PlastiComp (Winona, Minnesota) and Xenia (Mussolente, Vicenza, Italy) announced at JEC Europe 2015 (Paris, March 10-12) that they have entered into a strategic partnership.  As part of the partnership, Xenia will develop innovative solutions based on PlastiComp’s Complēt long carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites and Xenia’s Xecarb short carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites for the European market.

“This combines the carbon fiber expertise of two esteemed firms, Xenia is renowned for their work with short carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics and PlastiComp for our long and continuous fiber variants. Xenia will now have a complete portfolio of carbon fiber composites at their disposal which will allow them to provide solutions for a broader range of applications”, said Steve Bowen, president and CEO of PlastiComp. “We are delighted to expand our capabilities with carbon fiber technology through our partnership with PlastiComp. Xenia now has a full line of carbon fiber composites that will allow us to develop more applications benefitting from the reduced weight and high-performance properties provided by carbon fiber reinforced materials”, added Fabio Azzolin, president of Xenia.

Injection moldable Complēt long fiber composite pellets from PlastiComp are available with 15-50% carbon fiber in thermoplastic polymers from polypropylene to PEEK.  Composite formulations can be custom engineered to include wear reduction, electrical conductivity, and flame retardant functions in addition to long fiber structural reinforcement.  Continuous fiber reinforced tapes are available in 0.5 to 7.5 cm widths in the same polymer range as pellet products.

PlastiComp recently developed a line of hybrid long glass+carbon fiber composites that combine long glass and carbon fiber together into a single ready-to-mold pellet. Hybrid products are available with variable combinations of the fiber types to bridge the performance gap between using either of these two fibers alone, they also lower the entry cost for adopting carbon fiber technology by reducing the quantity of carbon fiber needed to obtain high-performance properties.

Xenia engineers and manufactures reinforced thermoplastic composites for structural applications used in the most advanced fields.  They combine reinforcing fibers, such as carbon or aramid, with functional additives, such as PTFE, to improve the mechanical and tribological properties of thermoplastic polymers. Xenia compounds fiber reinforcement with thermoplastic elastomers for applications where flexibility, resistance to fatigue, and impact are required or with stiffer engineering thermoplastic polymers, such as PA, PPS, PPA, or PEEK, for heavy duty, high-performance, and high temperature environments.