Solvay and 3A Composites are joining forces to make innovative specialty foam materials for advanced transportation, offering for the first time on a large and worldwide scale a tailored, cost-effective substitute to traditional, labour-intense materials used to reduce the weight of applications.
Their world-class manufacturing capability will combine 3A Composites’s expertise in industrial process development and high-volume fabrication of foams, with Solvay’s high- and ultra-performing plastics materials. The partners will first build on Solvay’s Radel foam and so-called sandwich materials, used on Airbus A350 and Solar Impulse, and will later expand to products that Solvay is developing.
Transports like commercial aircraft or high-speed trains are increasingly seeking to replace heavier plastics and metal structures, which are more time-consuming to process and expensive to maintain, with specialty foams. Light-weighting applications range from the cabin to ducting and trolleys and help to improve energy efficiency.
3A Composites expects additional foam extrusion capacity in the US to come on stream 2016 and will continue to service the market with its existing product lines.
(PRA)
