Talon Composites and Thresher Industries Launch Joint Effort to Begin Distribution and Manufacture of Cast Grades Made from Proprietary Talon Composites Alloys

LOS ANGELES--Jan. 2, 20055, 2005--Thresher Industries LLC, a California-based producer of high-quality aluminum castings, announced today the successful casting of an automotive aftermarket "Hemi" engine block using proprietary materials developed and manufactured by Talon Composites LLC, a leading provider of high-performance advanced metal matrix materials.

Thresher Industries is proud to employ Talon Composites materials and believes the use of these materials will allow for the development and manufacture of unique cast grades of high-strength alloys that Thresher will manufacture and market. Thresher President Tom Flessner explained: "The Talon Composites materials have proven excellent to cast with in all of our tests. We have been successful in filling, melting and handling the materials and to date, we have cast parts as small as one-half pound and as large as the full engine block. At Thresher we subjected the finished material to multiple tests, including dye penetration inspection and X-Ray examination of finished blocks, and it is clear that the issues normally associated with metal matrix materials are not present here. We at Thresher are excited about the opportunity to use products designed and manufactured by Talon Composites."

Talon President Robin Carden remarked: "Our material enables our partners to realize clear advantages over conventional aluminum alloys, including excellent thermal conductivity, stiffness and ease of machining. The Talon team looks forward to building our relationship with Tom Flessner and Thresher Industries in the coming years."

Thresher Industries will cast the material at its ISO- and QS9000-compliant facility in Lemoore, Calif. Thresher's Flessner added that: "The Talon Composites materials are competitively priced and have distinct advantages in casting. We now have the ability to begin manufacturing, machining and assisting other foundries in the use of this incredible material."

About Talon Composites

Talon Composites materials are used in a wide variety of homeland security applications, high-end automotive manufacturing, as well as in high-performance sporting goods. In particular, Talon Composites produces and markets a range of high-performance advanced metal matrix material ("MMC") products utilizing Talon's proprietary technology under the name of Talbor(R), as well as Boralyn(R), a neutron-absorbing material that contains Cogema Logistics technology. These particular MMCs consist of aluminum and boron carbide and are supplied to the nuclear waste and nuclear transportation industries for neutron-absorption applications. Talon's proprietary processes enable the boron carbide particulates to be dispersed evenly throughout the composite, making it especially suitable to the nuclear industry. The high strength of the fine grain structure of Talbor(R) substantially boosts performance in wet and dry nuclear storage and transportation applications.