Kuraray Co., Ltd. – Chemicals, fibers and high performance material manufacturer

Founded in 1926, Kuraray Co., Ltd. is a world leader in specialty chemicals, polymers, fibers and textiles. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Kuraray has over 7,000 employees worldwide. The company started business for the purpose of commercializing synthetic rayon, which was cutting edge technology at the time. In 1950, as Japan’s first domestic producer of synthetic fiber based on original Japanese technologies, Kuraray became a world leader in the commercialization of PVA (poval) fiber under the KURALON brand, ushering in Japan’s pioneering era in the chemical synthetic fiber industry.

Products

• Plastics
  Kuraray’s pioneering business in this field includes the functional resin Poval, Poval film used as a base film for the polarized film needed in LCD,and PVB resins, EVAL that is able to block almost all gas including oxygen, and methacrylic resin with excellent transparency and durability.

• Chemicals, elastomers and rubber
  Kuraray’s products in this area include SEPTON, a thermoplastic elastomer with elasticity similar to rubber in a broad range of temperatures, vibration suppression HYBRAR and chemical products (pharmaceuticals, agrochemical intermediates, industrial cleaners, etc.) using isoprene as a starting material.

• Fabric, manmade leather, nonwoven fabric, hook and loop fasteners
  Kuraray was founded to industrialize rayon, a synthetic silk, and succeeded in commercializing vinylon, the first synthetic fiber using domestic technology, in addition to commercializing the pioneering synthetic leather CLARINO. The company has also delivered SOPHISTA, a functional polyester with high added value that is produced using Kuraray’s proprietary polymers. Furthermore, Kuraray also manufactures KURAFLEX, a nonwoven fabric with a wide range of variations, and the hook and loop fastener MAGIC TAPE, a product developed based on the wonders of nature.

• Medical, Eco-Friendly
  In the medical business, Kuraray Noritake Dental Inc. draws on Kuraray’s high polymer chemistry technology to develop and manufacture organic dental materials and on Noritake’s ceramics technology to create inorganic dental materials and sells these materials worldwide. In environment-related businesses, Kuraray provides comprehensive water treatment solutions that utilize water treatment membranes and wastewater treatment PVA gel. Furthermore, Carbon Materials Division pursues businesses that contribute to the improvement of the environment through such products as activated carbon, a material used to absorb impurities from both gases and liquids.

• New Business Development
  For the creation of the New Business, we apply our special micro-molding technology to several components. At the present time, we focus on the parts for automobile, cell culture plate , optical film for amusement , and light guide plate for LED. And also, our original liquid crystalline polymer film has very high frequency to apply for electronic devices. Now its main uses are high-speed signal transmission flexible printed circuit boards, and are under expansion to multilayer printed circuit boards.

• Engineering
  Kuraray Engineering performs design, construction, and maintenance of manufacturing facilities in fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food processing, and electronics materials plants.