Nonwoven composites maker Multi-Axial Fabrics Inc. has contracted with Century Design Corp. for special-purpose machinery worth several million dollars.
Multi-Axial ordered equipment to collimate and spread reinforcement fibers into an engineered web measuring up to 63 inches wide, permitting low-cost fabrication of designs with light weight and efficient structure.
Century Design of San Diego will make machinery that pulls a web of fibers through heat, pressure and cooling phases at highly controlled production speeds as fast as 300 feet per minute.
Multi-Axial said it plans to relocate by mid-2005 to a 25,000-square-foot site near San Clemente, Calif., from 10,000 square feet in Huntington Beach.
The new location and equipment will allow volume production of its StructurPly thermoplastic prepregs and preforms and TowStrand selective reinforcements.