Belgium-based Solvay has opened a new carbon fibre production line at its facility in Piedmont, South Carolina, US, in order to increase capacity of a major raw material to make carbon-fibre reinforced composite materials for the aerospace industry.

The new facility has doubled Solvay’s carbon-fibre reinforced composite materials production capacity and will meet the growing demand for lightweight composite materials.

As part of the expansion, the existing facilities and equipment have been enabled to convert acrylonitrile monomers into standard modulus carbon fibres.

The standard modulus carbon fibres are used to produce composite materials, which have been pre-impregnated for use in several applications on commercial and military planes.

Solvay CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu said: “Through this strategic capacity expansion, we offer our customers greater supply capabilities and contribute to their increased needs for reinforced composite materials to reduce weight and fuel consumption, and to reduce assembly costs by integrated part design.

“For Solvay, this production expansion results in greater flexibility to strengthen our growth innovative composite materials and our leading position in the industry.”

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"This production expansion results in greater flexibility to strengthen our growth innovative composite materials and our leading position in the industry.”

Boeing has already qualified the new production line to produce secondary structures, including wing-movable flaps and engine nacelles, as well as interior applications.

Various characteristics such as durability, strength and fatigue life found in the carbon-fibre composite materials have made them an alternative to metals used on aircraft.

The carbon-fibre composite materials also help reduce the aircraft’s weight, noise and CO2 emissions.

Composites also allow the moulding of various sub-components into one assembly part, and decrease the cost and number of parts required. 

Image: Solvay opens new carbon-fibre production line at its Piedmont site in the US. Photo: courtesy of Solvay.