FRIMO and Huntsman form cooperation agreement for automotive PU composites

Joining their expertise and experience, both companies aim to exploit synergies and develop cost effective solutions for high volume composite manufacturing. Both companies have made investments into new technology, and have set up composite development centers at their respective sites in Germany and Belgium.

FRIMO specializes in process technology and offers a complete portfolio of tooling and equipment for polyurethane processing, as well as experience in Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) processing technology. Huntsman Polyurethanes is a leading innovator and manufacturer of polyurethanes systems with many years of experience of working in the automotive industry and understands the industry needs very well.

Huntsman has purchased a FRIMO pilot production unit at their technical center in Everberg, Belgium. This equipment, specifically designed for PU systems allows Huntsman to expand its tailor-made testing and validation capabilities for a new range of matrix resins for automotive fiber composites, under the tradename VITROX® .

Andy Walton, Huntsman - Automotive Business Manager and Karl-Heinz Stelzl FRIMO Director Advanced Technology said: this cooperation agreement is an important step forward in our development of advanced composite technology for the automotive industry. The industry needs innovative solutions that enable high volume scalability, whilst optimizing and driving down fiber composite part costs, in order to deliver sustainable lightweight solutions. We believe that this can only be achieved by making optimal use of resin materials in combination with the right process equipment. We look forward to investigating this further with FRIMO.”

Nick Webster, Vice President Europe for Huntsman Polyurethanes, said: “the cooperation agreement enabling us to work more closely with FRIMO is an exciting development for both of our companies, but also for the wider automotive market. Our expertise in polyurethane chemistry combined with FRIMO’s technical capabilities and advanced processing equipment is a powerful proposition that we hope will bring significant value to the automotive industry and facilitate faster introduction of new lightweight materials to the industry.”

Hans-Günter Bayer, CEO of FRIMO adds: We can also simulate customer-specific situations in our Technical Center in Lotte, where similar RTM equipment is set up. I am confident that our mutual customers will continuously benefit from” this collaboration and that synergies can be exploited in the near future.

Source: FRIMO