Japan Edit – June 2020

Carbon fibre in fashion

The apparel brand Sumigi, developed by Happiino, stands for “black cloth” in Japanese. Under the concept of “suggesting a new lifestyle through clothes,” the fibres used by Sumigi are produced by carbonizing valuable organic cotton, which accounts for only 5% of the world production, at high temperatures. Compared to conventional carbon fibre, carbonized at a much higher temperature, this fibre has many nano-level pores and its surface area is 4 to 5 times that of Binchotan charcoal.
Sumigi uses a fabric “chacott” spun with threads made by twisting organic cotton-derived carbon fibres with organic cotton. Most of the carbon-derived fibres used to date are coated with a carbon material on the fabric, so the effect is lost after repeated washing. The company is confident that with Sumigi, the effect will last long enough that this will not happen.

More information: www.sumi-gi.com – Read the original article

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A carbon fibre-reinforced plastic platform door at Shin-Osaka station

JR Central Japan Railway Company announced that it will install a CFRP platform door on lines 20 to 26 at the Shin-Osaka station. Both 16-car and 8-car trains arrive and depart at the station, so a movable fence with a wide opening is required that accommodates different entry and exit door positions. JR Central has been developing a wide platform door for some time now, but it is now possible to install it due to new technological developments.
The new platform door is a cantilever structure without wheels and the door length is about 5 m (compared to 3.4 m currently). Rather than complicated gimmicks such as multiple sliding doors, the door part material was changed from aluminium to carbon fibre reinforced-plastics (CFRP) and the material of the movable fence door part is being reviewed to ensure the strength of the door part while optimizing the weight and increasing the length of the door.

More information: www.global.jr-central.co.jp – Read the original article

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Dinosaur figurines made from carbon-reinforced plastics

There is no established recycling technology for carbon-reinforced plastics yet, so that most of them are treated as industrial waste. Recycling has been a major issue for the past few years, and Tokyo R&D Composite tackled the problem with originality.
The processing department suggested to produce a dinosaur model using the scrap that was discarded as waste. Actually, it is the same as waste reduction, but due to the COVID-19 crisis, the employees’ children could not go out during the school holidays, and the project was thought for them.
Although the material is high-grade CFRP, the material is available at no cost because Tokyo R&D Composite used the scrap material originally planned to be discarded. Only the cost required to use the processing machine is incurred.
The total number of processed pieces is 44. The smallest piece is 12mm x 7mm and the final size is about 220 mm (total length) x about 110 mm (height). No deburring was done by machine finishing, but the company managed to make the pieces fit together thanks to joint efforts with their customers.

More information: www.trdc.co.jp – Read the original article

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Futaba introduces the Felcarbo CFRP thick plate for cutting

Felcarbo is a plank plate for cutting made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP).
In the environment surrounding the manufacturing industry, lightweight and high-strength materials have been required in recent years to save energy and improve productivity. The demand for CFRP is rapidly expanding as alternative materials to metal, mainly for aerospace and automotive applications, but they are difficult to process for industrial parts. General prepreg sheets are laminated, a process that has disadvantages such as high prices when manufacturing thick materials.
Using felt-like carbon fibre, Felcarbo solves the workability issues and enables high-precision machining with a cemented carbide cutting tool that is often used to cut ordinary metal. Furthermore, the company made it possible to produce thick plates with a maximum thickness of 45 mm, while increasing the degree of freedom during shape processing and offering a lower price.
Since conventional CFRP use a carbon fibre woven fabric, they have the disadvantage of a strong orientation and the cut surface tending to fuzz during cutting. On the other hand, Felcarbo, which uses felt-like carbon fibre, has a weak orientation, so high-precision machining with a carbide cutting tool is now possible.
The maximum size that can be manufactured is 450 mm² and the thickness is 10 to 45 mm (planned to be gradually expanded).

More information: www.futaba.co.jp – Read the original article