Toray Industries, Inc. has developed TORAYCA™ M46X carbon fiber, which features higher strength than existing products in the series. Specifically, the new offering is around 20% stronger than others in the TORAYCA™ MX Series while maintaining a high tensile modulus. Utilizing TORAYCA™ M46X reduces the weight of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic materials, lowering its environmental impact.

Typically, there is a trade-off between the tensile modulus and strength of carbon fiber. Boosting the strength while maintaining the modulus of carbon fibers with a tensile modulus exceeding 350GPa presents technological challenges.

Accordingly, the company developed TORAYCA™ M46X, pushing the structural control technology envelope. Nano-level controls of the graphite crystallite structure inside fibers resulted in an ultrafine, ultrahigh orientation producing carbon fiber. Specifically, the fiber is more than 20% stronger than conventional materials while maintaining its tensile modulus.

Additionally, the company will deploy TORAYCA™ M46X prepreg, with the resin matrix utilizing the proprietary NANOALLOY^®1 microstructure control technology. Mainly, the new product will significantly enhance compressive strength to boost stiffness. At the same time, it will retain strength, reduce the weight of finished products, and broaden design flexibility.

Developing high-performance carbon fibers with a high tensile modulus exceeding 350GPa began with TORAYCA™ M40 with graphitized yarn². Successors were TORAYCA™ M40J in 1984 and TORAYCA™ M46J in 1986 in response to robust demand for the high-modulus TORAYCA™ MJ carbon fiber series.

Further, Toray continued to develop technologies to balance the tensile strength and modulus. The TORAYCA™ MX Series was created by applying technologies to control graphite crystallite structures and orientations³ inside fibers. The first offering in this series was the TORAYCA™ M40X, launched in 2018. This product has since earned a solid reputation as a high-performance carbon fiber and prepreg (a resin-impregnated intermediate base material) matching market requirements.

In line with its corporate philosophy of contributing to society by creating new value, Toray will continue developing new products that help transform the economy through the enhanced performance and processability of TORAYCA™ carbon fiber and prepreg.

^1.  NANOALLOY is a Toray-developed microstructure control technology that can dramatically improve properties compared with conventional materials by minutely dispersing multiple polymers on a nanometric scale.

^2.  Graphitized yarn is a carbon fiber heat-treated at high temperature in a graphitization furnace.

³.  Graphite crystallite structures and orientations refers to graphite crystallite structures growing, and orientation increasing after treatment at high temperature in a graphitization furnace.