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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