MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huntsman Corporation announced that its Polyurethanes division is installing a honeycomb panel composite spray moulding production cell at its Auburn Hills, MI, USA, technical centre to support the company’s expanding automotive and industrial businesses, as per GV.
The new Hennecke HK metering machine for polyurethane composite spray moulding (CSM) will allow customers in the Americas market to develop and prototype honeycomb panel composite spray mouldings, which are most commonly used in the parcel trays, sun shades and cargo area load floors. The CSM machine will be commissioned in late September 2016. Development programmes for interested customers are scheduled to begin in early October 2016, says the company.
"Installing this CSM work cell increases the wide range of quality composite solutions that Huntsman Polyurethanes can provide to the transportation market. This should also help customers shorten their development cycle, and allow them to conduct pilot scale production of parts and systems before going into full-scale manufacturing," said David Bareis, Market Development Manager, Polyurethane Composites, Huntsman Polyurethanes. "The purchase and installation of this equipment is another example of how Huntsman’s Polyurethanes and Advance Materials divisions are increasing the Company’s capabilities and establishing a composites centre of excellence at its technical site in Auburn Hills."
The honeycomb composite panels are commonly manufactured for non-structural automotive applications using glass-fibre (mat/fabric) with a paper honeycomb core. "The market for this technology is firmly established in Europe, but it is growing very rapidly in the Americas," said Randy Wellman, Automotive Business Manager, Huntsman Polyurethanes. "We intend to use this new equipment for the known industry applications, but we will also extend the technology with our Vitrox polyurethane and Araldite epoxy chemistries to advanced honeycomb structural components using carbon fibre and high performance honeycomb cores."
As MRC informed previously, in October 2014, Huntsman Corporation announced that it had completed the acquisition of the Performance Additives and Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) businesses of Rockwood Holdings, Inc. In 2015, the company announced that it planned to reduce its TiO2 capacity by approximately 100,000 tons.
Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. The company's operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging.
MRC