The global PMI foam market is estimated at USD 29.2 million in 2015 and is projected to reach USD 53.3 million by 2021, at a CAGR of 10.6% from 2016 to 2021. The global PMI foam market has witnessed a strong growth in the past few years owing to its high demand from the aerospace & defense application segment. PMI foam offers superior fire, smoke, and toxicity retardant properties and can be processed with all commonly used resin systems.

The major applications of PMI foam are in aerospace & defense, wind energy, sporting goods, transportation, and other sectors. The aerospace & defense application is estimated to be the fastest-growing application in the PMI foam market during the forecast period. The properties offered by PMI foam, such as high impact strength, creep resistance, and excellent mechanical strength, encourage its use in high performance applications. PMI foam core, is majorly used in exterior structures of aircraft, helicopters, and space vehicles.

High production and processing costs of PMI foam have been posing a serious threat to the growth of the market. PMI foam has a large number of applications; however, commercialization of these applications is yet to begin owing to their high cost. Developing low cost products is a major challenge for all researchers and key manufacturers, as manufacturing cost-effective materials require new detailed manufacturing cost analysis and processing cost models. Therefore, currently, the use of PMI foam is restricted to the aerospace industry, as the industry is not cost-sensitive and requires high-performance parts and components, thus preferring only high-grade core materials.

Currently, Europe is the largest consumer of PMI foam. The U.S., Germany, China, France, and the U.K, are among the major global markets of PMI foam. The market for PMI foam in Asia-Pacific is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Growth of the aerospace & defense, wind energy, and sporting goods industries in the region has led to an increase in demand for PMI foam in the region.

The PMI foam market by application type is segmented into aerospace & defense, wind energy, sporting goods, and transportation among others.

Aerospace & Defense

The aerospace & defense industry has seen several changes in its components manufacturing process in the last few decades. Consumption of metal for manufacturing aircraft components has been replaced by various lightweight composites. Composites are important for this industry because they provide more structural strength than metallic alloys and are lightweight. This leads to improved fuel efficiency and performance of the aircraft.

Wind Energy

Wind energy is one of the world’s fastest-growing green energy sources. Recently, the blades for large wind turbines are being made from various low weight composites. These blades are made by combining core materials and glass-reinforced polyester/epoxy. PMI foam can be effectively used in both offshore and onshore turbine blades. Low density and closed cell properties of PMI foam minimize resin uptake and scales down resin absorption in comparison to balsa and other foam cores.

Sporting Goods

The properties offered by PMI foam, such as good thermoforming capacity and creep resistance make it suitable for use in many sporting goods such as skis, hockey sticks, snowboards, surfboards, and racing bicycle wheels. Using PMI foam in sporting goods make them lightweight and durable with high mechanical properties.

Transportation

The transportation industry faces many challenges such as, improving energy efficiency, reducing vehicle emissions, and increasing durability. It increasingly prefers composites to achieve improved performance, which includes high mechanical properties and low weight requirement. The performance of a vehicle depends on the weight of its components; the lighter the weight of the components, better is the performance. PMI foam that has high weight-reduction potential is used in both automotive and rail applications.

Critical questions the report answers:

• What are the upcoming hot bets for the PMI foam market?
• How market dynamics is with regards to development of new applications of PMI foam?

Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Baoding Meiwo Engineering Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (China), and Jiaxing Sky Composites Co., Ltd. (China) are the important active players in the PMI foam market. These companies have the highest strategic adoptions among other players in the global PMI foam market.

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