Japanese companies are known to be extremely innovative! Amongst them, UBE Exsymo, a subsidiary of UBE Industries, is developing advanced materials to solve their customers’ needs.
UBE Exsymo develops its expertise in manufacturing, processing and selling synthetic resin products since 1966. The company counts 500 employees in total divided between two R&D laboratories (in Japan) and three factories (two in Japan and one in China) and reaches an annual sale of roughly US$120 million/year.
Innovation is at the heart of UBE Exsymo’s technology to contribute in solving the challenges their customer will face. Masahiko Yokokita, New Business Development Manager at UBE Exsymo, shared that their last focus is the mobility industry, let's get their insight on this topic and on their strategy in general from:
Ube Exsymo is serving a diverse range of applications from spacers for information materials to packaging, etc. Can you elaborate on your offer?
Masahiko Yokokita: We are producing unique functional materials from our five core technologies, which are:
- Extrusion Molding
- Spinning and Drawing
- Coating and Pultrusion
- Sol-gel Method and
- Reel to Reel Laminating Process
We offer a portfolio of sixteen products for a various range of applications from:
- Information
- Telecommunications
- Daily consumer goods
- Automotive and
- Agriculture to fishery
We have a high production rate (20,000 tons/year of PP and PE products) and we benefit from a wide distribution network, partly thanks to UBE own network. We aim at providing innovative materials for the next generation.
In Plastic processing industry, new mobility challenges are the rage. What is Ube position to capture this new demand and potential growth?
Masahiko Yokokita: We have different solutions to meet the upcoming mobility challenges for various applications like HIPRESICA™ which is a monodisperse silica particle to be used for precision gap spacers in any display such as LCD or our FRP (fiber-reinforced plastic) pipe which is tough and durable with excellent elastic recovery.
Our last innovation,
SIMTEX™, is a
composite filament (100% polyolefin) composed by a PP fiber core and a PE or PP shell and shows excellent features to be a material for the next generation of vehicles. It is possible to produce a fiber-reinforced plastic part of any three-dimensional shape by simply processing the
SIMTEX™ composite filament into a fabric and then thermoforming it. You end up with a thermoplastic FRP with the required design.
We consider
SIMTEX™ provides the requirements for
highly demanding applications such as:
- Electric vehicles,
- Future automobiles,
- Commuters, etc.
Indeed,
SIMTEX™ is a lightweight material and has superior strength and high modulus of elasticity compared to ordinary PP resin molded parts. It also provides excellent
impact resistance and we truly believe that it can greatly contribute to weight reduction of future cars.
Currently, the main applications that can benefit from
SIMTEX™ composite filament are:
- Interior and exterior of automobiles
- Luggage case and
- Some home appliances
SIMTEX™ composite filaments are adopted as processed parts by a Japanese leading consumer’s appliances manufacturer and the project is a success as results are expanding.
Painted Part with SIMTEX™Some of these innovations are game changers but require the converters and producer to review their production process. How do you cope with this strong entry barrier?
Masahiko Yokokita: When supplying
SIMTEX™, UEXC can dispatch engineers to customers for
technical support from overseas. We can benefit from UBE Industries technical experts as well (based in Europe, USA, Shanghai and Taiwan).
SIMTEX™ is available as a
filament or a ready-to-use fabric but for preliminary evaluation by prospect, we can also offer press sheets and pressed samples as molding examples. Once the sample is sent, technical calls can be organized to provide the suitable support.
Visit:
http://www.ube-exsymo.co.jp/en/technology/core.html