Teijin Frontier Co., Ltd., the Teijin Group's fibers and products converting company, announced that it has developed an eco-friendly staple polyester nanofiber that offers excellent performance to reinforce rubber uses in products including automotive tires, hoses and belts, said the company.
Teijin Frontier will start production in 2023 and expects sales to reach JPY one billion (nearly USD 8.2 million) by the fiscal year ending in March 2028. Teijin Frontier, guided by its THINK ECO environmental initiative, is striving to improve its environmental value, including by developing greener materials and products for applications ranging from clothing to industrial materials. The new staple nanofiber matches the company’s increasing emphasis on solutions that help to ease environmental burdens.
Teijin Frontier will continue to expand the types of polymers that can be used for the new staple nanofibers and continue to develop them for a wide range of rubber and resin products such as tires, hoses and belts. The company will also promote the development of products that utilize recycled raw materials with the aim of reducing the environmental burden.
The new staple nanofiber incorporates both polyester nanofiber and polyethylene polymers, which are combined in Teijin Frontier’s proprietary sea-island composite cross section. Different polymers are used for the "sea" and "island" parts to improve rubber reinforcement. A polyester nanofiber with a diameter of either 400nm or 700nm is used as the island as reinforcing material and the surrounding sea part is made with polyethylene, which mixes easily with rubber. Compared to conventional products, mixing takes place at the molecular level, which enables thousands of times more nanofibers to be evenly dispersed in the rubber for equal or better reinforcing but requiring a relatively small amount.
Staple fibers are used to strengthen rubber in products required to withstand repeated deformation and abrasion. Conventionally, this has been achieved by adjusting fiber strength and length, the latter generally to between several millimeters and several tens of millimeters. Increased length, however, leads to entanglement and twisting when the fiber is kneaded into the rubber, which reduces strength due to less efficient fiber dispersal. Meanwhile, growing environmental concerns are raising demands for reduced molecular weights and surface treatments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As per MRC, Teijin says that its subsidiary Teijin Carbon Europe (Heinsberg, Germany) has increased the production capacity of chopped carbon fiber by 40%. The company says that it is responding to the growing demand from European electronics manufacturers in recent years, as well as the current increase in demand for compounds for medical devices.
As MRC reported before, Teijin Ltd. is expanding its footprint in Europe with Teijin Automotive Center Europe GmbH, a new base in Wuppertal, Germany, that will house technical functions for the company’s automotive composites business.
Teijin is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of sustainable transportation, information and electronics, safety and protection, environment and energy, and healthcare. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers such as aramid, carbon fibers & composites, healthcare, films, resin & plastic processing, polyester fibers, products converting and IT. The group has some 150 companies and around 17,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide.
mrchub.com