Toray Industries, Inc. announced that a facility for producing slit tape from Torayca carbon fiber prepreg (carbon fiber sheet impregnated with resin) at its Ishikawa Plant (Nomi, Ishikawa, Japan) has received certification from the Boeing Company, and recently started full-scale operation for the Boeing 787 aircraft.
A ceremony was held to celebrate the start of operation on February 21st, with about 30 guests including the governor of Ishikawa Prefecture and mayor of Nomi City.
The slit tape is a narrowly slit Torayca prepreg tape material. Its applications have been expanding from the perspective of improving production efficiency and yield. In the Toray Group, U.S. subsidiary Toray Composites (America), Inc. has been manufacturing and supplying the slit tape, and the group had been importing the slit tape from TCA in response to 787 aircraft-related demands in Japan.
It is the first time that slit tape is being produced in Japan, and Toray will supply the product to Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. for the fuselage of the Boeing 787. The start of the new slit tape production facility enables Toray to develop an even stronger structure for ensuring stable supply of materials for the 787. The company will also enhance the Ishikawa Plant as a production and development base in an effort to accelerate the development of new demands in Japan and the rest of Asia by swiftly responding to customer needs.