From bras to cars: Polyurethanes in Japan

The polyurethane technology behind one of the world’s most popular brassieres inspired an award-winning sports shoe and a PU foam allergy mask innovation. Both were among the highlights of the International PU Forum 2015. Jane Denny reports.

The polyurethane technology that bought a soft feel and seamless surfaces to the brassiere at the turn of this century has been incorporated into an innovative sports shoe designed to increase breathability, flexibility and energy return in athletic footwear.

Speaking to delegates at the International PU Forum about his firm’s polyurethane moulded bra cup, Regina Miracle’s chairman and md Yy Hung said the product is now “the most popular style in the bra market.”

His firm was the world’s first to invest in 3-D scanning technology, a move that pioneered precision in bra manufacturing, he said.

“In 2009, Dream Angel by Victoria’s Secret was introduced to the market. The soft memory foam push up bra gave the customer a natural lifting effect. After that, the firm, introduced the Body by Victoria collection in 2013. The light all-over memory foam bra cup matched with soft fabric made it a comfortable daily bra with soft hand feel,” said Hung.

Hong Kong-based Regina Miracle - the manufacturer of Victoria Secret’s T shirt bra - teamed up with sports apparel brand Under Armour to create a sports shoe, as Urethanes Technology International magazine reported in its June/July edition shoe feature.

Speaking of the mould technology used in the bra’s manufacture, Hung told the PU International Forum that the T shirt bra already makes up 80% of the bras in the intimate apparel market.

He said the product has been a bestseller since its invention and introduction to the market.

The shoe, created in a collaboration between Regina Miracle and Maryland, US-based Under Armour, draws on the PU technology and innovation used in the T-Shirt Bra and sports bras manufactured by Regina Miracle.

“The inclusion of this technology into sports shoes is a gamer-changer,” Hung told the conference.

Under Armour’s Speedform sports shoe won a German Red Dot award for product design in 2014, Hung said.

Hung credited Inoac’s “passion and innovative spirit” and said the relationship had created many possibilities for Regina Miracle. In future, he said, he envisaged moving further into the sports sector with flexible, breathable PU materials that will allow athletes the greatest freedom to perform.

“Foam structure plays an important role in the key function of breathability, flexibility and support. Its cooling and thermal functions allow athletes to perform their best.

“Foam moulding technique allows freedom of movement, reduces restriction and minimises abrasion,” he said.

Inoac’s R&D arm also developed a material that is set to revolutionise the allergy mask market. Masks are particularly popular in Asia and Japan, a country in which 60 different types of pollen are listed by the Weather Association. The country’s Yano Research Institute has estimated that Japan’s mask market could be worth YEN26bn ($210,000) annually.

Del Felter, Inoac’s senior vp industrial consumer and medical group, said the company was preparing to push the new product globally this year. Aside from providing an allergy barrier, some believe they can protect from airborne threats in medical environments.

The product’s ability to protect wearers from atmospheric particles relies on the filtration properties the company has engineered for different grade foams.

Fuminorio Horio, assistant director of Inoac’s Anjo-based polyurethane foam technical division, outlined the benefits of the firm’s Moltofilter foams. Moltofilter cell sizes range from around 350um to 4mm.  Inoac's range also includes a finer cell foam it calls MAPS - which stands for magical porous structures. Inoac foams are used in acoustic, damping and filtration applications.

Aside from this, consumer-led company Inoac has developed a concept pillow for music lovers. The innovation includes a two-speaker system that emits sound waves through the pillow’s soft foam cushioning. The innovation draws on the firm’s expertise in acoustic and comfort foam production.

On the sidelines of the event, Horio told Urethanes Technology International magazine that his country’s love for its traditional bedding solution, the futon, had closed off the main market for PU foam there.

“Japan is not a country in which the mattress industry thrives,” he said. “That’s a factor that constantly drove the company in its R&D efforts – to come up with new uses for foam and new products.

