TOKYO, October 12, 2006 _Ube Industries, Ltd. today announced it will commercialize the company's proprietary colored recycled resin, to be sold under the brand name Ube Composite®. The colored recycled resin uses proprietary technology originally developed by Ube Industries in 2003. It enables the recycling of waste plastic that has been surface painted or colored with dyes and pigments, to produce a recolored resin with an excellent surface appearance. The commercialization of Ube Composite® builds on the company's efforts to develop a market for the technology. It also coincides with recent plans by consumer electronics manufacturers and automakers to adopt the technology in their products.
Plastics are normally colored with dyes or pigments in the forming process, or painted for supply to the market. However, recycled plastic usually produces a resin that has mixed colors or incorporates surface paint or other foreign particles. These characteristics generally mean that recycled resins must be colored black. The color limitation means that a large proportion of waste plastic is left unrecycled, resulting in it being processed as industrial waste.
Ube Industries relied on its extensive expertise in compound coloration technology to develop Ube Composite®. The technology uses highly opaque pigments, so that waste plastic with a mixture of colors can be re-colored to a desired color. It also incorporates proprietary technology developed by Ube Industries to prevent paint and other foreign particles from being visible. The company has already installed compact recycling compound facilities at its Sakai Plant in Osaka, Japan, with a processing capacity of 1,600 tons. Ube Industries has also been working with customers to develop a market for the technology.
Ube Composite® technology enables the production of recolored recycled resins with a sealed surface, which offers a superior surface appearance for textured surfaces frequently employed in molded products. It also provides an excellent surface appearance for molded products with non-textured surfaces, provided that the foreign particle size is small.
Ube Industries has already been working with plastics users to implement joint evaluations of the colored recycled resins, as well as providing them with samples tailored to their needs. These users include consumer electronics manufacturers and automakers. As a result of the company's efforts, several manufacturers have decided to incorporate the technology into their products. Ube Industries anticipates that Ube Composite® will produce annuals sales of 1.5 billion yen by 2011.
Concrete applications for the technology include recycled resins processed from waste consumer electronics of various colors. The recycled resin will be used for visible parts of refrigerators and washer/dryer units. It will also be used to produce recycled resins processed from recycled automotive bumpers. After surface sealing, the recycled resin will be used in center consoles for automotive interiors.
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| Plastic chips recycled from automotive bumpers | Automotive center console made from recycled plastic chips (originally from bumpers) |
