World’s First Plasma Oxidation Commercial Oven at Scale

4M Industrial Oxidation, LLC (Knoxville, TN), a subsidiary of RMX Technologies, recently announced that they have signed a letter of intent with C.A. Litzler Co., Inc. (Cleveland, OH) to jointly commercialize the world’s first 175 ton plasma oxidation oven for OPF and carbon fiber production.

Matt Litzler, the president of Litzler, attended the 2016 JEC World: Composites Show in Paris to announce the partnership. “We have made great strides in the past few months and initiated fabrication of components for the first commercial scale oven,” he said. “We believe we have a path to commercialization that will allow us to offer these plasma oxidation ovens to the industry. We now have requests for three quotes.”

“We have been working with Matt and his team for a year to develop the design and are excited about the progress we have made to effectively scale the plasma technology,” added Rodney G. Grubb, the president of RMX President.

“The ability to focus on the integration of the plasma components and operating system while the Litzler technical team deals with the oven design, fiber handling, environmental elements, and balance of plant has been extremely valuable in moving the design and construction forward in the past six months,” noted Truman Bonds, the vice president for development and research at RMX.

The patented 4M plasma-oxidation process will be key in the worldwide carbon fiber market expansion from 83,000 metric tons of carbon fiber per year to over 219,000 tons per year from 2015 to 2024 (market information from Composites Forecasts and Consulting, LLC at the Carbon Fiber Conference 2015). It operates more than three times faster than current commercial technology and uses less than 25 percent of the energy per pound of fiber, also making it a “green” process. 4M has successfully tested for four carbon fiber makers and demonstrated quality fiber, increased throughput and significant energy reduction benefits.  Plasma oxidation has also demonstrated improvement in the fiber quality versus conventional processing.

Headquartered in Knoxville as a manufacturer specialized in oxidation equipment, 4M has licensed RMX plasma technologies related to the oxidation of a variety of materials. With support from the U.S. Department of Energy, RMX has developed a revolutionary plasma-based carbon fiber oxidation technology and is supporting 4M Industrial Oxidation in commercializing this technology. www.4mio.com

Headquartered in Cleveland, Litzler is a 63-year-old engineering business involved in complete carbon fiber lines and prepreg machinery. www.calitzler.com