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Date:
01/16/2008 Cecilia Haviland LOS ANGELES, CA – January 16,2008 – HITCO CARBON COMPOSITES, INC (HITCO), a subsidiary of the German based SGL Group - The Carbon Group - announced today that it has ordered a Bertsche P5-Milling machine designed for high speed, automated performance in a demand-driven manufacturing environment. This machine is used in the production of entire families of large-scale structural parts. It is comprised of a Five Axis CNC Milling Machine with Hydraulic, Pneumatic, Lubrication, Dust Collection and Power Door Systems, and Full Machine Enclosure. HITCO intends to use this equipment for drilling and finishing composite floor beams for new commercial aircraft programs. In November 2007, HITCO placed an order for a second Cincinnati Charger™ Automated Tape Lay-Up Machine (ATL) equipped with a state-of-the-art, contour tape head. This equipment improves HITCO’s ability to manufacture a wide array of composite parts ranging from wing skins and fuselage panels to horizontal stabilizers for commercial and military aircraft. This second machine complements the first ATL purchased earlier in 2007. “Since the April 2007 announcement of our Capital Investment Plan, beginning with the purchase of our first Automated Tape Lay-Up Machine and other facility upgrades at our Gardena, California site, HITCO has received positive feedback from the market and our key customers. This has led to strong interest among potential customers for highly engineered composite parts that utilize automated fabrication processes,” said Edward G. Carson, HITCO Chief Operating Officer. “We look forward to servicing our customers beginning in 2008, with highly engineered, excellent quality composite components delivered to our customers on time,” Carson concluded.
HITCO Carbon Composites, Inc. was founded in 1922 and manufactures advanced composite materials primarily for aerospace and defense applications. HITCO continues to be an innovative leader in the advancement of carbon composite technologies and continues to strategically focus within the SGL Group on new projects for aerospace/aircraft and defense applications.
SGL Group – The Carbon Company
The SGL Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of carbon-based products. It has a comprehensive portfolio ranging from carbon and graphite products to carbon fibers and composites. SGL Group’s core competencies are its expertise in high-temperature technology as well as, its applications and engineering know how, gained over many years. These competencies enable the Company to make full use of its broad material base. SGL Group’s carbon-based materials combine several unique properties such as electrical and thermal conductivity, heat, and corrosion resistance as well as, high mechanical strength combined with low weight. Due to the paradigm shift in the use of materials because of the worldwide shortage of energy and raw materials, there is a growing demand for SGL Group’s high-performance materials and products from an increasing number of industries. Carbon and graphite products are used whenever other materials such as steel, aluminum, copper, plastics, wood etc. fail due to their limited properties. Products from the SGL Group are used predominantly in the steel, aluminum, automotive, chemical, and glass/ceramics industries. However, manufacturers in the semiconductor, battery, solar/wind energy, environmental protection, aerospace, and defense industries as well as, in the nuclear energy industry also figure among the Company’s customers.
With around 30 production sites in Europe, North America, and Asia as well as, a service network covering more than 100 countries, the SGL Group is a company with a global presence. In 2006, the Company’s workforce of 5,250 generated sales of 1.2 billion Euros. The Company’s head office is located in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Important note: This press release contains statements on future developments that are based on currently available information and that involve risks and uncertainties that could lead to actual results deviating from these forward-looking statements. The statements on future developments are not to be understood as guarantees. The future developments and events are dependent on a number of factors; they include various risks and unanticipated circumstances and are based on assumptions that may not be correct. These risks and uncertainties include for example, unforeseeable changes in political, economic and business conditions, particularly in the area of electrosteel production, the competitive situation, interest rate and currency developments, technological developments and other risks and unanticipated circumstances. We see other risks in price developments, unexpected developments relating to acquired and consolidated companies and in the ongoing cost optimization programs. SGL Carbon does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. |
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