DIGHTON, MASS. - Phoenixx TPC Inc. of Dighton added to its thermoplastic-composite capabilities with the early June acquisition of nine patents and related technology from Chevron-Phillips Chemical Co. of Houston and Phillips Petroleum Corp. of Bartlesville, Okla. Terms were not disclosed.
The thermoplastic processes include embedding powdered resins into reinforcing fibers through an aqueous bath and utilizing a pultrusion-type die to make prepreg tapes and other shapes.
Phoenixx employs 20 and manufactures thermoplastic composite prepreg tape and materials in Dighton and golf club shafts at a unit in Vista, Calif. Materials work, which often involves carbon, glass or aramid fibers, accounts for about 80 percent of Phoenixx's sales, Michael Buck, vice president of sales and marketing, said in a telephone interview.
``We have an annual capacity to do 300,000 pounds of thermoplastic prepreg,'' he said.
Demand is growing in industrial, oil-gas and automotive applications.
``Thermoplastic composites are getting cheaper as economies of scale grow,'' and thermoplastics replace thermosets and metals, Buck said. European interest in recycling also drives processors toward thermoplastics, he said.
