Focus on niche and high-end applications where advanced composites offer significant advantages over other materials, while providing cost-competitive solutions.
Hexcel is the most integrated composite solutions provider in the industry experienced at all stages in the composites chain
Programs & Applications
Focuses on key-performance-driven market segments Automotive, Recreation, Marine and Civil Engineering
As designers of automobiles are challenged with driving down CO2 emissions, lightweighting has become a priority. Hexcel products are driving weight reduction and promoting greater manufacturing efficiencies in support of these trends.
AUTOMOTIVE
Industrial
Automotive
Hexcel offers a full range of different composite material solutions enabling automotive part manufacturers to meet their demanding future targets in weight, design and aesthetic appearance.
Outstanding material solutions and decades of experience are combined with a strong forward-looking Technical Support team that is ready to work in partnership with customers to ensure the best solutions for the designs of today and tomorrow.
Episode 26 of the CompositesWorld podcast features an interview with Hexcel’s Director of Sales & Marketing for Automotive, Achim Fischereder. Mr. Fischereder discusses Hexcel’s products and technologies that were developed specifically for automotive applications. These include fast-curing carbon fiber prepregs for metal/composite hybrid structures and glass fiber prepregs for composite leaf springs.
AUTOMOTIVE
Structural Parts
Find out how HexPly® M901 prepreg and HiMax® are used in structural parts.
AUTOMOTIVE
Exterior and Interior
With the unique PrimeTex® reinforcements range Hexcel offers fabrics with a very smooth, closed weave, which give a uniform and highly aesthetical appearance.
AUTOMOTIVE
Technical Support Capability
Hexcel considers technical support as a key building block to deliver the best possible material solution and final customer’s success.
marine
industrial
Marine
Composite materials were first used in the marine industry back in the 1970s, when Hexcel supplied glass reinforcements for performance boats, canoes and dinghies. Since then, Hexcel has developed a wide range of composite materials to meet marine industry requirements.
A key supplier of composite materials to sports and recreation industries for almost 50 years, Hexcel understands the unique requirements of this fast-moving industry where the drive for higher performance encourages manufacturers to continuously develop improved designs that exploit technological advances.
Visit our Summer Sports page to discover how Hexcel products answer the needs of world-class competitors, as well as the demanding sporting enthusiast.
Civil engineering
industrial
Civil Engineering
What is classed as Civil Engineering?
Civil engineering spans many different types of applications from bridges, roadways, airports, tunnels, subsea structural protection, water supply, sewage systems, aquafarming to buildings. While being one of the oldest engineering disciplines, it continues to evolve and progress as new materials and technologies are brought to market.
Composite materials have started playing a bigger role in civil engineering designs over the past 30 years as designers come to understand how to apply them to their designs.
Superior Structural Reinforcement and Repair
Structural repair and strengthening with fiber-reinforced composite materials brings economic advantages in the long term thanks to the long service life and low maintenance. Practically, this is achievable only by using materials made with a robust and controlled manufacturing process, guaranteeing high quality and standards.
Stringent safety regulations result in costly and long qualification programs. Hexcel supports and assists customers by identifying the most appropriate tailored solutions for the specific applications and sampling materials for qualification purposes.
The HiMax® range of carbon and glass non-crimp fabrics provides superior structural reinforcement for the construction and repair of buildings, bridges, roads, pipes and numerous other civil engineering applications.
Hexcel’s HiMax® non-crimp fabrics are layers of unidirectional fibers placed in predetermined orientations and stitch bonded. These multiaxial reinforcements provide strength and stiffness in multiple directions depending on the controlled orientation of the fibers.
Leak Management and Pipe Repair
Multiaxial fabrics provide high levels of drapeablity thanks to the textile construction. Carbon is the preferred fiber for pipe repairs, due to the high stiffness and high modulus. Carbon is often selected as it enables a thinner patch to be used, accommodating any space limitations.
This method of managing and repairing leaks is suitable for all pipe sizes, fittings, valves, vessels and platforms, and is compatible with steel and PVC.
It is a superior alternative to traditional clamping, providing high strength and stiffness and a number of other benefits including fast processing without welding. Composites do not corrode so a long service life is assured.
Fire Protection for Building Structures
HiMax® geogrids, known as mesh, are “net-like” non-crimp fabrics, made from carbon fibers, basalt fibers, or blend of the two. They are used in combination with hydrocarbon intumescent coatings to protect building structures in case of fire. HiMax® provides great flexibility at design level, thanks to the broad range of pattern sizes and areal weight achievable
The reinforced coating is a passive fire protection measure. The coating expands through the grid when burning to form char that increases in volume to distance the flames and the generated heat from the protected structural members.
Carbon fiber is favored for its higher degradation temperature. In particularly complex and aggressive fire scenarios, the presence of the carbon grid enhances positional stability of the expanded char, preventing flaking and supporting the underlying structure that it protects.
