#Composites

2021-07-01

Toray opens Resins Technical Center in Europe

Toray’s Resins Technical Center is opening its doors on the premises of its Automotive Center Europe (AMCEU) near Munich, Germany. The new facility will support Toray Resins Europe GmbH, which markets and sells high performance resin compounds.

The main mission is to support customer application development by swiftly providing technical data, assisting with part design optimization through CAE simulation and innovative material and defect analyses and evaluations. With this facility Toray will address the fast-expanding adoption of digital design for resin products by bolstering long-term durability data and highly accurate mechanical property data that materials require. It will increase capabilities for advanced simulation of fiber reinforced parts, notably to factor in their unique anisotropy.

The new Resins Technical Center will offer materials with high tracking performance and heat cycle resistance and provide support analysis on crack prevention. This is to address such issues as cracking from heat cycling during cooling and heating of molded resin products for insulating high-voltage parts with metal inserts. That problem has increased in line with the emergence of electric vehicles.

In the automotive sector, the Technical Center will collaborate with automotive customers together with AMCEU, whose molding, analysis, and assessment capabilities take full advantage of Toray's advanced materials. These include fibers, films, resins, and carbon fiber composites. Toray will thus be able to reinforce technical solutions catering to European needs by offering construction techniques and structural design features matching its materials and engaging in joint development with European automakers and parts manufacturers.

Europe’s automotive sector is accelerating a development resource shift to electric vehicles and automated driving technologies amid increasingly strict environmental regulations, including to cut carbon dioxide emissions through better fuel efficiency. Demand for high-performance resins should thus keep growing amid an expanding market for electric power control and communication-related components. Demand for high-performance resins that match thermal, electrical, and chemical resistance requirements is also expanding in industrial applications, notable for electrical and electronic equipment and housing parts.

The new Resins Technical Center will enable Toray to swiftly identify local needs and formulate solutions to enhance customer satisfaction in Europe and accelerate the global expansion of its plastics business, particularly in automotive applications.

Toray has made expanding in growth fields a key priority in Project AP-G 2022, its medium-term management program. In Europe, which leads the world in initiatives to materialize economic sustainability, Toray will contribute to communities by locally developing and supplying high-performance resins in keeping with its commitment to innovating ideas, technologies, and products that deliver new value.

Toray develops recycling technology that retains carbon fiber strength and surface quality

Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it has developed a recycling technology that can decompose diverse carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) made from thermosetting resins while retaining the strength and surface quality of those fibers. The company drew on this technology to create a nonwoven fabric employing recycled carbon fibers.

HEAD launches more sustainable(1) BOOM RAW racquet on Earth Day by using Toray’s bio-circular carbon fibers

HEAD continues to innovate with the launch of the BOOM RAW tennis racquet, an encouraging development in the search for a more sustainable future for racquet sports. All of the carbon fibers are bio-circular carbon fibers in the limited-edition and highly innovative BOOM RAW racquet, which offers the same explosive power - along with the same fun, feel and easy playability - as the regular, in-line BOOM racquet. The bio-circular carbon fibers are manufactured by Toray and its subsidiary Toray Carbon Fibers Europe.

Toray develops durable reverse osmosis membrane

Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it has developed a highly durable reverse osmosis (RO) membrane (see glossary note 1). This innovative offering guarantees the long-term provision of high-quality water. It also maintains the superior removal performance of Toray’s existing membranes vital for reusing industrial wastewater and treating sewage.

JEC World 2026 reveals the list of finalists for the Innovation Awards

Each year, the JEC Composites Innovation Awards recognize collaborative, innovative, and ambitious projects that illustrate the potential of composite materials. Created in 1998, this benchmark program aims to identify, promote, and reward the most innovative composite solutions worldwide. In 28 years, the JEC Composites Innovation Awards have attracted more than 2,200 participating companies from around the world. A total of 269 companies and 811 associated partners have been recognized for the excellence of their innovations.

MEL Composites and Carrocerías Ayats collaborate on lightweight composite window frames

MEL Composites is proud to announce its ongoing collaboration with Spanish bus and coach manufacturer Carrocerías Ayats, showcasing the benefits of advanced composite technologies and scalable manufacturing processes originally developed for the sporting goods sector. The joint development of lightweight composite window frame covers demonstrates how MEL’s process innovation can be successfully transferred to the transportation industry to meet new regulatory and performance goals.

38th International Cotton Conference Bremen: Let´s Talk about Cotton!

The 38th International Cotton Conference Bremen, to be held on 25-27 March 2026 in Bremen’s parliament building on market square, once again sends a powerful signal for professional excellence and international dialogue. The focus is on the latest market trends and technical innovations throughout the entire value chain – from agriculture and quality assurance to processing and the circular economy. With its high-calibre speakers, the conference remains an indispensable forum for anyone involved in shaping the cotton industry scientifically, technically, or economically.

More safety and comfort for protective clothing thanks to auxetic fabrics

When everyday materials are pulled, they stretch or elongate in the direction of the pull and become narrower in cross-section. We can also observe this property in two-dimensional textiles. Auxetic structures behave differently here. They have the striking property of not changing under tensile stress or even increasing their width or thickness. These properties are advantageous, for example, in protective textiles or textile filter media. The DITF are researching auxetic fabrics for various applications.