BUSINESS

REINFORCEDplastics MAY/JUNE 20138 www.reinforcedplastics.com

3A COMPOSITES Core Materials

and wind turbine blade designer

WINDnovation have entered into

a strategic cooperation to

develop improved core materials

and sandwich structures for wind

turbine blades.

3A Composites Core Materials,

headquartered in Switzerland,

produces the AIREX® foam and

BALTEK® balsa wood core

materials. WINDnovation, based

in Germany, has developed more

than 70 rotor blades for various

terrains and wind conditions in

over 20 countries since 2008.

Through this collaboration 3A

Composites and WINDnovation

intend to further improve rotor

blade design. Their fi rst goals

will be the optimised design of

large blades as well as extremely

long blades for low wind

regimes.

“To assure a continued market

success, the wind energy market

needs some signifi cant, value-

adding innovations,” reports

Roman Thomassin, CEO of 3A

Composites Core Materials. “Our

cooperation with WINDnovation

aims to take out both cost and

weight from current blade

design.”

• 3A Composites Core Materials has

also announced a strategic coop-

eration with the Dow Chemical

Company to market core mate-

rials for the wind energy industry.

Dow produces COMPAXX™ struc-

tural foam core materials for use

in wind turbine blades, as well

as resins and adhesives.

3A Composites; www.core-

materials.3Acomposites.com

WINDnovation;

www.windnovation.com

Dow; www.dowwindenergy.com

3A Composites and

WINDnovation join forces

Exelis sells FIBERBOND to Future Pipe

Mitsubishi consolidates

US composites businessMITSUBISHI RAYON Co Ltd,

Japan, is combining its existing

businesses in the USA – Grafi l Inc

and Newport Adhesives and

Composites Inc – into a new

company. Mitsubishi Rayon

Carbon Fiber and Composites,

headquartered in Irvine,

California, will manufacture

and sell carbon fi bre,

composites materials and

adhesive fi lms.

Grafi l, a carbon fi bre manufac-

turer located in Sacramento,

California, and Newport, a

producer of composite prepreg

and adhesive products based in

Irvine, California, have operated

as separate entities since they

were acquired by Mitsubishi

Rayon (MRC) in the early 1990s.

In December 2012, Mitsubishi

Rayon America Inc (MRA)

announced that it was acquiring

Aldila Inc, of Poway, California, a

manufacturer of prepreg and

carbon fi bre golf club shafts.

“Aldila will be joining a world

class advanced composite

materials company that is fully

integrated from the base raw

material acrylonitrile, precursor,

carbon fi bre and prepreg mate-

rials,” said Peter Mathewson,

Aldila’s CEO. “MRC also off ers a

leading global graphite golf shaft

product line-up under the

Mitsubishi Rayon brand.”

Mitsubishi Rayon;

www.mrc.co.jp

Aldila; www.aldila.com

ITT EXELIS has sold its glass

fi bre reinforced pipe business,

Specialty Plastics Inc (FIBER-

BOND®), to Future Pipe Industries

Group of Dubai.

ITT Exelis, headquartered in

Virginia, USA, says this is

part of its strategy to focus on its

strategic growth platforms. Exelis,

an aerospace, defence, informa-

tion and technical services

company, specialises in commu-

nications, surveillance, electronic

warfare, navigation, air traffi c

solutions and information

systems, although it does

have a composite aerostructures

business.

Specialty Plastics, located in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, designs,

manufactures and installs

composite piping systems for

the deep-water oil and gas

industry, and will become part of

Future Pipe Industries Group’s

US division.

Specialty Plastics’ FIBERBOND

pipe and fi ttings are manufac-

tured from glass fi bre and various

resin systems. The products are

mainly used in the off shore oil

and gas, chemical and petro-

chemical, pulp and paper, and

marine industries. Future Pipe

Industries manufactures glass

fi bre composite pipe for a variety

of markets.

Specialty Plastics;

www.fi berbond.com

Future Pipe Industries;

www.futurepipe.com

ITT Exelis; www.exelisinc.com

In brief

Autodesk Inc has acquired

composites design and analysis

software provider Firehole

Technologies. Autodesk will

support the existing Firehole

products, including Helius:

CompositePro, while enhancing the

technology for closer integration

with Autodesk solutions.

According to press reports,

luxury boat producer Princess

Yachts has secured £4.6 million of

funding from the UK government

for a new boatyard in Plymouth.

Princess said the money persuaded

it against buying an overseas yard,

possibly in Germany.

Engineering simulation software

expert ANSYS Inc has acquired

EVEN-Evolutionary Engineering

AG, a provider of composite

analysis and optimisation

technology relying on cloud

computing. EVEN will become

ANSYS Switzerland.

Ashland Performance

Materials has announced a

partnership with Russian distribu-

tion company Composite Trade

to make its resins more accessible

to the Russian composites market.

Ashland says the aim of the

alliance, named Ashland Rus, is to

create local manufacturing

capability to further customise

products for local markets.

PlastiComp Inc has installed a

new long fibre thermoplastic (LFT)

compounding line which will

increase capacity by approximately

5 million lbs per year. The

company is also adding a new

carbon fibre dedicated production

line for LFT pellets and UD tapes.

RP0313_business news 8 22-05-13 15:26:03