Sustainability with a big ‘S’

In a Q&A session, Toray Composite Materials America’s vice-president of marketing and strategy, Tim Kirk outlines the company’s sustainability vision and its dedication to making a positive contribution to society.

Toray Industries is one of the market leaders in the supply of carbon fibre and prepreg materials. The company has a long heritage of combining state-of-the-art materials technology with world-class technical expertise to deliver its customer-centric business model. With production and operation facilities in North America, Europe, and Asia, Toray’s corporate vision around sustainability forms a natural extension of who they are as a company. 

Q) Toray has been in the news recently with new certifications, innovations and expansion. Can you tell us the main ones?

The advanced materials market is constantly evolving to meet the needs of discerning customers. As composites become more prevalent in aerospace designs, we are more focused on staying ahead of the curve by advancing our production systems and being at the forefront of material technology. Our primary goal is to ensure that we maintain the high material performance demanded by our aerospace customers, while simultaneously optimizing production efficiency. 

An example of this is the ongoing expansion in Toray Composite Materials America’s facility in Decatur, Alabama. With growing demand for high-performance carbon fibre, we’ve allocated internal capital to double the production capacity of the TORAYCA T1100 next-generation intermediate modulus plus (IM+) carbon fibre and add critical redundancy. The upgrade increases the availability and shortens the lead-time of TORAYCA T1100.

Toray Advanced Composites also recently announced it is the first advanced composite company awarded with the Nadcap accreditation in Non-Metallic Materials Manufacturing – Thermoplastic Prepreg Manufacturing AC7154-6. The accreditation is awarded to manufacturers who have demonstrated a high level of assurance in their manufacturing processes and are in compliance with industry standards and best practices. Customers benefit from working with a Nadcap-certified manufacturer by reducing or replacing costly audits that would otherwise be required of them. Toray Composite Materials America also maintains Nadcap certification for prepreg manufacturing and resin manufacturing, AC7124/2 Rev A and AC71241/1, respectively.

Q) How do these impact Toray’s ability to meet the demands of aerospace customers and what benefits do these bring to the aerospace market?

We’re proud of our diverse product portfolio, which includes our legacy material systems spanning the performance range for epoxy prepregs. The addition of Toray Advanced Composites in 2017 added further diversity into Toray’s offerings of speciality products, including Toray Cetex thermoplastic composites and specialised carbon-free materials for radomes and antenna systems, and we continue to innovate and lead the market with TORAYCA T1100 carbon fibre. These actions have enabled us to tailor solutions to the unique needs of our customers. Some customers prioritise production systems from the outset, while others choose to focus on design and certification before tackling mass production. While both approaches have various merits, we as a material supplier must be adaptable with solutions that meet those varying needs. 

Q) What emerging technologies or materials do you think will have the biggest impact on the aerospace industry in the coming years, and how is Toray preparing for these changes?

There will always be diversity in designs in the aerospace industry. One of the more exciting and promising emerging technology in aerospace will be in the realm of next-generation, clean, and zero-emission propulsion systems. While we haven’t reached that point yet, this transformation will usher in an entirely new suite of materials and technology. 

One of the challenges we’re helping our partners with right now is finding ways to safely and efficiently store and transport hydrogen. Regardless of what the end architecture looks like, a milestone event will be this ongoing advancement of process technology to meet the zero-emission target. 

Another example is the ongoing iterative action by OEMs to improve the performance of their aircraft by reducing the weight of the aircraft and optimising design. This process is essential for the success of bridge solutions like Sustainable Aviation Fuel, which are key to be more effective and sustaining over the mid-term.

Q) How is Toray responding to emerging trends or market demands, i.e. Urban Air Mobility (UAM), sustainable aviation, space exploration, electric aircraft? Are there particularly innovative or exciting use cases that you can share?

The rise of Urban Air Mobility has opened an entirely fresh aerospace design cycle. Watching the different design approaches take shape and hearing from customers about their priorities in terms of performance, production processes, certification, scale-up, and cost has been nothing short of amazing.

We are actively responding to this emerging need by being ready with high-performance materials, efficient manufacturing processes, and the necessary databases required for certification across our global manufacturing footprint.  That’s why Toray has been investing in the development of design allowables for both our thermoset and thermoplastic material systems over the past several years. It’s important for our customers that they can meet their certification schedule and our design allowables are on the critical path in many cases. 

Q) What role does Toray see itself playing in the future of the aerospace industry? Does sustainability factor into this vision? How?

Sustainability is a core value that drives everything we do. We used to think of sustainability as just being a responsible corporate citizen and supporting measures to reduce environmental burden, reduce our carbon footprint, promote recycling, etc. These are still important, but sustainability is now much more than just being a responsible corporate citizen. It is now with a ‘Big S’, a table stake, and it’s evolving to be a fundamental part of our identity - part of our DNA. Our customers expect nothing less from their supply chains, and we’re proud to lead the way with sustainability at the forefront. 

We are continuously evolving to meet the demand of the markets we serve.  Toray’s sustainability vision aligns not only with the green or environmental side of sustainability but also with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Toray has always been dedicated to making a positive contribution to society – this is reflective in our corporate vision – so sustainability is a natural extension of who we are as a company. 

www.toray.com