Gurit wins multi-annual automotive supply contract

 
Zurich, Switzerland, January 15, 2015 – Gurit (SIX Swiss Exchange: GUR), a worldwide leading developer and manufacturer of advanced composites and technologies, today announced that it has been selected as the supplier for carbon fiber based automotive body panels at a total contract value of more than CHF 30 million calculated on a multi-annual basis.
 

Starting in the fourth quarter of 2015, the new project features industrial production of exterior Class-A carbon body panel parts utilizing both Gurit’s existing open mold manual and its new proprietary and patented advanced press technology.

 

Gurit’s advanced press technology results from continuous research and close collaboration with leading car manufacturers. The unrivalled hot compression molding production technology significantly reduces curing time thus enabling efficient industrial production of small-scale series which are fully compatible with existing OEM mass production and assembly methods. Key features of the new technology also include parts accuracy, high-quality carbon look capability as well as Class-A surface quality.

 

‟This project win represents an important milestone in the strategic advancement of our automotive exterior body panel business,” said CEO Rudolf Hadorn. “We have been working hard to prove superiority of our advanced press technology. The selection of Gurit for this automotive components contract because of this new technology clearly shows that our effort to industrialize composite parts manufacturing ideally meets OEMs’ needs.”

 

Gurit has been supplying carbon fiber based Class-A car body panels to leading OEMs since 2007. Manufacturing car body panels from composite materials not only provides car manufacturers with greater design flexibility compared with metal panel technology. Benefits also result from the combination of material functionality and robust processing along with significant weight savings.

 
 

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