Daimler and Toray to Establish Joint Venture for Manufacturing and Marketing of Carbon-Fiber Based Automobile Parts

Toray Industries, Inc. and German automobile manufacturer Daimler AG have agreed to establish a joint venture firm headquartered at Esslingen, Germany), for manufacturing and marketing of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) automobile parts. The companies have signed a joint venture contract in this regard.

Under the Joint Development Agreement signed in March last year, Toray, in addition to developing optimal carbon fiber intermediate materials for CFRP, has been working on the design and molding processes, with Daimler taking responsibility for designing parts and developing technologies for joining of the parts. By bringing together their respective strengths, the companies have succeeded in developing an innovative technology for mass-production of CFRP parts with a significantly shorter molding cycle. The partners plan to start supplying the mass-produced CFRP parts utilizing Short Cycle Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), an innovative CFRP molding process technology developed by Toray for Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicles to be launched in 2012.

The two companies intend to continue promoting their joint development to establish an overwhelmingly cost competitive mass production technology. The joint venture will manufacture and market CFRP parts to further promote the adoption of carbon fiber composite materials in the automotive field even beyond the current applications in e.g. sport cars.