Ed Hill talks to Metyx Composites’ CEO, Besim Uğur Üstünel about the company’s products, manufacturing capability and global expansion.
Born out of Turkish textile manufacturing Group Telateks, which can trace its roots back to the 1940s, Metyx Composites, established in 2003, specialises in the manufacture of woven reinforcements used in the composites industry. It also offers kitting, tooling, consultancy services and customer training.
The company’s early steps in technical textiles was a natural progression for company founder, Besim Uğur Üstünel who instigated the business with his brother Tunc as a new division of the family’s textile company.
“The simplest path for us was to start with composite reinforcements, which are basically technical textile products,” says Besim Uğur Üstünel. “It was a fairly straightforward point of entry because we have a long history in this field. Metyx products now include multiaxial reinforcements, carbon reinforcements, RTM reinforcements, woven reinforcements, and closed moulding products such as peel-ply and flow media.
“In addition to the technical textile production, we operate two composite-related business units: Tooling and Kitting, which are additional services intended to better serve specific customer needs. We currently have four manufacturing locations with different business applications; three in Europe and one in the US. In Turkey, we have manufacturing facilities in Istanbul and Manisa. In Kaposvár, Metyx Hungary supplies most of our EU customers from our 17,000m² manufacturing and logistics centre. Metyx USA is located in Gastonia, North Carolina.
“The majority of our business is in renewables, predominately wind energy, but we also have applications in the automotive, transportation, marine, sports and leisure, infrastructure and construction.”
In the mould
Metyx offers a wide range of services and products aside from its woven materials. The company also manufactures master plugs, production moulds, and prototypes.
Üstünel continues: “Having the ability to perform all this under one roof helps us face our customers’ challenges, in that we can solve problems faster and more efficiently than some of our competitors. This is one of the reasons why some of our customers see Metyx as a strategic partner and not just a supplier.”
Metyx’s Kitting service products are produced both in Turkey and Hungary and include core materials, fabrics and vacuum consumables. They’re designed and assembled by experienced Metyx engineers, who take into account cost, quality, part geometry, mould lay-up and the manufacturing process being used.
The kits are supplied with full traceability, cut, shaped, and preformed as needed through supporting CAD data, packed and labelled according to customer specified reference numbers and manufacturing bills of materials, to ensure production shopfloor accuracy, efficiency and productivity.
“Our kitting facilities can cost-effectively machine Balsa wood and all foam core materials including: PU (polyurethane), PET (polyethylene terephthalate), SAN (styreneacrylonitrile) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) foams. We can also accurately cut the full range of multiaxial, RTM and woven technical fabric reinforcements, as well as supplying kits with vacuum consumables.
“Our CNC fabric cutting machines are capable of efficiently and cost-effectively handling fabric widths up to 100 inches, which minimises scrap and reduces overall material costs. Prototype kits can also be supplied to check all pertinent parameters before production and delivered ‘just in time’ as requested.”
Metyx’s Tooling services offer design and manufacturing support to customers looking for affordable, quality tooling solutions. Its Tooling team has expertise in large-scale tooling projects for wind blade mould components, hull and deck plugs and moulds for boatbuilding, complex design tooling for automotive and transportation applications, multiple component architectural projects and direct negative moulding for limited volume parts.
American inroads
Part of its ambitious growth plans saw Metyx acquire Tycor material product and manufacturing facility in the US.
“Tycor fiberglass wrapped core material strengthens our high-performance technical textile product offering to US customers in the wind, marine, automotive and industrial markets looking for lightweight composite material solutions. It’s a dry fibre and foam core, sandwich preform which achieves its final end use properties through the closed moulded (vacuum infusion, RTM, RTM-L, etc.) processes. The core material used in Tycor is flexible, non-structural, fine closed-cell PIR foam, designed to minimise resin absorption, with excellent temperature stability and compressive and shear strength.
“Significant overall part weight savings in excess of 30% can be achieved from a combination of Tycor having less core foam volume and taking up far less resin during infusion compared with a conventional cut Balsa core, yet still provides the desired mechanical properties. The standard sheet range available has five grades offered in a choice of thicknesses from 12mm to 75mm, with four contour grades and a rigid sheet option. Depending on the end use application, each Tycor grade offers a choice of bulk density, and resultant resin pickup and impregnated core properties.”
Metyx’s recent growth can be seen as part of the wider uptake of composite materials for many applications, so how does Üstünel see their development in the future?
“Composite material use in the aerospace and marine industries is developing. However, the need for lightweight materials that reduce costs is the same for all industries. Observing the demographics and market competition dynamics in detail, there is a general understanding in engineering about composite applications. However, there should be more education and marketing activities to improve awareness of composite materials use. Automotive, marine, railway, pipe industry, wind energy, aerospace are the most common industries for composite materials, but industries such as health, architecture, construction, infrastructure, sports and recreation could benefit more. I also think universities should open their doors for additional composite material education with new Polymeric Engineering Studies.”
Üstünel is confident that suppliers will be able to meet the demand for composite raw materials - even if its uptake in large volume sectors such as automotive increases.
“Previously, as the use of composites has increased, the raw material suppliers have kept pace with the expansion of its global production facilities. Industries, such as aerospace via Airbus and Boeing, account for a large portion of carbon fibre input where the supply base has seen significant expansion and, in a few cases, new suppliers have entered the marketplace.
“The use of composites in the automotive sector suggests a philosophy where all material selection, i.e. steel, aluminium and composites in vehicle design seems to be the favoured approach. We’ve seen composite expansion in the past and don’t see why with sustained controlled growth, we won’t continue to see it further on.”
In the UK, Metyx products are available through its distributor Hampshire-based GRP Solutions, but it is looking to grow globally and is particularly hopeful about the US market.
“Our major plan is to have all Metyx divisions active in the US, including our development centre,” Üstünel concludes. “We are trying to duplicate many of our business divisions and units that are already settled in other geographies and replicate them in the US. The US market is huge and segmented, but it’s also the territory where we have the toughest competitors that are well-established and well-known worldwide, so it won’t be easy. We hope our customer-focused approach, products and services will help us gain market share in the US.”
