Walk into almost any manufacturing plant in the Northwest producing composites and see spools and prominent racks of Toray advanced composite materials lining the walls . The products are ubiquitous and used in everything from aerospace and space technologies , to phone cases and musical instruments , to athletic equipment . The products are extremely resilient and can subsist in diverse weather conditions and temperatures .
Toray , a Japanese chemical company formed in 1926 as a textile company was named as Toray Industries in 1970 ; they started producing Torayca ® carbon fiber in 1971 . They were one of the first carbon fiber creators . They have plants worldwide in 26 countries with 48,000 employees . The composites divisions are in Japan , China , Korea , Europe , Mexico and North America and support OEMs like Boeing and Airbus but provide products to additional aerospace OEMs and their suppliers worldwide .
10 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS