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SGL opens carbon fibre precursor making line in Portugal

20 Sep '16

2 min read

SGL Group, the carbon company, has opened a new production line for carbon fibre precursor at its FISIPE site in Lavradio, near Lisbon in Portugal. Precursor is a polymer-based fibre used as the main raw material for the production of carbon fibres. The production line has been set up by converting and enhancing parts of the existing facility in Lavradio.

The built-up has been completed last month following four years of research and development, construction work, and qualification procedures. Over this period, in total, €30 million have been invested in Lavradio into different elements of the precursor production including the spinning line. As part of the global production network of SGL Group, the precursor from Portugal is being used, as of September 2016, for the production of the new generation of high-end industrial SIGRAFIL carbon fibres in Moses Lake in US and Muir of Ord in Scotland. The carbon fibres will then be used in various applications in the automotive, aerospace, as well as in other industries.

The completion of the precursor production line is also a consequent and successful step of further developing the business and set-up of the FISIPE site in Lavradio, which is a specialist for acrylic fibres. Under SGL Group, which acquired FISIPE in April 2012, the acrylic fibre business is maintained while the precursor production has been set up.

The precursor production is part of SGL Group's path forward towards sustainable profitable growth, targeting a 50 per cent sales increase until 2020 in the fields of composites and graphite materials and systems.

Andreas Wüllner, chairman of the business unit composites – fibres and materials (CFM) at SGL Group said, “With the new precursor line at our Lavradio site, we now have the complete value chain of high-quality carbon fibre materials available in-house to further support our customers in developing and utilising innovative lightweight solutions.”

Stefan Seibel, managing director at FISIPE in Lavradio said, “With around 350 employees in Lavradio, now also including the new state-of-the-art precursor production line, we are proud to contribute to the further build-up of highly innovative composites and thus help to establish more and more fascinating lightweight solutions around the world.” (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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