Carbon future

The Japanese carbon fibre market has taken a huge leap forward in the past year: not only has its largest player grown even bigger, but Japan has also been responsible for some world-beating technology breakthroughs.

Japan’s main producers – Toray Industries, Toho Tenax and Mitsubishi Rayon Co – remain the global leaders in carbon fibre production, and between them account for just over half of installed global production. Despite this, only 20% of production capacity is actually in Japan: the largest market, with a 31% share, is the US.

Carbon fibre use in wind turbine blades has cooled Copyright: Rex Features

The most significant move for Toray Industries – already the world leader in carbon fibre – came earlier in the year, with its ambitious expansion plans in the US: an ongoing $1bn (€789m) investment to build a new plant in Moore, South Carolina and its recent takeover of US-based Zoltek.

The Zoltek acquisition – for around $584m – gives Toray entry into the large tow carbon fibre business. It was not previously involved in this part of the market: large tow carbon fibre, which has 40,000 or more filaments, is used for applications such as wind turbine blades and reinforced plastic compounds. Regular tow carbon fibre – such as that produced by Toray – has 24,000 or fewer filaments, and is aimed at high-end applications such as aircraft.

Toray expects global demand for polyacrylonitile (PAN) based carbon fibres to grow at more than 15%, thanks to their ability to save energy through weight reduction – and as a key material for renewable energy technologies such as wind turbine blades.

“Toray has been considering how to address the promising growth in the commodity industrial field such as wind energy-related applications and automobile structural parts,” it says.

The takeover has cemented Toray’s position at the top of the global carbon fibre production table – as it has effectively taken over its closest rival. According to figures from Carbon Composites eV (CCeV), the German carbon fibre association, Toray has now augmented its 21,100 tonnes/year production capacity with Zoltek’s 17,600 tonnes/year.

“This is an important development,” says Michael Kuehnel of CCeV, who was jointly responsible for preparing the report. “Together, this gives them about 40% of theoretical world capacity.”

He says that while total global demand for carbon fibre was 46,500 tonnes in 2013, the installed capacity was just over 100,000 tonnes/year.

CCeV tracks the world market carbon fibre and carbon fibre composites in its annual market report – which is presented alongside figures for glass fibre-reinforced plastics, prepared by German composites association AVK.

Kuehnel says Toray has immediate plans to expand capacity even further: by March 2015, it expects to have extended worldwide production to 27,100 tonnes. Of this, 2,500 tonnes/year will be added in both the US and South Korea, while its main plant in Japan will expand by 1,000 tonnes/year.

In the longer term, Toray’s $1bn investment in South Carolina will see it build a new plant on a 400-acre (162-hectare) site, and create up to 500 new jobs. The site was chosen in part because of the growing aerospace manufacturing industry in the region – including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner manufacturing plant in nearby North Charleston. But it will also supply far beyond this local area, says the company.

“Here, we will have proximity to major customers, both in the US and Latin American markets,” says Akihiro Nikkaku, president of Toray Industries.

Toray is not the only Japanese supplier expanding in the US. Mitsubishi Rayon Co (MRC) is doubling production of carbon fibre at its plant in Sacramento, California.

Carbon-fibre-reinforced plastics feature widely on the Airbus A350 Copyright: Airbus

Its US subsidiary, Mitsubishi Rayon Carbon Fiber and Composites (MRCFAC), will install new facilities to boost production there from 2,000 to 4,000 tonnes/year. The expansion is expected to come on stream in mid-2016, says MRC.

The company puts annual worldwide growth for industrial applications of carbon fibre at more than 20%. In particular, it says that carbon fibre-reinforced pressure vessels are becoming widely used for compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel tanks and large-scale CNG transporting vessels.

Large buses and trucks are switching to CNG, because of the better cost efficiency of using natural gas – due in part to the tightening of automobile exhaust gas regulations, the company notes. Fuel tanks carrying high-pressure hydrogen gas for fuel cell vehicles, and storage tanks installed at hydrogen stations, are also expected to use carbon fibre, it says.

“MRC will use MRCFAC as a production centre of high-performance regular tow carbon fibre to serve the growing demand in the North American market,” says the company.

The company points out it also sees growth opportunities in wind turbine blades and automotive.

Airbus contract
Meanwhile, Toho Tenax – the main company within Teijin’s carbon fibres business – has seen its Tenax TPCL material qualified for use on the new Airbus A350 XWB. TPCL is a thermoplastic consolidated laminate, comprising carbon fibres embedded within a matrix of polyetheretherketone (Peek) – a high impact material with superior chemical and heat resistance.

The Airbus A350 XWB is a new generation of wide-bodied, mid-sized jetliner.

Tenax carbon fibre was first qualified for use in the composite structure of the Airbus A320 vertical tail plane in 1988. It has since been used in the A330 and A340, and primary composite structures of the A380.

“As demand rises for weight-saving and 
energy efficiency, the presence of Tenax will expand even further,” said Takashi Yoshino, president of Toho Tenax.

The company has developed two new carbon fibre filament yarns with a tailored sizing for thermoplastic and high temperature applications. The grades are being commercialised this year. They can be processed into textiles like woven fabrics, and used for processes like pultrusion or pre-pregging. It will use the new fibres to make thermoplastic unidirectional pre-preg tapes, which have already been chosen for a variety of aerospace applications.

Both TPCL and Tenax filament yarns are made by Toho Tenax at its Oberbruch site in Germany, and are available globally.

Growth potential
Despite the huge growth potential of carbon fibre composites – and the emergence of automotive as a new possible mass market – 
Kuehnel sounds a note of warning regarding wind turbine blades.

“The big question in future is how much carbon fibre is needed to produce blades over 50m long,” he says.

Some larger wind turbine blades have moved away from carbon fibre and back to glass fibre, he says. Although there is more “bend” in these blades, this can be overcome with new construction methods, he says.

Another potential mass market – construction – is also on the horizon. Carbon fibre-reinforced concrete is already being used to repair bridges but before it can become more widespread, the cost of carbon fibre would need to come down – and the materials will need to meet a wide raft of building industry regulations. Within a decade, he says, the construction market could be a major global user of carbon fibre.

“The first nation that solves the regulation issue will be the winner in this,” notes Kuehnel.

CASE STUDY

Carbon fibres take to the seas

Japan’s Nakashima Propeller says it has installed the world’s first carbon fibre-
reinforced plastic (CFRP) propeller on the main propulsion system of a merchant ship.

It was installed on the Taiko Maru, a domestic chemical tanker owned by Sowa Kaiun YK, in May this year.

Nakashima developed and produced the propeller under a joint research project whose partners included the Tokyo University’s School of Engineering, Japan’s National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI) and marine classification organisation ClassNK.

During sea trials, the CFRP propeller required 9% less power to operate, compared with conventional aluminium-bronze propellers. Its blades have an increased diameter of 2.12m (7ft), allowing them to achieve greater efficiency, says the company. The project is using model tank testing to improve performance further.

“Expansion of their use on merchant vessels is expected to contribute to improved fuel economy and greater efficiency in operations,” says Nakashima.

The Taiko Maru earlier installed CFRP propellers in its side thrusters. Their successful performance encouraged Sowa Kaiun YK to select a CFRP propeller for its main propulsion system – the vessel the first in the world to do so, it says.

ClassNK carried out fatigue testing and material testing to assess basic mechanical properties, as well as static load testing on full-scale propeller blades to determine their suitability for marine use.