Toray Industries will build a new PPS (polyphenylene sulfide) compound production facility at the Hungarian site of its U.S. subsidiary Zoltek Companies Inc., the Tokyo-based company announced Aug. 23.
The site, which according to Toray is the world's largest supplier of large tow carbon fibers, will house Toray's first resin compound production facility in Europe.
The plant, with annual capacity of 3,000 metric tons, is expected to start operations in March.
Used in automotive electrical and powertrain compounds, PPS resins are high performance materials, offering excellent heat and chemical resistance and good mechanical properties. In addition, they are inherently flame retardant.
According to Toray, in Europe, where strict regulations regarding fuel usage and emissions are in place, suppliers are increasingly using PPS resins in automotive powertrain and sensor applications.
The PPS market in Europe, the company added, has been rapidly expanding, with the material increasingly finding applications in the automotive industry, as well as in a growing number of industrial applications.
Toray is the largest integrated PPS supplier globally, including the manufacture of upstream raw materials and polymer and the sale of resin, fiber and film products.
The company has an annual PPS polymer production capacity of 27,600 tonnes.
In 2015, Toray established Toray Resins Europe GmbH (TREU), a marketing and sales company located in Frankfurt with the purpose of promoting and selling Toray resin products in Europe.
With the establishment of European PPS compound production at Zoltek's Hungary site, Toray will have eight PPS compound manufacturing locations in six countries: Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Hungary.