3 May 2016, Penthalaz, Switzerland: As part of a significant growth programme, NTPT™, the prepreg specialist renowned for its award-winning thin ply materials, is expanding its offering of conventional weight prepreg following the installation of new equipment at its facility in Poland.
The new machine dedicated to high volume prepreg production has been successfully installed in NTPT’s new 2000 m2 plant in Zory, Poland, allowing the company to ramp up production for higher volume marine and industrial sectors, as well as the traditional high tech applications such as Formula 1 and UAVs.
Whilst production has already commenced in Poland, NTPT’s R&D centre will remain at the company's headquarters in Switzerland, where the focus will be on developing innovative technologies designed to answer customers' specific challenges at a competitive price.
"While NTPT™ is known for its expertise in thin ply prepreg materials, we understand that customers typically want to marry the performance and chemistry of thin ply with more conventional prepregs," reports James Austin, NTPT's CEO. "With our expanded production facilities and additional equipment in Poland we are in a position to build our conventional prepreg range and provide these products to the market at very competitive prices."
NTPT's automated tape laying (ATL) equipment, used to produce custom multiaxial preforms from prepreg tapes, has also been successfully relocated to Zory.
All machines are in full operation, supplying NTPT's complete portfolio of prepreg products that include:
- thin ply unidirectional (UD) prepreg of 15-100 g/m2 made from carbon, glass, quartz, aramid and other fibres; and
- conventional UD prepreg of 100-600 g/m2, 200 g/m2 and 300 g/m2 woven fabric (0/90) prepreg, and 300 g/m2 and 400 g/m2 biaxials (+/-45), based on carbon, glass, aramid and other fibres.
The relocation of the company's Polish production plant to Zory commenced in March and is on schedule to complete in June, when a formal opening ceremony will be held.