Toray Industries, Inc. has developed a new variety of regular tow carbon fiber with an outstanding combination of cost and performance, and will build a new carbonization facility for mass production at the Mexico Plant (Jalisco, Mexico) of U.S. subsidiary Zoltek Companies, Inc. to cater to strongly growing carbon fiber demand.
The new plant is expected to start production at the end of 2018.
In response to growing carbon fiber demand, Toray has been advancing the development of new varieties of regular tow, which has impressive cost and performance characteristics. Z600, a new variety developed by Toray, has physical properties that are in between large tow, which Zoltek currently produces, and regular tow, which has a track record in applications such as pressure vessels. The company plans to promote the material for industrial applications such as use in the automotive industry, which is expected to drive carbon fiber demand.
In addition to the new Z600 variety, the Toray Group will continue to develop next-generation, high-performance carbon fibers to widely respond to expanding carbon fiber demand.