Johns Manville (JM, Denver, Colorado / USA; www.jm.com) is in the process of upgrading its glass fibre operations at Etowah, Tennessee / USA to meet increasing demand from the engineering thermoplastics sector. The expansion, which the company said will support the launch of the next generation of global products for reinforced thermoplastic composites and further drive the trend toward lightweight materials, is due to be wrapped up this year. The new furnace, due to start up in August 2016, is designed to promote growth and improve flexibility within JM’s range of polyamides, polyesters and polypropylenes.

“Current and future trends in the composites industry will continue to drive increasing demand for glass fibre products in transportation, electrical and consumers segments,” said Brian Sapp, global fibres business director for JM Engineered Products. The company sees itself as well-positioned to supply customers’ growing compounding activities in the US Midwest and Southeast regions. While investing to support this growth, JM said it continues to pursue innovations in technology and product development.

At the upcoming “JEC” composites show, to be held in Paris / France from 8-10 March (see Plasteurope.com of 15.12.2015), Johns Manville will introduce four new roving types, including “MultiStar 566” for thermoset panel and fabric reinforcement, “StarRov 090” for reinforcement of composite profiles and “StarRov 089” for reinforcement of styrene-free resins. The new products will be marketed to the building and construction, sporting goods and wind energy markets.

JM said MultiStar 566 delivers improved feeding and chopping with excellent translucency for panel applications and flat homogeneous mat layout for fabric processing with fast resin impregnation, while StarRov 090, designed for profile and filament winding fabrication, is multi-compatible with epoxy, unsaturated polyester and vinyl ester resins with good wet-out performances. StarRov 089, it said, has demonstrated excellent inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) and improved modulus performance.