic protection, automotive panels and seats, and aircraft interior containment cases.
Val&ie Curie-Nodin; Du Pont de Nemours (Deutschlandj GmbH; tel: + 49- 6172- 8719 70; fax: + 49-6172-871991.
High hopes for fibreglass in South Africa FOLLOWING their successful seminar tour to East Africa, Acoustical Fibreglass Insulation (AFI) and NCS Resins are optimistic that demand for fibreglass in Africa will increase. The majority of East African users, mainly in the household product (sanitaryware) and automotive bodywork sectors still use hand lay-up methods, says Mike Myers, marketing director at AFL “Low-priced fibreglass was dumped in Africa by European and Far Eastern manufacturers in the past,
but thanks to improved prices and more efficient manufacturing methods, we can now offer competitive prices.“AFI also hopes to broaden the use of fibreglass around the continent. Users were advised of recent technological developments at the seminars. AFI’s agent in Zimrecently babwe has seen a boost in demand from Kenya, Zambia and Zaire, reports Plastics
Southern Africa. NCS Resins; tel: f 2731- 7016- 700; fax: + 273 I- 722-206