NCC receives funding to build Cygnet Texkimp-designed carbonization research lines

The National Composites Center (NCC) announces it has secured funding from the Department of Science Innovation and Technology’s (DIST) Research and Innovation Organizations Infrastructure Fund to build precursor and carbonization lines to enable innovation in carbon fiber production. Cygnet Texkimp (Northwich, U.K.) is designing and building the research lines.  

The carbon fiber production research lines are claimed to be the first of their kind in the U.K. This capability aims to enable innovation in carbon fiber production in an open-access environment for all parts of the supply chain to benefit from — from chemical suppliers to researchers, manufacturers and OEMs.

 “We’d like to thank DSIT for supporting this national asset that shows NCC’s strategic commitment to continue to explore and invest in building new capabilities in areas where we can deliver impact and unlock future investments,” says Richard Oldfield, CEO of NCC. “We are collaborating with academia, RTOs, government and industry to maximize the impact of this strategic technology for the composites industry.”

The equipment will be capable of producing precursor and carbon fiber tows at industrial-scale filament counts, in continuous processes and at volumes sufficient for small-scale composites manufacturing and testing. The ability to test new ideas at this scale is said to be a key step in the development of novel feedstocks and processes before they can be scaled up to pilot production volumes. The lines, modular in design, will help to accelerate the development of novel fibers designed for application, produced from more sustainable feedstocks and with improved process efficiency and control.  

According to the NCC, a key challenge in carbon fiber production is high energy consumption and the use of fossil-fuel based chemicals, which results in a high embodied energy of the material, resulting in high environmental impact of manufactured parts. Using U.K. green energy can reduce the carbon burden compared to material brought in from across the globe. 

“Working with the NCC on this important project enables us to extract decades of knowledge from within our business — shared by colleagues and partners respected in carbon fiber engineering — and put it to use in a live project that can directly benefit the U.K. and the organizations looking to bring this technology to market,” says Luke Vardy, CEO of Cygnet Texkimp.

NCC and Cygnet Texkimp are working together over the next 12 months to design, build, test and commission the equipment to be ready for operation. Get in touch with comms@nccuk.com if interested in using this capability or helping support the project.