Two Aachen Center for integrative Lightweight Production (AZL) partners, composites market newcomer, Mexico headquartered Katcon Advanced Materials, and German engineering specialist, M.TEC, are joining hands, with support from AMAC, a business consulting firm, to establish a high-class product portfolio to serve automotive and aircraft interior customers.

As a long-term, reliable, and established global automotive supplier, Katcon has been serving directly and with great satisfaction over 60 OEM’s in the worldwide automotive industry. Financially strong and with significant investment potential, Katcon decided to expand and strategically divert its profitable activities in entering the composite market.

Katcon focuses on automotive and aircraft interior applications like external & internal body panels, underbody and structural components, doors, tailgates, floor pans or seats. While developing its in-house engineering capabilities, Katcon is relaying on M.TEC’s cooperation expertise, according to a company statement.

Fernando Turner, president of Katcon said, “Katcon is proud to invest in the fascinating and innovative composites industry with machines, people and business development: The AZL and the excellence in business development of AMAC helped us significantly to establish collaborations with international top players of the composite industry. In record time, we have chosen the latest Advanced material’s manufacturing technology and equipment and bought state-of-the-art machines for processes like RTM for thermoset and for thermoplastic, thermoforming and hybrid moulding, as well as related post-processing technologies.”

Kai Fischer, managing director of AZL Aachen GmbH said, “This cooperation is an example of the efficient usage of our network and its specialized lightweight know-how along the entire value chain – a complete new working team has thus been set up.”

With cooperation from these companies, AMAC assures business development and establishing Katcon’s market share on the European market, AZL leads the process development and manufacturing, and M.TEC takes care of design and engineering.

AMAC GmbH is an industrial and business consulting Company in the field of lightweight construction materials, based in Aachen, Germany.

The aim of AZL is to develop, in cooperation with its industrial partners, automated production of load- and cost-optimized lightweight components, suitable for mass production and versatile process chains in composite and multi-material design.

M.TEC is an engineering company with focus on integrated product development.

Katcon Global is a strong OEM and Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry for emission and exhaust systems. (GK)