Japan carbon fiber technology

Toray Industries Inc., Tokyo, Japan—the world s largest producer of PAN based carbon fibers and the undisputed leader in modem carbon fiber technology. Production of Torayca T300 carbon fiber started in 1978. Cross licensed technology to Union Carbide in the USA in 1978, and carbon fiber production in 1984. Formed a joint company (Soficar) with Elf Acquitaine Pechiney in France and assumed marginal control (70%) in 1989, producing fiber at Abidos. 

Other companies which have developed carbon fibers from mesophase pitch include Exxon Enterprises (who sold their carbon fiber technology to DuPont) and many Japanese companies. The Exxon work was based on extensive research at Rennselaer Polytechnic institute by Riggs and Diefendorf [32]. No commercial product, other than Union Carbide s, has appeared on the market except in sample quantities. However, based on technology developed by the Government industrial Research Institute, Kyushu, Japan, fourteen Japanese companies are trying to develop products of similar nature [331. 

J. Schultz, L. Lavielle and H. Simon, Surface and Adhesion Properties of Carbon Fibres, Proc. Int. Symp. on the Science and New Applications of Carbon Fibers 84, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. 1984. p. 125. 

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