Teijin, A&P braided PAEK fabric targets high-rate composites

A&P Technology braids Tenax TPUD thermoplastic tape into IMS65 PAEK Bimax, a biaxial fabric 65 inches wide, and the product is introduced jointly with Teijin Carbon. It targets aerospace, space and defense manufacturers that need faster, out-of-autoclave composite production.

By SamPublished October 22, 2026Updated October 28, 20262 min read

Teijin Carbon, working with A&P Technology, presents IMS65 PAEK Bimax in Wuppertal, Germany, on October 8, 2025, as a rate-enabling material for scalable, high-speed composite production in aerospace, space, defense and other markets. It starts from Tenax TPUD IMS65 PAEK, a unidirectional tape based on polyaryletherketone resin. A&P Technology braids the tape, slit into narrow widths, into a 65-inch-wide fabric with a +/-45° architecture.

The braid has minimal crimp, so more of the tape’s properties carry into the fabric, and it drapes over complex geometries. The fabric has a fiber areal weight of 184 gsm and a PAEK content of 34 percent. It consolidates out of autoclave under vacuum bag only, which the partners say cuts manufacturing time while raising mechanical performance and impact resistance.

Further features:

High fiber volume and low crimp for mechanical performance.
A wide fabric that lays down biaxial reinforcement quickly, cutting layup time per layer.
Native air evacuation pathways for consolidating thick components.
Room-temperature preform placement with spot tacking.

The partners state the fabric meets or exceeds the properties of PAEK prepregs already qualified by the National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP), and they position it for next-generation composite structures.

Why it matters

Teijin Carbon supplies Tenax carbon fiber and thermoplastic unidirectional tapes. The TPUD range pairs HTS, UTS and IMS fiber grades with PEEK, low-melt PAEK and PPS matrices, plus PA and PC engineering polymers. A&P Technology contributes the braiding expertise that turns narrow tape into a wide, drapable fabric.

Out-of-autoclave, vacuum-bag-only consolidation removes autoclave capacity from the process chain, a constraint as airframe and primary-structure production ramps up. The TPUD tape itself offers low flammability, smoke and toxicity, plus room-temperature storage and shipping. It can be laid by hand or placed by automated tape laying or fiber placement, resists chemicals and solvents, is thermoformable, and works with thermoplastic joining technologies.

Teijin’s rapid cure prepreg and resin for high-rate eVTOL is covered separately. The fiber in the tape belongs to the Tenax IMS65 family.

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