Trnava, February 15, 2012 — Johns Manville (JM), a market-leading manufacturer of glass fiber products, today confirmed its plans to expand current fiber production capacities in its Trnava, Slovakia facility. The investment involves replacing and expanding a furnace, which is expected to be operational by the end of September 2012. Products from this manufacturing process are used to reinforce both engineered thermoset and thermoplastic polymers in addition to supplying internal demand.

Enno Henze, vice president and general manager for Engineered Products Europe/Asia stated, “Over the last couple of years we have focused our research and development activities on enhancing our product portfolio of chopped strands for the reinforcement of thermoplastic polymers. And the efforts are truly paying off as our products are recognized for their leading performance, resetting industry standards in specific applications and driving strong demand for our products.”

This new melting capacity follows JM’s 2004 investment in direct roving and chopped strands capacity at its Trnava, Slovakia site. Industrial glass fiber melters have been mostly discontinued in the last three years in Europe and this investment in new technology enables JM to continue to meet European market needs.

“We are committed to supporting our customers’ innovative growth in preparation for an improved economy in the second half of this year. This substantial investment highlights our drive to enhance customer relationships, product innovation and service excellence,” said Henze.

About Johns Manville
Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B), is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality products for building insulation, mechanical insulation, commercial roofing, and roof insulation, as well as fibers and nonwovens for commercial, industrial and residential applications. JM serves markets that include aerospace, automotive and transportation, air handling, appliance, HVAC, pipe and equipment, filtration, waterproofing, building, flooring, interiors and wind energy. In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has annual sales of approximately $2.5 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. JM employs approximately 6,600 people and operates 40 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China.

Additional information can be found at www.jm.com and www.jmfibers.com .

At this occasion the EATC members have renewed the show car and allocated some new parts (see picture).
You can download the new part list by using the following link.

With about 5.100 employees wordwide and customers in more than 120 countries, Borealis is a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions.
For more information about BOREALIS please visit www.borealisgroup.com

Van Wees is leader in UD and Crossply technology. A high quality, high volume production method with the lowest possible costs for the production of technical textiles and composite materials. In our engineering department and Research and Technology Center we develop machines, new products and processes. For manufacturing and installation we can rely on the experience gained since the start of the company in 1945. To learn more, please visit www.vanwees.nl

StarRov^® 490 LFT^Plus Roving continues JM’s innovation in long fiber thermoplastics (LFT).  Through the use of unique JM sizing chemistry, we can reduce the odor impact of polypropylene LFT compounds with new StarRov^® 490 LFT^Plus. According to VDA270 odor analysis, odor is reduced by 0.5 to 1 point while still offering premium impact and strength performance. This new offering will further boost the use of polypropylene in critical interior automotive components.

Also included in JM’s JEC booth is our new ThermoFlow^® 672 Chopped Strands for polyamides reinforcements. These materials are aimed at critical applications in the automotive, electrical, electronics and consumer goods markets, which are increasingly demanding more durable materials.  ThermoFlow^® 672 enables our customers to experience higher impact and tensile properties while retaining the high extruder throughput capability of the JM ThermoFlow^® Chopped Strand family.

To follow up on past innovations, JM also introduced in recent years our new ThermoFlow^® 636 Chopped Strands with improved performance in polypropylene resins, which has become JM’s benchmark for short-fiber reinforcements for polypropylene compounding. It can be used in different applications and is designed to increase the use of polypropylene in the more advanced engineering applications, such as inlet manifolds for the automotive segment.

About Johns Manville: Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B), is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality products for building insulation, mechanical insulation, commercial roofing, and roof insulation, as well as fibers and nonwovens for commercial, industrial and residential applications. JM serves markets that include aerospace, automotive and transportation, air handling, appliance, HVAC, pipe and equipment, filtration, waterproofing, building, flooring, interiors and wind energy.  In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has annual sales of approximately $2 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. JM employs approximately 6,500 people and operates 41 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China.  Additional information can be found at www.jm.com and www.jmfibers.com.

AVK/EATC attendance at the ESPRIT meeting Q8 at NetComposites in Chesterfield, UK

During this meeting the results of the last quarter’s work has been presented by the partners. There are variations on Self Reinforced Polyolefins (srPO), Self Reinforced Nylons (srPA) and Self Reinforced Polyesters (srPet) and some processing trials have been carried out in order to qualify the material to the specific processes such as injection moulding, compression moulding and extrusion. Since these materials are very critical to heating, heating by microwave, induction and other heating sources has been investigated and processing parameters defined.

