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ADDITIVES | REINFORCEMENT


fill rates, OC and other fibre makers are now enhancing the dispersibility of the fibres, improving consistency, and offering thinner fibres – 10 micron diameter rather than 13 micron, for example. Beyond product development, which Skinner admits is moving at a slower pace now than in the past (something he says applies to the glass fibre industry in general, not just to OC), the company is putting strong emphasis on being able to respond to developments in demand all around the world.


Above: Owens Corning has invested $50m at its glass reinforcements facility at Chambéry in France, expanding capacity for chopped strand products


Supporting demand


NEG is not the only company investing in the sector. Owens Corning (OC) recently spent some $50m to rebuild a glass melter and expand production capacity by approximately 25% at its composites manufacturing facility at Chambéry in France. It says the investment, which came on stream in the summer, will support growing demand for reinforced thermoplastics in Europe. Announcing the expansion, Umberto Rigamonti,


OC’s Vice President and Managing Director of Glass Reinforcements Europe and Global Thermo- plastic Products, said: “This investment will support our customers’ growth in the thermoplastic chopped strand market by ensuring that we continue providing consistent, high-quality products. It also strengthens our value proposition to thermoplastic customers, supporting our respective growth agendas.” With the rebuild now completed, all thermoplastic chopped strand products from the Chambéry facility are based on boron-free Advantex glass. In fact, according to Chris Skinner, Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Composites, virtually all of the company’s production of chopped strand fibre is now boron- free. He says Advantex glass contributes to decreased emissions and reduces the environmental impact of manufacturing fiberglass compared to standard E-glass. Advantex also provides superior perfor- mance in composites used in corrosive environments compared to E-glass, he adds. Discussing other changes in product line-ups, Skinner says that, as reinforced thermoplastics take on more roles in structural and semi-structural parts in areas such as automotive, reinforcement levels are creeping up. He says 15 years ago the average glass fibre level in polyamides was around 18%. Today it is more like 30% and some compounds have much higher levels. To facilitate these higher


80 COMPOUNDING WORLD | October 2018


Global customers Globalisation of the customer base, especially in the automotive sector, is pushing globalisation of reinforcement supply – something which favours majors such as OC and NEG over smaller, more regional companies, Skinner says. Beyond its major bases in Europe and North America, OC is also expanding its presence in Asia. The company has, for example, invested around $110m over the last two years to expand capacity at its composites operations in India, installing an 80,000 tonne/yr glass melter at its facility in Taloja, which started up earlier this year. Further east, OC entered into technology licensing and manufacturing supply agreements in April this year with Taiwan Glass Ind Corp, based in Taipei in Taiwan. The agreements will leverage its Advantex glass fibre reinforcements and the manu- facturing platform of Taiwan Glass to produce a mix of products for both thermoplastic and thermoset applications. The companies will continue to operate as separate commercial entities.


OC said the agreements with Taiwan Glass will


1.100.000 1.000.000 900.000 800.000 700.000 600.000 500.000 400.000 300.000


Figure 3: Chart showing the fatigue performance of test samples in PA 6 and 66 compounds reinforced with ThermoFlow 675 (blue) and a competing chopped strand product (grey). Samples were put under sinusoidal stress (50-5.0 %) with a frequency of 1 Hz and tested to fracture. The vertical axis indicates the number of cycles before fracture Source: Johns Manville


www.compoundingworld.com


PHOTO: OWENS CORNING


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