Carbon Fiber Manufacturing Processes

Wet Filament Winding

• Toray carbon fiber, such as T700S, has been successfully applied in wet winding for decades and continues to serve as the industry standard. Further, Toray continues to develop fibers with an excellent performance-to-cost ratio in gas transport and other pressure vessel applications.
• For large volume programs, Toray offers the highest production capacity with fiber manufacturing in four countries, positioning Toray to provide material to a just-in-time world.
• For high-pressure tanks like those for hydrogen storage and vehicles, higher strength fibers are available with the same great processability and availability. Contact us to learn more.
• As performance requirements increase such as those in space and rocket launch applications and defense applications such as rocket motor casings, Toray’s wide range of fiber products continue to meet requirements. Especially exciting is the intermediate modulus plus fiber T1100 which offers the highest tensile strength fiber available today with US domestic supply at ample capacity.

Towpreg Winding

• Towpreg winding allows for the fiber impregnation (wetout) to be accomplished in advance to the winding process, typically improving the composite quality and enabling high winding speeds. This is proving to be more and more important in applications such as hydrogen tank fabrication for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and defense & space applications.
• TORAYCA^® carbon fiber has a legacy of good performance in towpreg winding applications, and it has been selected for many high-performance programs. Contact us for more information to help choose the right fiber for your application.

3D Winding

• Toray strives for continued product improvement and development of new products that keep up with the fast pace of innovation in the composites field. One new area is called 3D winding, which consists of winding impregnated fiber around nodes to create very low weight and high-performance structures. Toray’s high-performance fibers such as T1100 are well positioned to be applied in new areas like this.

Weaving

• Highly drapable woven products that are easily shaped to fill molds and part cavities are made using products with small tow sizes, such as 1K, 3K, and 6K, with T300, T700S, T800H, T830H, M35J, M40J, M46J, M55J, and M60J.
• Fiber areal weight (FAW) can be tailored based on the predictable and consistent spreading of the tow. This allows for relatively low FAW fabrics even with tow sizes like 12K. Ultralow FAW, spread tow intermediate materials may even be made.
• All loom types and fabric types are applicable, including plain weave, satin weaves, etc.

Braiding

• Braiding allows tubular and unique woven product forms to be made. Many TORAYCA^® carbon fiber products work well in braiding, including horizontal and vertical braiding processes.

Multiaxial Non-Crimp Fabrics (NCF)

• Multiaxial fabrics are made by knitting multiple layers of fabric together with polymer thread, where the fibers of each ply are no longer crimped like they are in traditional woven fabrics, or by 3D weaving using structural fibers and complex 3D architectures. These multiaxial fabrics allow multiple layers of a composite layup to be processed at a time, and they are well suited for applications like resin infusion/resin transfer molding (RTM) and other processes.
• Many TORAYCA^® carbon fiber products work well in stitching and multiaxial fabric manufacturing.

Nonwoven Fabrics & Felts

• TORAYCA^®  carbon fiber can be processed to make nonwoven fabrics or felts using continuous fiber or after chopping.

Specialty Prepregs

• Sometimes a unique fiber/resin combination is required for a specific application, such as hybrid materials using various fiber types in one application or highly optimized resin formulations. Toray has a broad range of carbon fiber products to choose from for your application.
• Specialty prepregs may be prototype or low-volume runs, very low or very high fiber areal weight (FAW), exotic thermoset resin matrices, or even ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs) or carbon-carbon composites (pyrolyzed and/or CVD carbon matrix).
• Contact us to discuss the effects of parameters such as fiber type, tow size, and fiber/resin compatibility.

Thermoplastic Prepreg & Unidirectional Tape

• Thermoplastic matrix materials are valued for their high performance such as impact resistance, fast processing rates, low processing cost, recyclability, and other characteristics. TORAYCA^® carbon fiber is applicable in melt impregnation, slurry impregnation, blown powder impregnation, commingled fibers, film impregnation, and other thermoplastic composite processes.
• Contact us for more information about which fiber products are best suited for your application, including the effects of fiber type and fiber/resin compatibility with thermoplastics such as Nylon, PPS, PEI, PEEK, PEKK, LM-PAEK, and others. We offer fiber solutions for a range of markets, including commercial aerospace, oil and gas including down-hole and off-shore, and other high-end markets.

Sheet Molding Compound (SMC)

• TORAYCA^® carbon fiber, such as T700S-12K, can be chopped and impregnated to make sheet molding compound (SMC) which can be applied in application areas like automotive, infrastructure, energy, and aerospace.
• Contact Sales and Technical Service teams for help choosing the appropriate fiber product for your application.

Chopped Fiber Injection Molding

• TORAYCA^® carbon fiber may be chopped using standard fiber chopping equipment, such as standard lengths of 6 mm (1/4 inch) or 12 mm (1/2 inch). Contact Sales and Technical Service teams for help choosing the appropriate fiber type and sizing type for your application.

Direct Long-Fiber Thermoplastic (DLFT)

• The direct long-fiber thermoplastic (DLFT) process can be applied to carbon fiber and even hybrid material systems to give performance improvements compared to standard-length chopped fiber.

Material Extrusion-Based Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) with Continuous or Discontinuous Fiber-Reinforced Filament

• TORAYCA^® carbon fiber has been successfully implemented in FFF processes with both continuous and discontinuous fiber.
• Our wide range of fiber types including standard-modulus/high-strength fibers and high-modulus fibers, along with a range of tow sizes and surface treatments, allow for fiber compatibility in a variety of process types and resin matrices.

Powder-Based Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) with Milled Carbon Fiber

• Powder-based polymer additive manufacturing/3D printing systems often incorporate milled carbon fiber for improvements in laser or other types of heating, mechanical and thermal performance, and process stability.

Layered Object Manufacturing (LOM) with Carbon Fiber Sheets

• Carbon fiber sheets consisting of long fiber fabrics or mats can be used in layered object manufacturing (LOM) additive manufacturing/3D printing processes.