Tosoh currently operates four major research facilities. Three of these concentrate on our major business fields, while the Nanyo Technology Center takes responsibility for the process evolution of our production and engineering technologies. Nor are these research facilities sequestered in ivory towers producing the ideas of the future; they are integrated into the very fabric of the Tosoh Group. Three of the facilities are located on the sites of our Nanyo and Yokkaichi chemical complexes, pursuing their activities in close proximity to many of the processes concerned. The research staff work closely with our business divisions, and the constant flow of personnel between our research facilities and business offices builds bridges for close cooperation and a sharing of ideas between them.

Our R&D organization’s staff of 800 accounts for approximately 8% of our total employees. Sharing of knowledge between our business and research operations is not only essential to the R&D process, but it is also invaluable for the managers who make crucial decisions concerning the allocation of our R&D resources—the historical key to our many successes. We have, in fact, organized research theme commercialization planning committees comprising representatives of our business units, laboratories and corporate-level strategic planning divisions to determine the most promising strategies for our businesses and to assure that full consideration is given to the Group’s social responsibilities and environmental policies. The need to apply our annual R&D budget of over ¥12 billion efficiently and effectively requires the strictest focus on real-world opportunities.

Collaboration is the key to maximizing our resources and creating synergies among the various components of our large organization. One recent example comes from the fast-moving biotechnology field, in which our Tokyo Research Center and Nanyo Technology Center have joined forces to make our toyopearl® line of separation media for bio-pharmaceutical purification even better. The expanding use of biotechnology to synthesize pharmaceuticals has created a need for methods of extracting and refining the active ingredients quickly and inexpensively. The collaborative efforts of these two research facilities have produced a technology that employs microreactors to create homogenously sized particles in the separation gel and achieves an extremely high recovery rate for a variety of compounds compared with other separation methods. Improvements like this have helped toyopearl® maintain its position as one of the leading bio-separation gels in the global marketplace.

The Nanyo Technology Center is consistently called upon to assist the Group in launching new products by developing scaled-up technologies and industrial manufacturing technologies as well as by providing solutions to challenges involving practical implementation, such as environmental technologies to deal with issues related to gas emissions or wastewater. Among its many notable recent successes, Tosoh has developed a manufacturing technology for high-quality, fault-free quartzware to be used as a lens substrate in ArF steppers designed for the most advanced semiconductor devices. Tosoh has also improved its production technologies for indium tin oxide (ito) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (zao) targets in order to reduce costs and boost their market competitiveness.

TOSOH’S R&D CENTERS

Yokkaichi Research Laboratory
The Yokkaichi Research Laboratory conducts advanced R&D in the petrochemical field with a focus on basic research on catalysts, polymerization, material design and polymer.

Achievements and products:

New polyethylene grades (medical high-purity plastics, laminates), hot melt adhesives (embossed carrier tape for IC chips, food packaging containers), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resins (automotive parts specially for hybrids)

Tokyo Research Center

Operating on the leading edge of technological and product development, the Tokyo Research Center is creating the products of the future in the electronics, new ceramics and biotechnology fields.

Achievements and products:

Sputtering targets, fabricated ceramics, silica glass, analytical and diagnostic systems, in vitro diagnostic agents

Nanyo Research Laboratory
The Nanyo Research Laboratory with its primary focus on specialty materials engages in R&D centered on products and technologies for the environmental and energy fields as well as on inorganic, organic and elastomeric materials.

Achievements and products:

Synthetic zeolites, zirconia powders, energy saving cathodes for NaCl electrolysis, heavy metal chelating agents, environmental catalysts, polyurethane foaming amine catalysts, chlorosulphonated polyethylene, low TVOC polyvinyl chloride paste, chromatographic resins for antibody purification, functional polymers and intermediates for CCD’s

Nanyo Technology Center
The production technology and engineering base for the Tosoh Group as a whole, the Nanyo Technology Center improves existing processes, provides engineering expertise for new plants and transforms ideas from other Tosoh laboratories into commercial technologies and products.