Ensinger commissions new prepreg facility in Germany

Ensinger’s range now encompasses thermoplastic, continuous fibre-reinforced semipregs and prepregs, organosheets and compression moulded composite plates from a wide range of material combinations.

Among the composite materials being produced by Ensinger at the new facility in Cham are thermoplastic semipreg materials (TECATEC CP). These single layer semipregs made from carbon or glass fibre fabrics are coated with thermoplastic matrix materials.

The materials here range from engineering polymers such as polycarbonate and polyamides, to high-performance plastics such as PEI, PEEK and PEKK. Alongside stock materials, its in-house compounding allows Ensinger to also address most customer requests.

Also new to the portfolio are thermoplastic prepreg materials (TECATEC IP). These are fully impregnated and consolidated, single layer plies made from carbon or glass fibre fabrics. With these prepregs, the full range of matrix polymers is available. In addition, Ensinger offers customised matrix and fibre combinations, fibre architectures or matrix materials on request.

All semipreg and prepreg products from Ensinger can be processed further into organosheets, thermoplastic composite parts or stock shapes.

Thermoplastic organosheets are multi-layer, fully impregnated and consolidated fibre composite materials produced from carbon fibre or glass fibre fabrics and a variety of matrix materials. The organosheets (TECATEC OS) from Ensinger consist of several layers of prepreg or semipreg material, which are stacked according to the customer’s specification and then consolidated to form a laminated organosheet with a thickness of up to 5 mm.

The organosheets offered on coils or as plates can be used for thermoformed parts or for the straightforward manufacture of thicker parts.

For applications in which the properties of unreinforced or short fibre-reinforced plastic stock shapes are insufficient, thermoplastic composite plates are an outstanding alternative. Ensinger offers carbon fibre-reinforced PEEK for medical applications, glass fibre-reinforced PEI and carbon fibre-reinforced PC and PPS as standard. Other material and fibre combinations, types of fabric or customised layer structures are produced on request.

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