Continental Structural Plastics (CSP), a Teijin Group company, is setting up a sheet molding compound (SMC) line at its facility in Pouancé, France, to support the need for its industry-leading composite formulations in Europe. CSP will invest approximately €5.1 million to establish the SMC line which will produce SMCs made with both glass and carbon fibres.

CSP is currently the largest compounder of SMC in North America, with current SMC volumes exceeding 84,000 US tons annually. The installation of this SMC line in France will be used to further develop the company’s wide range of proprietary, advanced composite products, including low-volatile organic compounds (VOC) formulas currently under development to meet European market regulations.

“The addition of this SMC line to the Pouancé facility is an important step in our European growth plans,” said Philippe Bonte, president, CSP Europe. “It will enable us to provide full-service capabilities to our customers here, as well as provide us with an opportunity to further enhance our already significant materials research and development efforts in Europe.”

The Teijin Group is leveraging its lightweight, strong, high-performance materials and integrated composite technologies as one of the key focuses of the transformation strategies for the group’s medium-term management plan, under which the company aims to expand business with a view to becoming a supplier of multi-material components.

The CSP Pouancé facility is an innovative, rapid development centre for lightweighting technologies including carbon fibre resin transfer molding (RTM), Class A RTM and thermoplastic composites. The 12,000 square-metre (130,000 square-feet) facility was purchased by CSP in 2013.

The SMC line is expected to be commercially ready to produce SMC by the third quarter of 2019. (SV)