Feb 7 2014
Mitsui Chemicals (President & CEO: Toshikazu Tanaka) announced that the Company will take its competitive edge in its world top share ophthalmic lens monomers and coatings & engineering materials to the next level by constructing the world’s first large scale plant for XDI within its Omuta Works (Kyushu, Japan). This new development is one of several measures the Company has undertaken in recent years to restructure its business and product portfolio.
Mitsui Chemicals is the world top share opthalmic lens monomers supplier (Photo: Business Wire)
[Overview]
1. Product: XDI (xylylene diisocyanate)
2. Location: Omuta Works (Omuta City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan)
3. Capacity: 5,000 tons/year
4. Commercial operation: October 2015 (tentative)
XDI is a functional material made with proprietary technology and offered only by the Mitsui Chemicals Group. Extensively used in coatings & engineering materials, it is widely used in products requiring safety and durability such as adhesives for food packaging, in special inks and coating materials such as those used in solar cells and smartphones, and in high durability building sealants and highly safe microcapsules. Additional demand is also expected by product shifts from different materials.
XDI is also used in the Group’s world leading high refractive index ophthalmic lens monomers, sold under the brand name MRTM Lens, which allow processing and design freedom, and have superior durability, clarity, impact resistance, and thinness. Mitsui Chemicals revolutionized the global standard for eyewear with its “thin, light, and impact resistant lens material”.
“The new state-of-the-art XDI plant will not only enable Mitsui Chemicals to meet expanding demands for specialty coatings & engineering materials, but will also provide solutions to QOL needs for improved and more comfortable eyewear around the world,” says Satoshi Tsuruda, General Manager of Health Care Materials Division at Mitsui Chemicals.
With the establishment of its new XDI plant, Mitsui Chemicals will aggressively expand its global business and strengthen its world class competitive position for its ophthalmic lens monomers operations and coatings & engineering materials operations.