“There’s a need to find alternative applications for the extensive grades Inoac can produce,” he said.

However, should Japan’s passion for its traditional futon bedding ever wane, Inoac is well-placed to serve the market but it’s not regarded as a potentially big one for the company, Horio said. “That is why there is such a need for innovation with our materials.”

Until and if the country embraces memory foam-aided sleep, energy-efficiency in buildings remains a key area of innovation and interest for the firm, said Horio. To serve this growing market Inoac has developed high fire-resistant insulation product which it says will save YEN1.5m compared with having no insulation over a ten year period, Horio said.

Automotive

During his presentation, Horio also showcased Inoac’s automotive damping foam technology. He told delegates how his firm had developed a flame resistant foam.

Aimed at the auto market, it is resistant to temperatures over 150^oC but also weighs up to 20% lighter than other materials currently used in automotive engine hood-lining, Horio said.

Meanwhile, in his presentation, Mitsui Chemicals’ Yasuhiro Matsuzaka told delegates that Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development estimations that a barrel of oil will cost $270 by 2020 is a massive drive for the Japanese PU industry as alternative feedstocks are sought to stem the use of fossil fuels.

He said the figures made the quest for alternatives to fossil fuel raw materials vital.

Matsuzaka added that global greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities have grown. The increase from 1970 to 2004 has been at 70%. Not only that, he said, BP has said the world’s oil reserves could run dry in 60 to 70 years.

“We need the cooperation of our customers to so we can continue with our efforts towards bio-sustainability,” he said.

He said auto models Prius, Sai and Lexus were already using bio-based polyurethane in their vehicles.

He also told the forum that a collaboration between Mitsui, Toyota Motors and Toyota Boshuko had led to the development of a PU system with a bio content of 15%.

Construction

Kouichi Shibata, an engineer at Nippon Steel & Sumikin Coated Sheet Corporation, outlined the benefits of his firm’s polyurethane foam sandwich panel in earthquake-proofing renovations.

As part of his presentation on the application of polyurethane foam sandwich panels to earthquake-proof renovation and bridges, Shibata showed delegates a photograph of two buildings that had been situated side by side during the country’s 1995 earthquake, Hanshin Awaji. The product’s ability to withstand destruction is clear, he said, pointing out that the building behind the collapsed one had been made with Nippon sandwich panels.

Nearly 6,500 were killed when the Hanshin Awaji earthquake struck in 1995 and its cost to the Japanese economy was estimated at more than $100bn. It was not Japan’s worst 20th century natural disaster, an earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, eastern Japan, in 2011 was even more powerful.

A Japanese police agency report said in the 2011 disaster more than 127,000 buildings totally collapsed, over 272,000 more buildings half collapsed and nearly 750,000 buildings were partially damaged following the disaster.

According to Shibata, test work carried out by Japan’s General Building Research Corporation found that the “metal sandwich panel has great earthquake-proof performance.”

Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) and community sustainability 

Another area where polyurethane is helping to improve buildings was outlined by BMS in this housing and community resource project. The project, which is being considered by residents of the town of Kada in Wakayama, Japan, will rely on polyurethane innovation for its energy efficiency.

With a YEN10m grant from the Japanese government, BMS put together 150 proposals for developing the seaside community of 3,200 people so that it becomes more sustainable. BMS’s polyurethane insulation raw materials form a key aspect of the plans for the new buildings.

The project is part of EcoCommercial Building, a multidisciplinary global resource for the planning, design, integration and construction of low-impact building. The project’s insulation concept is based on polyurethane raw materials from BMS.

Hiroshi Ikuta, who heads the BMS Innovation Center Amagasaki, told delegates Kada residents had been working in partnership with BMS. They hope to establish a community facilities that would stem the flow of people out of the area. He said the injection of BMS innovation into the community would boost communities and encourage people to build a life there.

