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Toray Develops New Analysis Technology for Multi-Material Structures Using UD Tape

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Jan. 27, 2022

Toray Industries, Inc.


Tokyo, Japan, January 27, 2022 – Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it has developed a new analysis technology for multi-material structures consist of both UD tape (unidirectional continuous fiber-reinforced tape) and injection molding materials. This breakthrough makes it possible to more precisely predict the properties of parts made up of multiple materials and more swiftly develop high-performance components.

The company looks to supply UD tape, injection molding resins, and other materials, as well as structural design, molding support, and other services while providing total solutions that incorporate its new technology. Toray will leverage the technology to expand the adoption of its materials in the urban air mobility, electric vehicle, and other advanced mobility fields and in regular industrial sectors, thereby helping manufacturers create lighter, more energy-efficient products.

UD tapes are intermediate base materials in tape shape that are made by embedding fibers such as carbon fibers in unidirectionally aligned fibers of such thermoplastic resins as polyamide 6 and polyphenylene sulfide. Continuous fibers provide excellent rigidity and strength, and enable welding to other thermoplastics. Taking advantage of these features and optimally arranging UD tapes in injection-molded products makes it possible to create multi-material structures that maximize weight savings while constraining costs.

The downside to all this is that laying UD tapes on injection-molded products makes it hard to accurately analyze strength and impact properties, which is vital for multi-material structures.

Toray thus set about developing its new analysis technology by improving 3D TIMON® to accurately reflect jointing strength between materials and materials fracture behavior. Subsidiary Toray Engineering D solutions Co., Ltd., developed TIMON, a three-dimensional injection molding computer-aided engineering system. Toray also created a coupled analysis technology for resin flow and impact properties that factors in the fiber orientation of injection molding materials. That technology combines analyses of various phenomena and calculates their interactions. This work resulted in the company’s accurate new analysis technology, which helps to accelerate the structural design of multi-material structures. Toray will strive to help reduce weight and energy consumption by deploying this technology in diverse advanced mobility and regular industrial applications.

Under the Toray Group Sustainability Vision, the company aims to help the international community pursue sustainable development by accelerating measures to tackle climate change and enable the world to attain net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Toray will continue to provide innovative technologies and advanced materials to transform societies in keeping with its commitment to innovating ideas, technologies, and products that deliver new value.