Performance and Advanced Composites – Industrial Selector Guide

Toray Advanced Composites is a global materials technology company that supports a wide range of applications for engineered composites. With its heritage, manufacturing technology, and technical capabilities, the company can support the employment of advanced composite materials in four areas of application: space & aerospace; safety & protection; sport & recreation, and infrastructure & environment. All the production sites of Toray Advanced Composites, whether in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, North America, or Canada, have their own expertise and specialty.

Go Lighter

Industrial – Both thermoplastic and thermoset options across a wide range of performance targets and prices are available from Toray. The following markets benefit from Toray’s materials:

• Consumer electronics
• Medical
• Sport & recreation
• Marine

Go Further

Transportation – Materials offered by Toray reduce the weight of and improve fuel efficiency across a wide range of transportation industries including:

• Automotive
• Trucks
• Interiors
• Rail

Go Deeper

Energy – Toray’s high-performance composites provide an innovative alternative to non-reinforced plastics and conventional metals generally used in the oil and gas market. Some of the applications include:

• Pressure vessels
• Frac plugs
• Piping
• Gaskets
• Tubulars
• Overwraps
• Low dielectric enclosures

Go Together

Toray uses the synergy of global production sites via intensive internal cooperation at commercial and technical levels to benefits its customers. The advanced composite market is characterized by a partnership between suppliers, research institutes, and customers. After all, new applications are developed mainly in partnerships.

The benefits of advanced composites include:

Product Solutions

• Thermoset advanced composite prepregs and UD tapes
• Composite tooling prepregs
• Thermoplastic advanced composite UD tapes, laminates, and prepregs
• Film adhesives and syntactic
• Bulk molding compounds
• Compression-molded parts
• Honeycomb core

Toray offers a suitable solution to meet the various composite material requirements of customers.

Market Applications

• Automotive
• Energy
• Motorsport and Formula 1
• Medical
• Consumer electronics
• Sport and recreation

Advanced & Performance Composites Products - Industrial Applications

Transportation

Weight reduction and high volume manufacturing are two major considerations for the automotive industry. The fast stamping processes that were designed to be used with thermoplastic composite materials can meet these high volume needs. When compared to metallic parts and injection molded parts, continuous fiber-reinforced materials provide equivalent stiffness and strength with a lower weight. The rapid cure, out-of-autoclave thermoset prepregs from Toray are best suited for exterior body panels. The Toray Cetex^® thermoplastics are ideal for underbody panels, impact beams, automotive seats, and pedals. The materials can also be used in various manufacturing processes, including automated tape placement, continuous compression molding, thermoforming, injection over-molding, and stamping.

Energy

In an industry where every minute counts, improving cycle time, and reducing downtime are critical. By using corrosion-resistant composite materials, downtime can be reduced. The infrastructure costs associated with pipeline component replacement can be reduced by spoolable pipe, rapid assembly methods, and the use of lighter structures. Toray’s products provide a combination of high strength, stiffness, and improved corrosion resistance in a lighter weight.

Some oil and gas applications include:

• Wrapped tubing and pipe for weight reduction, corrosion resistance, and increased strength,
• Electrically pure dielectric structures and enclosures for downhole inspection and monitoring
• Molded frac spheres
• Composite pressure cylinders
• Carbon fiber reinforced tethers
• Drill plugs

Other Applications

Consumer electronics – Toray offers lightweight, innovative, visually unique, and highly durable solutions for next-generation electronics, including tablets and smartphones. With its facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America, Toray is capable of supporting the requirements of turnkey manufacturing on a global scale.

Sport & recreation – The unique high stiffness, high strength, and lightweight properties of composites make them valuable across a variety of markets. Today, composites are used to produce tennis racquets, golf club shafts, fishing rods, bicycles, bats, boat paddles, hockey sticks, and a variety of other applications. CFRT^® thermoplastic composites from Toray can be found in various applications from high-end athletic footwear to hockey skate base plates, providing stability with comfort and lightweight.

Medical - Toray Advanced Composites, which continually invests in product development, has a portfolio of thermoplastic and thermoset materials that have been specifically developed for use within medical applications such as X-ray couches, tables and mammography plates, surgical target devices and tools, MRI & C scanner components, orthotics, prosthetics, wheelchairs, and walking aids.

Thermoset Composites

Thermoset composites from Toray use both direct impregnation and film impregnation to control the resin content and the degree of impregnation to meet unique handling and processing requirements for each customer. The company works with industry-standard glass, carbon, and aramid fibers in UD, woven, and multi-axial (NCF) reinforcements. Toray’s product range also includes visual quality standard carbon reinforcements. The company offers a wide range of proprietary resin systems ranging from toughened epoxies to high-temperature cyanate esters and BMIs.

