Hexcel has announced it has broken ground on a new $20 million engineered core facility at the MidParc Free Trade Zone Industrial Park in Morocco.
When fully operational in 2017, the facility will convert the company’s honeycomb materials into engineered core parts that are used for structural reinforcement and light weighting in aerospace applications, including aircraft structures, engine nacelles and helicopter blades. In the interim, Hexcel will occupy a temporary facility on the Midparc site that will begin operating in Q4 2016. The plant is expected to employ more than 200 people by 2020.
The new facility, located in Casablanca is part of Hexcel’s ongoing investment to create a global supply chain to support aerospace customers’ growing demand for engineered core. In recent years, Hexcel has increased capacity at existing plants to support its engineered core business and plans further expansions to capture additional opportunities.
Along with the announcement of the new plant the company also announced that it has now finally acquired full ownership of Formax UK Limited, having purchased a 50% interest in the privately owned company in December 2014.
Located in Leicester, UK, Formax is a manufacturer of composite reinforcements, specialising in the production of lightweight carbon fibre multi-axials and highly engineered glass fibre and aramid fibre fabrics. The purchase of the remaining interest in Formax will allow Hexcel to further advance dry reinforcements technology for future aerospace applications and provide scale for growing industrial markets.