Japan and Asia’s PU market

Polyurethane foam production has waned in Japan over the first months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, according to the country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Monthly PU foam production figures show a slight recovery in April, compared to February and March, month that saw the industry running at around 81% of the production volume it reported during the same months in 2014.

The polyurethane foam industry produced 18% less flexible and rigid foam in the first four months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.

Overall, the annual PU production figures for Japanese polyurethane foam production show a decline from a peak of 297kT of production in 1997 to around 249kT in 2006, a slide in 2007 to 221kT and a dip to 163kt in 2008 as well as a patchy recovery to around 198kT (40% below the 1997 peak) in 2014.

Conversely, demand for PU in India, as outlined by the secretary of the Indian

Polyurethane Association Murali Mohan and reported in Urethane Technology International magazine’s June/July footwear feature, is growing.

UK-based research firm IAL Consultants has forecast India's that production of PU products will amount to 729kT, whether foamed or non-foamed, in 2016.

Over in China, according to Zhu Changchun, general secretary of China Polyurethane Industry Association, the country’s output of PU products exceeded 9.6m tonnes in 2014 – a 10% increase on 2013, he said.

In his paper, Development situation of polyurethane industry in China, Changchun said that in 2007 the country’s capacity represented 7% of the global capacity.

In 2014, he said, that percentage was over 30% - a fourfold increase.

Its MDI production rate was about 90% he said and that, with Wanhua producing 1.8m tonnes/year, it had overtaken BASF and Bayer. Changchun also said global consumption ratios stood at 40% for Asia, compared to 35% Western Europe and North America 20%.

Inoac

It was Inoac International’s ceo Soichi Inoue who first introduced polyurethane to Japan in 1954. With around 1,500 employees, in 2013 the company registered sales of YEN162,900m ($1.3bn). Polyurethane products make up roughly a quarter of that total.

Auto, technology, construction and consumer are Inoac’s key markets. The firm manufactures seating systems, protective materials for technological products like phones and laptops as well furniture and consumer goods.

Inoac’s headquarters is in Nagoya, capital of Japan’s Aichi Prefecture and located around 220km south west of Tokyo. The company has six plants in Japan.

Its Yana plant is the biggest for flexible slabstock polyurethane foam in the country. The facility includes the full sequence of the production process from foaming to fabrication.

Inoac’s Yana plant has two foaming lines – the first built in 1993 and the second in 2005. It is 70m from mixing head to cutting. The longest length is 63m.

The machine, which is the older of Inoac’s two at the site, produces 700 tonnes of flexible foam every month said Yana plant manager Masami Ogawa. By producing 15 blocks a day, its output is 900m per day.

The site is 98,000m2 and the plants occupy 33,000m². It employs 230 people. The produce is continuous foam, cut down to 60m. Inoac produces both foam roll and foam block at a rate of 100T/month.

The maximum number of blocks the machine can produce in a day is 35, with the average being 15 to 20. It operates five days a week. According to Ogawa, 30% of the output is special grade foam, the remainder is general grade foam.

Over 100 different types of foam are produced at the site and it uses a CO₂ foaming system and produces both polyester and polyether-based foams.

The foam will go into auto seating products said Ogawa. According to him, 55% of Inoac’s market is auto and 15% furniture. Inoac purchased German furniture brand Hukla, so now manufactures a range of goods and exports direct to the consumer.

The remaining 30% of its market comprises industrial processing. According to Ogawa, 2,300 short blocks are reticulated per month.

Cutting at the site is done on one of four slicing machines. They cut sheets ranging from 5mm to 25mm at a rate of 200 sheets per day.

About the event

The two-day event in the Japanese capital of Tokyo attracted over 300 delegates in May.

The conference, which is only the third such event, was organised by the International PU Forum Committee in partnership with the International Polyurethane Technology Foundation. It was held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of PU’s introduction to Japan.

Companies including BASF and BMS gave presentations on topics ranging from bio-polyurethanes to spray polyurethane foam market development.