Fibre handling and processing firm, Cygnet Texkimp, showed its SUB-10 GSM high-tolerance reverse roll coating machine and invited manufacturers in the high-end prepreg market to take part in secure trials, at the recently held global composites expo, JEC World 2018, which was held from March 6 to 8, 2018, in Paris, France, in hall 5, booth M70.

The coater is in the final stages of production at Cygnet Texkimp’s UK R&D headquarters in Cheshire, where it will spend the next six months being commissioned for the purpose of trialling precision coating of epoxy resins.

The machine is designed to create low coat weight films of less than 10GSM for the aerospace-quality prepreg market and the company reports that initial grinding reps on ceramic rollers have achieved a TIR of less than 0.5 of a micron.

Cygnet Texkimp managing director Luke Vardy said, “By offering dedicated trials in a secure environment, we proved the machine capabilities and de-risked any potential investment. Adding a high-performance coater to our portfolio makes sound business sense because every prepreg line we’ve ever built has needed one. Now, we can offer composite manufacturers a complete integrated solution.” (GK)