On plastics, Japan's Teijin announced the other day "that it has...

On plastics, Japan's Teijin announced the other day "that it has established the world's first mass production technologies for carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP)" and is looking at car manufacturing. This looks a very likely use for mass manufacture of carbon fiber products with a number of car companies having plans for mass production of carbon fiber cars, like BMW who's targeting 2013 for a production start.

A recent comment in the Financial Times is also interesting. They reported, 'Bankers' said a carbon fiber products company (SGL who's tied up with BMW and now Volkswagen have tahen a stake according to FT) had "attracted interest recently from a series of financial and industrial investors betting that the electrification in the car industry would turn carbon fiber into a mass-manufacturing material".

See: Breakthrough for mass produced carbon fibre cars

http://www.innovationintextiles.com/articles/802.php 9 March 2011, Tokyo

and

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4ad34d20-43e0-11e0-8f20
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