Toho Tenax to Expand Nickel-Coated Carbon Fiber Production

Toho Tenax Co., Ltd., the core company of the Teijin Group's carbon fibers and composites business, announced today that it will expand nickel-coated carbon fiber production at its Mishima Plant in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. By January 2013, the company intends to roughly double its current annual production capacity. In addition to electronic device applications, Toho Tenax aims to expand into industries where demand for electromagnetic shielding is expected to increase, such as in aviation and electric vehicles. The company has set a sales target of over 2 billion yen in 2013.

Toho Tenax's proprietary nickel-coated carbon fiber is produced by applying a nickel coating to carbon fiber, adding metal-equivalent conductivity to the superior mechanical characteristics of carbon fiber. The nickel-coated carbon fiber can then be mixed and molded with resin into super strong chassis and other electromagnetic shielding components, enabling the production of low-cost, eco-friendly products that are nevertheless fully capable of protecting against electromagnetic damage.

The market demand for shielding materials that prevent the malfunction of electronic components is increasing year by year. The methods now commonly being used to add this electromagnetic shielding are secondary processing methods such as adding metal plating to molded parts. As this results in higher costs due to the increase in the number of necessary processes and environmental issues such as the need to dispose of solvents used in the plating process, the demand for more efficient and eco-friendly metal-coated carbon fiber is expected to increase.

Source: Toho Tenax