Tutorial and market analysis available for thermoplastic composite applications

CompositeTechs LLC (Amesbury, Mass., U.S.) has released a detailed technical tutorial and a market analysis, each on high-performance thermoplastic composites (TPCs) for the aerospace, automotive and oil and gas industries.

According to CompositesTech, the CAGR of thermoplastic composites in the materials industry is greater than that of other types of materials, including metals and thermoset composites, for several reasons. Thermoplastic composites offer performance advantages, cost advantages, increased ability to automate customized designs and forms, improved multifunctionality and improved sustainability. As conventional materials approach the physical limits of increased performance, thermoplastics offer growing design and process options with expanding performance capability and cost-driven manufacturing advantages, the company says.

The tutorial provides a detailed view of the raw materials and prepreg manufacturing processes for thermoplastic composites. Property comparisons are provided, and several existing processing options for the materials and prepregs are described including joining methodologies, advances in automation and tool-less composite manufacture. Examples of processes and parts used in each industry are included as well as market drivers and rationale for the materials in each industry.

The market analysis contains all the elements of the tutorial plus information on polymer volume usage in TPCs, global percentage usage by prepreg, reinforcement type, reinforcement form and by industry.

CompositeTechs’s personnel have given earlier versions of these reports at the 2018 CompositesWorld Carbon Fiber conference, the 2019 SAMPE Charlotte conference (as a tutorial), and to numerous clients. The technical information and market data were generated from non-proprietary data compiled by CompositeTechs based on several years of work in the industry as well as access to key personnel in many of the relevant organizations. The company says that earlier versions of the papers have been received favorably by its clients and are considered the most accurate reports in the industry, both technically and in market data.

Additionally, the reports are available at a cost of about 40% less than the cost of similar reports by other market research companies. A free overview of the documents is available at https://www.compositetechs.com/shop. ​​​​​