Celanese Bolsters Thermoplastic Composite Development Efforts

Not surprisingly at all, Celanese Corp. has extended its contract for another two years with the Aachen Center for Integrative Lightweight Production (AZL) of Germany’s RWTH Aachen University, to jointly develop thermoplastic composites for automotive, construction, and oil and gas applications.  

 

AZL was launched last year with 33 founding members to focus on developing lightweight components. Among the consortium members are Celanese, DSM, DuPont, LANXESS, Rochling, SABIC, TenCate, and Toyota Motor Europe. Says Michael Ruby, Celanese global composites business manager, “The effort in developing potential new business opportunities for applications that use composite solutions from the Celanese broad portfolio of engineered materials is significantly reduced by approaching the task with a strong network collaborator such as AZL.” 

 

As a founding AZL member, the company has focused on projects to reduce manufacturing costs and increase productivity for thermoplastic composite parts. One such joint study has identified applications, components, distribution channels, production volumes, economic potential, and requirements for materials and process chains, across five major business sectors. Celanese thermoplastic composite offerings include unidirectional (UD) tapes, rods and profiles.

Celanese’s Michael Ruby will discuss “Hydrogen Storage for Automotive Using Thermoplastic Composites”, at the Thermoplastic Composites for Automotive conference jointly developed by Composites World and Plastics Technology and co-located with Amerimold 2014, scheduled June 11-12 in Novi, Michigan.