Metals & advanced materials

Graphite and Composite Materials

Carbon and fibre-reinforced materials for high-temperature and high-stiffness duty, purified, machined and laid up in our own plants.

Made at Ningbo · Suzhou

Development and manufacture

Graphite for a semiconductor or photovoltaic hot zone is judged on purity and grain uniformity, and both are set long before machining. We control the coke blend, the isostatic pressing and the baking and graphitisation cycle, then purify in our own halogen furnaces. Ash content is measured on the finished part rather than on the block it came from, because contamination in a hot zone is a yield problem for the customer that no certificate after the fact can fix.

On the composite side we prepreg our own resin systems and lay up, cure and machine here. Development usually means finding the smallest amount of fibre that meets the stiffness requirement, so our engineers work from the load case, not from a laminate schedule handed over with the enquiry. Cure cycles are validated with embedded thermocouples on the actual part geometry.

Product scope

Isostatic graphite

Fine and ultra-fine grain isostatic graphite for photovoltaic and semiconductor hot zones, EDM electrodes, crucibles and moulds.

Expandable and flexible graphite

Flexible graphite sheet, die-formed rings, spiral wound and packing seals for valves, pumps and flanges.

Carbon fibre prepregs and fabrics

Unidirectional and woven prepreg in epoxy and cyanate ester, plus dry woven and multiaxial fabrics.

FRP profiles and pipes

Pultruded glass and carbon profiles, gratings, and filament-wound pipe and tanks for corrosive service.

Carbon-carbon composites

C/C brake discs, crucibles, heating elements and fixtures for vacuum and inert high-temperature furnaces.

Carbon-fibre-reinforced panels

Cured sheet, sandwich panels and machined structural parts for machine builders and instrument frames.

Held in production

What the line holds, and how we know.

These are figures sustained across a production run rather than a best-case first article, each with the instrument or test that produces it.

CharacteristicHeld in productionVerified by
Graphite average grain size≤ 10 µm, ultra-fine to 4 µmOptical metallography
Bulk density1.80–1.90 g/cm³Dimensional and mass measurement per block
Ash content after purification≤ 5 ppmAsh test on the finished part
Flexural strength≥ 55 MPaThree-point bend to ASTM C651
Prepreg resin content33 ±2%Resin burn-off, per roll
Composite fibre volume fraction58 ±3%Acid digestion on cured coupons

Built and released against

  • ASTM C781 and DIN 51911 graphite characterisation
  • SEMI guidelines for semiconductor-grade consumables
  • ASTM D3171 fibre volume determination in composites
  • ISO 14125 flexural properties of fibre-reinforced plastics
  • ASTM F104 and API 6FA for sealing materials

Who buys it

  • Photovoltaic ingot and wafer production
  • Semiconductor furnace hot zones
  • Continuous casting and metallurgy
  • Valve, pump and flange sealing
  • Aerospace and motorsport structures
  • Chemical plant pipework and gratings

Related work

Neighbouring industries.

Programmes often cross these lines. Where a part touches more than one of them, a single engineer owns the whole thing rather than handing it between departments.

All industries

Send a drawing or a specification.

An engineer from the graphite and composite materials team replies within one business day with feasibility, the line it would run on, the tooling route and an indicative delivered cost.