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Carver Non-Woven Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of R3 Composites, a custom compression molder of both thermoset and thermoplastic composites, is working to establish itself as a leader in the manufacture of structural, lightweight, and recyclable nonwoven technologies for the automotive, recreational vehicle, building/construction, and office-furniture markets in North America. Carver offers a wide variety of rollstock products for both thermoset and thermoplastic composites, including single- and multi-fiber and layered mats featuring fiberglass, natural fiber, carbon fiber and synthetic (polymer) fibers.

Mark Glidden, president, R3 Composites and Carver Non-Woven, says R3 decided to start up the nonwovens business in order to separate R3 from other compression molders. “Being ‘material neutral’ was very important to us. Adding nonwovens to our SMC and GMT capabilities just made sense,” he says. “At the time, quite a bit of the engineering work we were performing was related to automotive underbody shields and there are some tremendous benefits to the use of natural fiber products as compared to SMC and GMT in this punishing application.”

The ability to find a use for recycled carbon fiber was also very appealing to the company, Glidden adds. “Being able to lower weight and increase strength while reclaiming a material that currently has limited use potential was a huge factor in our decision-making process and also in our equipment design. From there, we identified a need for more versatile and complex compositions, as well as for more consistent GSM throughout production runs.”

The company, which only began commercial production in July, recently completed Phase 2 installation work in order to serve its customer base better. This resulted in the addition of three more opening lines for a total of six, an additional blending line, another cross-lapper and an additional card. Now, Carver’s production volume for nonwovens is up to nearly 3,000 kgs per hour.

With this new equipment, Carver researchers are able to expand their developmental work on hybrid nonwovens by adding more synthetic fibers to the mix as well as carbon fiber, including compound development for applications where higher impact strength, acoustical damping, heat-deflection temperature, and structural requirements are needed in a single application. The second line allows for construction of a single web incorporating up to six different fiber types in two different layers that will subsequently be combined into a single finished, needled product. The company says this unique capability allows Carver to fully customize its nonwoven products to help customers optimize for cost, weight, and aesthetics in their final molded composite parts and meet more challenging application requirements.

Carver is also the first commercial nonwovens manufacturer in the world to install a line designed to run blends with up to 80% carbon fiber content. With this capability, the company already has begun discussions with commercial aircraft manufacturers about developing nonwoven carbon fiber blends for aircraft interior components that contain both virgin and recycled carbon fibers. Furthermore, Carver has begun development with an automaker on a custom blend containing carbon fiber for lightweight door trim panels.

Since its July startup, Carver has been producing both synthetic and blends of synthetic and E-glass or natural fiber mats for customers in a number of industries.

“We see the nonwovens industry as a growth area, specifically in regards to lightweighting efforts,” Glidden says. “With our capabilities and multi-blend formulations it’s an exciting time to be in the nonwovens industry.”