GM And Teijin Link For Carbon Fibers

General Motors and Japan’s Teijin will codevelop carbon fiber composites for high-volume use in lightweight vehicles. As part of the agreement, Teijin plans to open a technical center in a northern U.S. location early next year where the two firms will explore rapid production techniques based on Teijin’s carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic technology. Teijin is also building a pilot plant in Japan for the technology, which it touts as allowing production of composite car body parts in less than a minute. Conventional composites based on thermoset resins take much longer to mold, Teijin says.