DAIMLER
Joint venture with Toray to produce CFRP parts / Production to start in 2012
 Rainer Christian Genes, vice president Production Planning, Mercedes-Benz Cars, Prof. Bharat Balasubramanian, vice president Product Innovation & Process Technologies, Group Research & Advanced Development, Daimler AG and Shinichi Koizumi, executive vice president representative director Toray (from left) signed the JV agreement (Photo: Daimler) |
Daimler (Stuttgart / Germany; www.daimler.com ) is pushing forward production of components based on carbon fibre reinforced plastics. A declaration of intent on joint product development with Toray Industries (Tokyo / Japan; www.toray.com ) – see Plasteurope.com of 14.05.2010 - has now been followed by the establishment of a joint venture in Esslingen/Germany.
Toray will hold 50.1% of the shares in the new joint venture, which will produce and market carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) car parts, while Daimler will hold 44.9%. The remaining 5% will be held by CFRP processor Advanced Composite Engineering (ACE, Immenstaad / Germany; www.ace-composite.com ), in which Toray has a stake.
The next steps will centre on the development of highly efficient process technology for mass produced close CFRP parts with a far shorter moulding cycle. Daimler and Toray plan to start serial production using the short-cycle RTM process in 2012.
Initially they plan to produce parts for the "SL AMG" model. Plasteurope.com was unable to obtain further details. From 2013 components will also be produced for the standard version of the SL. In the mid-term, the use of CFRP parts will be extended to the full range of vehicles, including buses and commercial vehicles.
Toray will hold 50.1% of the shares in the new joint venture, which will produce and market carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) car parts, while Daimler will hold 44.9%. The remaining 5% will be held by CFRP processor Advanced Composite Engineering (ACE, Immenstaad / Germany; www.ace-composite.com ), in which Toray has a stake.
The next steps will centre on the development of highly efficient process technology for mass produced close CFRP parts with a far shorter moulding cycle. Daimler and Toray plan to start serial production using the short-cycle RTM process in 2012.
Initially they plan to produce parts for the "SL AMG" model. Plasteurope.com was unable to obtain further details. From 2013 components will also be produced for the standard version of the SL. In the mid-term, the use of CFRP parts will be extended to the full range of vehicles, including buses and commercial vehicles.
31.01.2011 Plasteurope.com [218384-0]
Published on 31.01.2011
German version of this article...