KCTECH, KIA Motors seek to accelerate carbon fiber use in Asian automotive industry

Jeon-ju city (South Korea), the Korea Institute of Carbon Convergence Technology (KCTECH, Gwangju, South Korea) and KIA Motors company (Seoul, South Korea) have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for accelerating carbon composite parts application in automotive industry. The announcement was made on March 6, but the agreement is effective as of January 31, 2019.

KIA Motors has reportedly opened a Composite Material Technical Center in KCTECH Composite Manufacturing & Technical Center in South Korea, and the automobile manufacturer will start automobile composite parts research in collaboration with KCTECH. The research will employ a Roctool (Le Bourget du Lac, France) LIT (Light Induction Tooling) machine which is installed inside KCTECH.

Roctool says its LIT technology is a turnkey solution that eliminates the need for high-cost capital equipment such as autoclaves and compression molding presses. This process reportedly uses shell tooling with induction heating which allows high heat and cooling ramps while maintaining high temperature uniformity on the mold surface. 

KCTECH opened a LIT Technical center with Roctool last January as part of the research. The institute received a certification from Roctool for KCTECH’s design and forming process ability for electrical and automobile parts.

Jeon-ju city is reportedly positioning itself to become a leader in the carbon industry. KCTECH plans to perform an international research program with companies for developing serial production processes for large size automobile composite parts.