Nestled in the Tennessee River Valley just 115 miles south of Nashville is Decatur, an important industrial hub in Alabama.  In the 1830's the city was chosen to become the eastern terminus of the first railroad line west of the Appalachian Mountains - a decision that played a major part in boosting the economy and increasing the population.  Today Decatur remains an important commercial center, set among water and wildlfe and with an unrivalled range of recreational faciltiies.

Decatur is also home to Hexcel's carbon fibers plant, located on a  28 acre facility overlooking the Tennessee River in Mallard Fox Creek Industrial Park.  The site buildings, which total 140,000 sq. ft. of space, house polymerization, dope prep, laboratories, tow fiber spin lines and warehousing .  A state-of the art R&T center was opened in 1998.

The Decatur plant operates a 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year continuous highly technical operation, manufacturing the precursor for cabon fiber, Polyacrylonitrile, or PAN for short.  Carbon fibers are woven into fabrics at our plants and then prepregged or the fibers can be supplied on spools to produce unidirectional tape.  End uses of our products include military and commercial aircraft, rocket motors, satellites and some recreational applications.