(Technical Bulletin ESPRIT Oct 2010)

The next steps for 2011 will be the applications of the materials to case studies. Here the members of the EATC group can participate with their know how, experience and market overview.

A summary of the meeting results will be given at the next EATC meeting in Frankfurt, AVK office, 9^th December 2010 by Dr. Egon Moos, Röchling Automotive.

At the same time, BASF enters the market for high-performance polyamides with long glass fiber reinforcement. At the K 2010, the company will be presenting its first products from the Ultramid^® Structure family with this special reinforcement.

This new BASF product group represents a considerable increase in performance and is targeted at metal replacement since Ultramid® Structure offers new opportunities when even highly optimized short glass fiber-reinforced products have reached their limits. The company is starting with a basic assortment of PA 6 and PA 66 grades with long glass fiber contents between 40 and 60 percent.

BASF plans to share its experience in the areas of processing, characterization and simulation of Ultramid^® Structure within EATC and has extended the capability of the well-established computer-based tool ULTRASIM™ to permit simulation of components reinforced with long glass fibers. In addition to accurate prediction of component behavior as a function of injection parameters, fiber anisotropy and rate of load application, Mathematical Component Optimization makes it possible to determine the best possible shape under the given conditions. One example is a crash absorber made of Ultramid^® Structure the intentional failure of which was predicted precisely using ULTRASIM™ and subsequently verified (Fig. 10).

BASF anticipates that its membership in EATC will lead to new and interesting project partnerships that will yield additional demanding and energy-efficient components.

For more information visit: www.basf.com

The AVK-Conference will take place from the 13-14 September 2010 in Essen (in conjunction with the Trade Fairs COMPOSITES EUROPE + ALUMINIUM 2010)

For detailed information and registration please visit the following link.

The aim is to develop production-ready technology utilising advanced selective melting processes, allowing the materials to be flow-moulded without affecting the reinforcing fibre properties.

Brochure: AVK_Esprit_Folder

The Esprit project has completed its first year of research and has carried out an extensive programme of locating, manufacturing and characterising the base materials from which the flowing Self Reinforced Plastics will be made.  These are variations on Self Reinforced Polyolefins (srPO), Self Reinforced Nylons (srPA) and Self Reinforced Polyesters (srPet) and some early processing trials have been carried out in order to measure critical temperatures and shrinkage characteristics.

Using SRP materials material usage and component weight is expected to be reduced by 30% for equivalent stiffness over conventional materials, resulting in energy saving in both manufacture and in use through, for example, lighter vehicles.

Early trials of selective heating by means of susceptor additives have shown strong promise and a variety of options are available for development.  The aim is to have SRP systems for existing moulding technology and for new specialist moulding technology in order to maximise the commercial potential for these new materials. 

Partners have made excellent progress in the pultrusion of commingled yarns into a continuous rod which is subsequently chopped into pellets for flow moulding applications.

A custom built line has been running successfully which can produce 5kg/hr of pellets derived from PA, PBT, PP and PET combinations.  A special cutter has been developed as these thermoplastic reinforcements present very different characteristics to traditional carbon/glass reinforcements.

The Esprit project now has a stable basis to efficiently make pellet samples derived from the many modified matrix and reinforcement raw materials being generated by other partners.

A polypropylene based polymer fibre reinforced composite has been created with an extremely high impact strength. The composite, containing relatively long fibres, shows an unusual but highly attractive combination of high modulus, high strain at break, high impact resistance and low notch sensitivity:

• Compared to the polypropylene base material the modulus is increased with almost 100%, the strength is increased with more than 50%, while at the same time the strain at break is still high at over 20%.
• The most remarkable property is the notched impact strength: it increases from 3 to 55 kJ/m². This is much higher than even the best impact modified polypropylenes, while the modulus is much higher.
• Also a self reinforced polyester has been developed that shows a 50% increase in the tensile modulus compared to unfilled polyester, without increasing the density of the material.

These material contain fibres up to 10 mm and can be injection moulded into complex shapes – the challenge being to maintain fibre reinforcement integrity through the whole process.

