MOUSCRON – Apply Carbon, part of Belgium’s Procotex Corporation, is to expand its production of recycled carbon fibres and integrate the recent acquisition of the short carbon fibre business of ELG UK at its plant in Plouay, in Brittany, France.
The company’s 15,600 square-metre facility was built in 2014 with 90,000 square-metres of expansion space which will now be utilised in helping to address the growing market for recycled carbon fibres.
“Within a very short timeframe, the expansion of the Plouay site has created tremendous economic growth and opportunities for Apply Carbon,” said Bruno Douchy, sales director at Procotex Corporation.
The production site at Languidic in France and the transfer of the machinery and carbon fibre stocks of ELG UK will gradually be integrated into the Plouay site.
Apply Carbon is a leader in the production of sustainable technical fibres such as carbon, para-aramids, quartz, etc., and is providing solutions for many key markets including compounding, gaskets, 3D printing, nonwovens and thermosets.
Through Apply Carbon, Procotex ranks number one in the industry of carbon fibre recycling following the takeover of the assets of the short fibre business of ELG UK.
High-quality, soft post-industrial carbon waste is sourced from the major producers or processers of carbon fibre, and then converted into a wide range of recycled products including milled, cut and granulated product forms. An appropriate surface treatment applied during the manufacturing process ensures full compatibility with the matrix polymer in the final compound – polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyamide etc.
Procotex Corporation aims to be a provider of sustainable carbon fibre products that offer customers and their partners adequate performance levels at an attractive total cost of ownership. For this purpose, both standard products as well as tailor-made solutions can be offered, and the company is pursuing a development roadmap that is centred around three key aspects – product performance, security of supply, and ease of processing.
“The expansion of the facility in Plouay and the integration of the machines, stocks and business of ELG UK will complete the next strategic step in our remaining the leading sustainable carbon fibre supplier across diverse applications, markets, materials and product lines,” said Hervé Cayuela, CEO of Apply Carbon. “A full range of pyrolysed and non-pyrolysed, sized, cut, milled and granulated recycled fibres will be available.”
