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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
4.07.2006 ET
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Owens Corning Exhibits New Revolutionary Reinforcement Platform HiPer-tex™ at JEC Composites Show
Presentation to Showcase Product's Performance in Wind Energy and Other Potential Market Applications; HiPer-tex Reinforcement Delivers CNG Pressure Vessels up to 50 Percent Lighter than Steel
(CSRwire) PARIS, France - At the JEC Composites Show, Owens Corning (OWENQ.OB)
will exhibit at its booth and showcase the company's breakthrough
high-performance reinforcement platform HiPer-tex at a technical
presentation* led by Application Development Engineer Luc Peters in the
'Agora' venue on Wednesday, March 29th at 10h30.
During his presentation, Peters will highlight the development and
evolution of HiPer-tex reinforcement platform emphasizing its
game-changing technological advantages and performance benefits. As part
of his comments, Peters will be providing additional information on
WindStrand™, the first HiPer-tex product application launched at last
month's European Wind Energy Conference in Athens Greece, and also provide
performance data on how the product can transform other market
applications. Currently, other key target markets for the new product
include aerospace, ballistics and high-pressure vessels, such as
compressed natural gas tanks (CNG). For CNG tanks, HiPer-tex
reinforcement platform would deliver:- A 50 percent weight savings
vs. steel (Type I design)
- A 40 percent cost reduction vs. conventional high performance fibers
(for Type IV design)
- Excellent fatigue and impact properties
- Superior corrosion resistance versus E-glass
- Improved vehicle gas mileage of trucks and cars. Using
HiPer-tex reinforcement platform, for the average CNG fueled car
alone, fuel efficiencies of a mid-sized car could increase by as much as 4
percent and reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2 tons per vehicle over its
lifetime.
Demand for vehicles powered by natural gas is increasing as
they are not only progressively more perceived as clean burning with very
low particulate emissions and environmentally friendly, but they also
lower the dependence on petroleum oil. Typical natural gas vehicles are
buses and urban delivery trucks. Composite materials provide an enabling
technology to reduce the weight of existing CNG tanks and increase fuel
efficient, vehicle range and payloads.
Owens Corning HiPer-tex is the result of a revolutionary high
performance reinforcement platform which uses proprietary melting,
fiberizing and sizing technology specifically formulated to provide higher
tensile strength and moduli. The product provides manufacturers with
excellent processability compared with conventional fibers. Compared to
conventional E-glass, HiPer-tex reinforcement platform delivers the
following benefits:- Up to 35% higher strength
- Up to 17% higher stiffness (modulus)
- End-use parts which display higher fatigue properties
- Significantly better impact resistance
- Better ageing and corrosion resistance than ECR (Electrical Corrosion
Resistance)
- Better resistance at elevated temperatures
"The development of
this new material is in response to the composites industry's need for a
large volume production high-performance fiber that will enable it to
compete favourably with traditional materials by significantly improving
the cost-performance ratio of composites," said Owens Corning Composites
Business President Chuck Dana. "It also highlights another milestone in
the 67 years -and counting - that Owens Corning has continued to transform
markets by replacing traditional materials with glass fiber composites in
thousands of applications."
HiPer-tex reinforcements, which are targeted to be commercially
available in late 2006, will be produced using the Owens Corning
next-generation high performance platform, which has a significantly
smaller environmental footprint than other technologies currently in use.
The JEC Composites Show (28-30 March, 2006) celebrates its 10th
anniversary this year and is known as the global venue for the
introduction of new technologies in composites and is held annually at the
Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris, France. Owens Corning is exhibiting in
Hall 1 Booth Q7/Q19
* To obtain a copy of the presentation please access the following link:
www.owenscorning.com/HiPer-tex
™ HiPer-tex and WindStrand are trademarks of Owens Corning.
About Owens Corning
Owens Corning is a world leader in building materials systems and
composite solutions. A Fortune 500 company for more than 50 years, Owens
Corning people redefine what is possible each day to deliver high-quality
products and services ranging from insulation, roofing, siding and stone,
to glass composite materials used in transportation, electronic,
telecommunications and other high-performance applications. Since the
company's founding in 1938, Owens Corning (OWENQ.OB) has become a
market-leading innovator of glass fiber technology with sales of $6.3
billion in 2005 and 20,000 employees in 25 countries. Additional
information is available at www.owenscorning.com.
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