The optimum processing of the new materials is achieved by standard machines adapted in the areas of plastification, injection phase, the heating of the polymer and the temperature control in barrel and mould. 

The consortium has been selected to encompass skills in materialmodification, machinery building, testing, processing and manufacture resulting in a strong team of participants:

AIMPLAS,  AVK, EATC, Comfil, Fibroline, Fricke und Mallah Microwave Technology, IVW, NetComposites(coordinator), PEMU, Polisilk, Promolding, Regloplas, StructoForm and Ticona.

Further information about ESPRIT project and the partners can be found at: www.espritproject.eu

Celanese takes over FACT Future Advanced Composites Technology GmbH

Kelsterbach, Germany / Florence, Kentucky – December 21, 2009 – Ticona’s parent company, the Celanese Corporation, announced today the acquisition of FACT Future Advanced Composites Technology GmbH (FACT). With its main office in Kaiserslautern and a workforce of about 60 employees, the company is a leading producer of long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (LFT) for injection molding, extrusion, compression molding and blow molding applications. Prior to its acquisition by Celanese, FACT was a subsidiary of the Ravago Group of Belgium. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Your contact:

Henning Küll

Phone: +49 (0) 6107 772 17 97

Fax: +49 (0) 6107 772 72 31

E-mail:  kuell(at)ticona.de

Internet: http://www.ticona.com

“At Celanese we continue to execute our strategy designed to build advantaged positions through the strategic use of cash for high-return projects that grow our business where we have sustainable advantages,” said David Weidman, chairman and chief executive officer, Celanese.

With the new production site in Kaiserslautern, the acquisition supports Ticona Engineering Polymers by building on Ticona’s LFT process technology and broadening specific product offerings, thereby improving the company’s capability to grow with its customers.

“This acquisition will grow the company’s Celstran^® product line, expand industry coverage, and combine the development capabilities of the two companies to satisfy increasing customer demands in the automotive industry and in general industrial applications,” concluded Roeland Polet, vice president, Ticona.

Bundling production capacities

FACT will become part of the newly established Celstran GmbH and be managed under the umbrella of the Ticona organization. Within the framework of business integration plans, the existing Celstran production that employs about 25 people in Kelsterbach will be relocated to Kaiserslautern by mid-2011. By consolidating the two existing LFT production facilities at Kaiserslautern, the corporation expects to realize technological and production engineering synergies that will benefit customers and strengthen Ticona’s competitive position.

Ticona’s production site in Kelsterbach will be closed in mid-2011 in order to make room for the expansion of Frankfurt Airport. The new plant that Ticona is currently building in Frankfurt’s Höchst Industrial Park for the production of the engineering polymer Hostaform^® POM will be fully operational by mid-2011.

Broad range of applications for long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics

LFTs are versatile engineering polymers in the form of pellets with a fiber length of about 10 millimeters. Thanks to their combination of mechanical properties, impact strength, creep resistance and low warpage, these thermoplastics are extremely well-suited for metal replacement applications. Structural components in the automotive segment such as instrument panels and modules as well as fan rotors in the industrial sector are just a few examples of current applications using Ticona’s Celstran LFT.

Except where indicated otherwise, all brand names listed here are registered trademarks of Ticona or their affiliated companies.

About Ticona and Celanese

Ticona, the technical polymers business of the Celanese Corporation, produces and markets a broad range of engineering polymers and generated sales of $1.06 billion in the 2008 business year. The company has approximately 2,000 employees worldwide and operates production, compounding and research facilities in the USA, Germany, Brazil and China. For further information please visit www.ticona.com.

Celanese Corporation – As a global leader in the chemicals industry, Celanese Corporation makes products essential to everyday living. Our products, found in consumer and industrial applications, are manufactured in North America, Europe and Asia.  Net sales totaled $6.8 billion in 2008, with about 65% generated outside of North America.  Known for operational excellence and execution of its business strategies, Celanese delivers value to customers around the globe with innovations and best-in-class technologies.  Based in Dallas, Texas, the company employs approximately 8,000 people worldwide. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.celanese.com.

The first meeting started at the 14th of March 2000 in Frankfurt/Main. In the meantime there have been a lot of discussions, meetings, ideas and activities.

We are looking forward for the next 10 years and will summerize some activities, which we will show up in March next year.

We wish everybody a mery christmas and a good start in 2010!