Long fibre product capacity expanded

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 26, 2006

RTP Company has significantly expanded its long fibre compound (LFC) capabilities with increased capacity, addition of key personnel and broader product offerings.

RTP Company has significantly expanded its Long fibre compound (LFC) capabilities with increased capacity, addition of key personnel and broader product offerings.

A new long fibre facility near RTP Company's headquarters in Winona, Minnesota is the most notable investment.

The facility has substantially increased the company's long fibre product capacity with the addition of multiple long fibre lines augmented by state-of-the-art equipment.

These improvements enable RTP Company to offer even shorter lead-times and superior quality control.

"RTP Company has shown its renewed focus by steering more resources toward LFCs", said Steve Maki, Vice President of Technology.

"These additional resources will work to increase product and process development, as well as improve on scale-up of new technologies".

In addition to the new facility in Winona, additional long fibre lines have been established at several of RTP Company's worldwide operations.

Product and process development engineers, technical service support staff, and business development managers have been appointed globally to assist the company's growing customer base of injection moulders and OEMs using LFCs.

Important advancements in long fibre technologies have been made to RTP Company's LFCs.

RTP Company has expanded its long fibre capability to incorporate a wider array of resin systems and include cross-functional technologies.

"RTP Company realises that it has an opportunity to bring the mechanical property advantages of long fibre reinforcement to resin systems beyond polypropylene and nylon", said Karl Hoppe, Product Development Engineer.

"Not only do we have long fibre products based on engineered resin systems like PBT, PPA and Peek, but we also have the ability to incorporate these LFCs with other technologies, like flame retardant, wear resistant, or even conductive".

In 2005, RTP Company introduced Long fibre Concentrates with high glass loadings.

Improved processability of the concentrates has now been achieved, allowing customers to incorporate this technology even more efficiently and realise improved economics.

RTP Company has taken steps to proactively assist customers on site in their transition from compounds to concentrates.

Additional long fibre concentrate products include stainless steel concentrates available in a variety of resin systems.

RTP Company, headquartered in Winona, Minnesota, is a global leader in specialty compounding.

The company has seven manufacturing plants on three continents, plus sales representatives throughout North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

RTP Company's engineers develop customised thermoplastic compounds in over 60 different engineering resin systems for applications requiring colour, conductivity, flame retardancy, high temperature, structural, elastomeric and wear resistant properties.

Long fibre compounds have high strength-to-weight ratios and very low creep.

compared with metal, these compounds help reduce processing costs and increase throughout.