Alberta firm will make fibre parts for vehicles
A Drayton Valley company will produce components that will take auto parts made of natural fibres from the drawing board to the production line.
The BioComposites
Group (BCG) has partnered with Michigan-based Techstyles to market lightweight mats that can be moulded into a variety of automotive parts.
The lightweight parts, made from fibres such as wood, flax or hemp are designed to replace traditional fibreglass auto parts, resulting in better fuel efficiency and sound dampening.
The feedstock will be in- dustrial residue from lumber plants in northern Alberta.
BCG expects to start manufacturing in the summer, following completion in the spring of its plant on the Bio Mile, a biotechnology park in Drayton Valley, about 150 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.
BCG is the first commercial spinoff company from an Edmonton-based incubator run by biocomposite research and development firm Tekle Technical Services (TTS). BCG was incorporated in 2010 as a division of TTS to focus on commercializing TTS’s engineered fibre mat products.
“We’ll start with a woodfibre-synthetic fibre mix but the ultimate objective is to integrate hemp and flax and get rid of the synthetic fibre,” said Tam Tekle, president and CEO of TTS.
“We are taking the wood fibre and turning it into a mouldable carpet,” Tekle said.
“The car manufacturers’ second-tier suppliers take that and mould it into interior door panelling, luggage racks and interior parts.”
Techstyles CEO Bill Vaughn said it will market BCG products under the Fiber510 brand, including load floors, package decks, interior door panels, seat backs and spare tire covers.
“The price volatility of petroleum-based products and the auto industry’s shift toward lightweight and environmentally friendly parts make BCG products a perfect fit for our portfolio,” Vaughn said.