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06 May 2008  -  Germany

Toho Tenax Europe lays the foundation-stone for a new production line

© Toho Tenax Europe

The carbon fiber producer Toho Tenax Europe GmbH layed on April 23rd, 2008 the foundation stone for a new production line on its Heinsberg-Oberbruch site in attendance of about 250 invited guests from politics, economics and press. With an investment of about 51 million Euro, the company belonging to the Japanese Teijin Group creates 59 new direct jobs. The start-up of the new production line is planned for August 2009.

About Toho Tenax Europe
Toho Tenax Europe is a producer of carbon fiber. With a total number of 300 workers and employees it is represented in two cities in the western part of Germany. While the divisions Development, Laboratories and Sales are located in Wuppertal, the whole production is situated at Heinsberg-Oberbruch. The Toho Tenax Group has production facilities in Japan, USA and Germany. Given this network, it is able to serve the growing market optimally all over the world. Only 1.5 years ago, the third production line at the Oberbruch site came on stream, with the capacity on this site nearly being doubled. Now, building the next production line #4 with a yearly capacity of 1,700 tons has just started and the position as the leading carbon fiber producer in Europe will be consolidated.

Foundation-stone Laying Ceremony
„The enormous growth of the worldwide, but also of the European market have encouraged us to this step and we are convinced that the strong development of applications for carbon fibers will continue“, said the president Eckhard Scholten. Together with Takashi Mishima, president of Toho Tenax Co., Ltd. and Dr. Jens Baganz, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of the State NRW, he filled the urn with the certificate, the architectural drawing but also with Japanese and German coins and one issue of the local daily press. 

Leading Market Position in Europe
Carbon fiber cannot be ignored in today’s life. The feasibility to meet a product or to sit in a vehicle in which Toho Tenax carbon fiber has been used is fairly high as the Toho Tenax Europe GmbH is the leading manufacturer of carbon fibers in Europe. More and more sectors are using this new-generation material to save energy. So, it is possible to find carbon-fiber reinforced composites in wind energy, oil-offshore industry, automotive and machine parts and shipbuilding.

Optimised Yarns for High Customer Requirements
Line #4 on which an advanced yarn type for aerospace and industrial applications will be produced is a further development of line #3. “Although our line #1 has been running for 22 years already, the production will be optimized with every new line along with our customers’ requirements”, explained the technical managing director Fred Horst.

Technical Construction
The new building of line #4 is located in parallel to the existing building of line #3. With its light-coloured, prefabricated gas- concrete materials, it is a perfect match for the other buildings. It has a length of about 200 m and, again, engineering was effected by Siemens, Frankfurt.

Building Partner from The Neighbourhood
Frauenrath has engaged in a cooperation with Florack, simply known as “Frau Flo” in the Toho Tenax jargon. Both of the successful tenderers are located at Heinsberg. The buildings for line #2 and #3 were also built by the company Florack. The good relationship to a partner from the neighbourhood convinced Toho Tenax Europe to work with Florack again.

Source : Toho Tenax Europe GmbH