KURARAY CO.LTD

Product brochure, Kuraray Co. Ltd., Okayama City, Japan, 1988. 

Significant improvement in the fiber stmctuie of leather is finally achieved by using microfibers as fine as 0.001—0.0001 tex (0.01—0.001 den). With this microfiber, a man-made grain leather Sofrina (Kuraray Co., Ltd.) with a thin surface layer (Fig. 7), and a man-made suede Suedemark (Kuraray Co., Ltd.) with a fine nap (Fig. 8) were first developed for clothing, and have expanded their uses. Ultrasuede (Toray Industries, Inc.) also uses microfibers with a rather thick fineness of 0.01 tex (0.1 den). Contemporary (1995) man-made leathers employ microfibers of not mote than 0.03 tex (0.3 den) to obtain excellent properties and appearance resembling leather. 

Y. Sonobe, private communication, Clariao Division, Kuraray Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan, Sept. 30, 1993. 

Currentiy, i7j -l,4-polyisoprene is manufactured in the United States only by The Goodyear Tire Rubber Co. at Beaumont, Texas. In Western Europe, only the Shell Nederland Chemie (Royal Dutch/SheU Group) commercially produces i7j -l,4-polyisoprene in Japan, the producers are Japan Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd. and Nippon Zeon Co., Ltd. The sole world producer of /n j -l,4-polyisoprene is Kuraray Co., Ltd. in Japan. 

In 1989, the estimated United States consumption of synthetic polyisoprene was 51,000 metric tons, and of natural mbber 890,000 metric tons (84). The price for synthetic i7j -l,4-polyisoprene, namely, Natsyn 2200, Natsyn 2205, or Natsyn 2210 in the United States in August, 1992, was 1.98/kg in carload or tmckload quantities fob at Beaumont, Texas (87). The price of synthetic /n j -l,4-polyisoprene from Kuraray Co., Ltd. in the United States was 21.80/kg in 545-kglots (88). 

T. Kawahara and T. Tuboi, Method for producing saponified ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, US Patent 7 041 731, assigned to Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Kurashiki, JP), May 9, 2006. 

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