Low-Temperature Curing Thermoset Prepregs

Low to Mid Temperature Curing Thermoset Prepregs

Mid Temperature Curing Thermoset Prepregs

High Service Temperature Thermoset

Toray Ambertool^® Composite Tooling Solutions - Tooling Prepregs

The HX and TC prepreg series of the Toray AmberTool^® range have over two decades of pedigree in high-performance motorsport, and are sold globally by a proven team of tooling experts. The comprehensive range of tooling products offered by Toray allows customers to complete tool design freedom and flexibility.

Toray provides a complete service, enabling a single supplier approach to all-composite tooling requirements, from master to material to technical support. The company’s tooling product solutions enable the fabrication of “machined to shape” or highly precise molded tools for tight tolerance part fabrication.

Master and Surface Coat Package

• High-performance epoxy block*
• EC85 surface coating technology*

Complete Tooling Solutions

• Wide range of glass and carbon reinforcements
• Machinable
• Quick delivery solutions for standard materials
• Glass and carbon backing structures

Experienced Technical Support

• Proven processing guidelines documented in Toray’s Tooling Processing Guide
• Mold life-cycle maintenance solutions
• Specialized knowledge on mold surface treatment

Toray Ambertool^® Prepregs

Ancillary Materials

Sourced from: * Europe ** North America

Toray Cetex^® Thermoplastic Composites - UD Tapes, Prepregs, and Laminates

Toray Cetex^® and Toray CFRT^® have more than three decades of experience and pedigree. They have set the standard for high quality, engineered thermoplastic composite materials. The company has expertise in semicrystalline and amorphous thermoplastics. From PP, PA6, and PMMA all the way to PEI, PEEK, and engineered PAEK, Toray can design the polymer to meet customers’ requirements.

Toray’s Cetex^® thermoplastic materials are available in a wide range of fabric-based laminates (RTLs), UD tapes, or prepregs to facilitate the manufacturing process and part design of customers.

Toray Cetex^® Thermoplastics

*Melting point is only shown for semi-crystalline (PAEK family) thermoplastic products

**For further information please refer to Toray’s Materials for the Consumer Footwear and Orthotics Markets selector guide

Lightweight Composites - Design, Part, and Fabrication Services

Compression Molded Parts

Toray’s CCS Composites group specializes in designing, tooling, and fabrication of complex compression molded parts with chopped thermoplastic and thermoset-based materials. Compression molding provides an alternative to machining and hand lay-up for complex geometry components. It also offers high volume production at a lighter weight and lower cost.

General reinforcements used in CCS’s compression molding process are glass and carbon chopped fiber, with thermoplastic resins or toughened epoxy.

Bulk Molding Compounds

Compression molding is a highly controlled process that uses precise resin-infused fiber-reinforced tape made of standard, intermediate, or high modulus fibers. The resins can be either thermoplastic (PEEK and PPS) or thermoset resin.

For making bulk molding compounds, these UD tapes are chopped into fiber lengths ranging from 12 to 50 mm (1/2” to 2”). While longer fiber lengths provide higher strengths, smaller length fibers allow more complex structural details to be molded into the part.

Full sole footplate Toray Cetex^® TW2000 Carbon / PMMA (TC950).

Electrical enclosure Toray Cetex^® TC910 Carbon / PA6.

Backpack frame Toray Cetex^® TC940 Glass / PET UD tape.

Military helmet accessory Toray Cetex^® TC910 Carbon / PA6 UD tape.

Film Adhesives and Syntactics - Rolls, and Sheets

Toray provides a wide variety of film adhesives that are compatible with its prepregs. Film adhesives are used for bonding pre-cured or post-cured laminates or for honeycomb bonding of skin to core.

The syntactic offered by Toray represent epoxy films that are loaded with glass microspheres for high compressive strengths and low density. The Amlite and Amspand line of syntactic films from Toray are best suited for edge close outs, reinforcement areas, core splices, and sandwich core construction.

*Redux is a registered trademark of Hexcel, offered from Langley Mill, UK

Syntactic Core

Honeycomb Core and Reinforcements - Honeycomb Core Materials and Material Comparisons

Toray Advanced Composites, UK (Langley Mill), has the largest independent core processing operation in Europe. In addition to Flex Core^® honeycomb, Aluminum and Nomex^® honeycomb are also available. The company has an extensive stock for customers to choose from. The company cuts all orders to customer’s thickness specifications and provides them with fast turnaround times.

Honeycomb core*

Flex-Core^® is a registered trademark of Hexcel. Nomex^® is a registered trademark of E.I du Pont de Nemours and Company.

*Offered from Langley Mill, UK. Additional grades can be sourced upon request, subject to minimum order quantities and extended lead times

Material Comparisons

In addition to glass and aramid fibers in UD, woven and multiaxial (NCF) reinforcements, Toray works with high strength, intermediate and high modulus carbon fibers. The company offers both pitch- and PAN-based carbon fibers.

This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Toray Advanced Composites.

For more information on this source, please visit Toray Advanced Composites.