Astar and Toray International UK (TIUK), the UK sales representative for Toray’ carbon fibre materials, have signed an exclusive agreement for the supply of Carbon Fibre SMC (Sheet Moulding Compound) materials in the UK. TIUK is a leading Spanish company specialising in the formulation and manufacturing of SMC, BMC, and CSMC thermoset compounds.

Astar is a market-leading manufacturer of SMC and BMC materials with over 55 years’ experience of custom-made formulations, supporting a diverse range of applications in the automotive and transportation, building, and construction and electrical and energy markets. Most recently in 2017, they installed a new production line dedicated to high performance carbon fibre SMC products, according to a press release Toray.

TIUK is the UK representative for the high-performance Torayca and Zoltek large-tow industrial range of fibres for Toray, the world’s leading PAN-carbon fibre manufacturer.

The exclusive agreement between Astar and TIUK continues a strong collaboration between the parties, which started in 2018 as part of a £37 million government funded project, ‘Tucana’, through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) led by Jaguar Land Rover. The world-leading academic and industry partners from this consortium aim to develop lightweight, scalable carbon fibre technology for use in electric vehicles.

“We are delighted and honoured to represent Astar’s carbon fibre SMC products in the UK market. The UK carbon composites supply chain is one of the most advanced in the world and we believe that TIUK can only offer further value to our customers with the addition of Astar’s market-leading CSMC products to our portfolio,” Alan Riley, director of sales & marketing at TIUK said.

“The base component of CSMC is carbon fibre and, therefore, it is for us an honour that TIUK, part of Toray, number one carbon fibre manufacturer in the world, represents our CSMC materials in the UK,” Eduardo Astorqui, managing director at Astar said.