AGY

AGY Holding Corp. is making investments to significantly increase capacity of its L-Glass fiber product line in response to tremendous demand for the low-loss glass fiber used in high speed printed circuit board applications. The new capacity will be commissioned in late 2015 and will expand L-Glass capacity by at least 200% for the fast growing application areas of high speed servers, automotive driver assistance systems, and handheld consumer electronics.

AGY recently announced the introduction of two new ultra-fine yarns for use in printed circuit board substrates. Designed to meet the growing needs of the electronics market where miniaturization and increased functionality are expanding exponentially, these ultra-fine yarns allow PCB suppliers to create thinner laminates for higher layer counts and greater circuit density.

AGY announces the introduction of new sizing systems designed to give the full range of AGY rovings and yarns compatibility with a wide range of thermoplastic resins from engineering materials including polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polycarbonate (PC), and polyamide 6 and 6.6 (PA6 and PA 6.6) and high performance materials including polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyetherketoneketone (PEKK), polyamide 11 and 12 (PA11 and PA12), and polyetherimide (PEI).

L-Glass fibres are a low-loss glass fibre yarn from AGY that was originally developed for electronics applications. It is now being evaluated for use in the manufacture of radomes, which have some of the same material property requirements. L-Glass fibres were developed to address the demands for higher speed/frequency signals in the Cloud computing and telecom infrastructure.

AGY announced today that it has increased production output of its S-2 Glass fiber reinforcements by twenty percent with the capability to further increase its output as market demands dictate. This expansion enables AGY to meet growth in both the aerospace and industrial markets for high-performance glass fibers used for composite reinforcement.

AGY has announced plans to exit the Lot Glass business. AGY’s glass fiber Lot Glass yarn is used as reinforcement for high silica fabrics in both aerospace and military applications where traceability is of key importance. The determining factor, explained Drew Walker, AGY Vice President of Sales and Marketing, was the significant decline in demand for Lot Glass G150 during the past year. With the termination of the space shuttle program, AGY has no expectation of improvement in coming years. “With limited forecast volume expected from key users,” he explained, “AGY has made the decision to exit the Lot Glass business.”

New applications for composite armor systems in vehicles are continuing to drive the growth of S-2 Glass reinforcements from AGY. S-2 Glass fibers are a significant component of the new Advanced Composites Demonstrator vehicle from NP Aerospace Ltd. and show how the design of a protection system can be incorporated into the structural design, reducing the overall weight of both the protection and structural elements.

AGY announced today that it will raise pricing up to 10% on most of its glass fiber yarns and rovings effective January 1, 2011.

AGY, a leading global producer of glass fiber yarns and high-strength glass fiber reinforcements, announces the introduction of S-1 HM™ high performance rovings for use in wind turbine blade applications. S-1 HM fibers were designed to offer superior value performance in the highly competitive wind energy composite reinforcement market.