Teijin Limited announced that it has launched a lightweight, strong and cost-effective carbon fibre woven fabric developed with the company's proprietary tow-spreading technology.

The new woven fabric is made with 3K (3,000) carbon fibre filament yarn for applications requiring low weight and design flexibility, such as automotive interior materials and sporting goods. Teijin, using its in-house tow-spreading technology, succeeded in thinning the 3K fabric from a molding thickness of 0.2 mm to approximately 0.15 mm, the same as that of 1K woven fabric, when molded into carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP).

Thanks to the flat undulations of the fabric's intersecting yarns, CFRP made with Teijin's new fabric offers superior smoothness, resulting in more stable strength compared to CFRP made with 1K carbon fibre woven fabric (according to the company's in-house research). In addition, the high efficiency of Teijin's special tow-spreading technology lowers the fabric cost below that of conventional 1K carbon fibre woven fabric. Furthermore, despite using 3K yarn (200g/m2), Teijin reduced the weight by 35%, similar to fabric made with 1K yarn (125g/m2).

Teijin will now market its new fabric to manufacturers of industrial and sports products. Together with other spread-tow carbon fibre woven fabrics in the Teijin portfolio, the company is targeting sales of JPY 2 billion in fiscal 2030. Going forward, Teijin will continue to strengthen its carbon fibre lineup with other innovative, high-performance materials and solutions under a long-term vision of being a company that supports the society of the future.

Strong, lightweight CFRP is widely used to improve performance and reduce weight in aircraft, industrial and sports applications. Stabile strength needed to improve the mechanical properties of CFRP can be realised by relaxing the stress concentration applied to the carbon fibres, resulting in smoother carbon fibre woven fabric for use as a reinforcing material. While increasingly thin carbon fibre filament yarn is being used to produce ever-thinner woven fabrics, the difficulty of producing such yarns can increase the costs of these fabrics.