New carbon fiber with high-intensity, high-tensile modulus developed in Japan

A Japanese carbon fiber producer has developed a new grade carbon fiber that achieves both high- intensity and high-tensile modulus required for aircraft and automotive applications.

Toho Tenax Co., Ltd., the core company of the Teijin Group's carbon fibers and composites business, announced Tuesday its development of the new carbon fiber TENAX XMS32.

"Toho Tenax developed its new grade carbon fiber with a uniform structure by optimizing the structural design of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based precursor and by optimizing its manufacturing process, " said the company in a release.

Compared to TENAX IMS65, the existing grade carbon fiber that has been mainly used for aircraft applications, TENAX XMS32 offers 10 percent more intensity and 10 percent greater tensile modulus.

In addition, resin adherence has been significantly improved through new surface-modification technology to refine the chemical characteristics of the carbon fiber's surface and control its smoothness on the nano level.

Carbon fiber used in aircraft, automotive, high-end sports and leisure applications must offer high levels of stiffness, as well as improved intensity and tensile modulus. The trend toward the thin-walling of products causes problems with stiffness and tensile modulus properties. It had generally been difficult to realize both intensity and tensile modulus in PAN carbon fiber due to decreased intensity resulting from increased tensile modulus.

Teijin is a technology-driven global group. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers. The group has some 150 companies and around 16,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide. Endi