TenCate and BASF cooperates on thermoplastic automotive composites research

TenCate Advanced Composites and BASF have entered into a strategic alliance to cooperate on the development, production and commercialization of thermoplastic composite materials suitable for high-volume vehicle production.

According to the announcement of BASF, the main goal of this partnership is to offer car manufacturers custom-engineered solutions for high-performance composite structures, which enable this industry to further reduce weight and carbon dioxide emission. The growing needs of the automotive industry for composite materials used in mass production calls for a rapid development of materials and manufacturing processes.

In this strategic alliance, BASF will contribute its comprehensive know-how in the production and formulation of thermoplastic resins in order to develop special variants of its Ultramid, Ultradur and Ultrason product lines. TenCate Advanced Composites joins in with their expertise in composite manufacturing. Together both companies are dedicated to automotive composite materials (UD-tapes, prepregs and laminates) based on these specialty resin systems.

"The next major advance in lightweight automotive constructions will not be possible without a dramatic reduction in processing costs. This can be accomplished by using continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites. The breakthrough for composites to mass production, however, has not yet been made. By working together with TenCate, we intend to jointly achieve this breakthrough," explains Melanie Maas-Brunner, Successor to Willy Hoven-Nievelstein and new Head of the Engineering Plastics Europe business unit of BASF in Germany.

"TenCate Cetex laminates and prepregs have long been applied in commercial aircraft constructions, and are increasingly used in industrial manufacturing processes. Now, TenCate intends to expand its activities in the automotive industry. We are looking forward to this joint effort in making new materials rapidly available for automotive mass production," says Frank Meurs, Group Director of TenCate Advanced Composites EMEA.

TenCate Advanced Composites is one of the leading fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites supplier in the world with the TenCate Cetex product portfolio, currently mainly used for aircraft structures and interiors. At present new aircraft such as the Airbus A380, A350 and Boeing 787 are the main users of such material.