DIC Milestones

Popular and consumer culture evolved swiftly in Japan following the Russo-Japanese War with the rapid modernization of daily life. Underscored by the launch of numerous magazines devoted to the arts and a boom in the popularity of picture postcards, as well as by rising demand for attractive packaging for cosmetics and food products, a revitalized cultural scene had a direct and positive impact on demand for printing services, spurring the growth of Japan's printing industry. Recognizing the potential of this trend, Kijuro Kawamura resolved to go into business as a manufacturer of printing inks and established Kawamura Ink Manufactory.

Kawamura set up a plant in Tokyo, installing three gas engine–powered 8x12-inch roll mills, and launched operations with just three employees, commissioning a traveling salesman to handle marketing. The new company began by manufacturing white, blue, yellow and red inks for woodblock, lithographic and typographic printing, all of which were in particularly high demand, purchasing raw materials (pigments and varnishes) and selling milled inks. Sales were brisk from the word go, ensuring the Company got off to a smooth start.

Kawamura Kijuro Shoten recognized early on that access to high-quality domestically produced organic pigments was essential to its ability to ensure a stable supply of beautifully colored, easy-to-use offset printing inks. Prompted by the depletion of pigment supplies during World War I, as well as a sharp rise in market prices, the Japanese government offered subsidies for efforts in the area of synthetic chemistry. However, such subsidies were applied primarily to R&D and production of textile dyes and did not extend as far as organic pigments, forcing the Company to begin considering the idea of in-house production.

Having already succeeded in developing inorganic pigments and certain monoazo organic pigments, Kawamura Kijuro Shoten applied its technological prowess to R&D aimed at enabling it to produce its own supply of organic pigments. After considerable trial and error, the Company perfected a method for producing Lake Red D and other organic pigments by chemically manipulating beta-naphthol and other coal tar intermediates, and in 1925 commenced full-scale production.
With this achievement, the Company graduated from its role as a processor to being a full-fledged producer of printing inks. This also marked its first step toward becoming a manufacturer of fine chemicals.

In February 1952, Dainippon Printing Ink Manufacturing Co., Ltd., established Japan Reichhold Chemicals Inc. (JRC) in a joint venture with Reichhold Chemicals Inc. of the United States.

By this time, applications for synthetic resins had expanded beyond inks and paints to include a diverse range of products, including adhesives, building materials, paper processing agents, reinforced plastics and textile finishing agents. The establishment of JRC was thus a value-adding move for the Company. JRC was the second example of a joint venture between a local company and an overseas partner in the history of the Japanese chemicals industry. JRC also pointed to the Company's ability to accurately predict business trends and choose the optimum time to undertake the establishment of joint ventures.

Having provided printers with free print samples for 338 colors for many years and recognizing the usefulness of these samples in selecting colors, in July 1968 Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Incorporated (DIC), as the Company was now called, commenced sales of the DIC Color Guide, its first full-scale color sample book, comprising 641 color chips and a mixing chart.

Under the direction of Ikko Tanaka, Tadahito Nadamoto and Mitsuo Katsui—luminaries in the field of graphic design in Japan at the time, 641 basic colors were chosen from among 3,000 candidate colors and presented in attractive, inspiring combinations, rather than simply in lists.
The color chips in the DIC Color Guide, each of which bears the DIC name, would play an important role in subsequent years in bolstering recognition of DIC's printing inks business and of its position as a leading name in the field of color engineering.

The properties of epoxy resins, including excellent chemical resistance, adhesion and electric non-conductance, make them particularly suitable for such applications as molding materials, adhesives and coatings. At this time, they were also becoming increasingly important in such cutting-edge areas as integrated circuits and computers. With leading companies in Europe and the Americas having secured a monopoly on patents related to the production and use of epoxy resins formed using propylene as a starting material, potential new market entrants faced considerable obstacles. DIC responded by undertaking to develop an original method. These efforts led to the establishment in 1968 of a highly innovative process that used butane-butylene (B-B) fractions—byproducts of the cracking and conversion of naphtha into ethylene—as a starting material. Groundbreaking because it facilitated the effective use of petroleum fractions, as well as because it was developed entirely in Japan, the new technology was widely reported in the press, creating quite a sensation. The completion of a newly built plant in 1971 paved the way for DIC to launch production of epoxy resins.

With conventional printing inks, drying and adhesion is a time-consuming process that requires ink components to penetrate through to the print substrate and cure by way of a chemical reaction from exposure to oxygen in the atmosphere. As a consequence, such inks are not suited to printing on plastic sheets, metal foils and other such substrates made from impermeable materials. With heatset inks, there is the additional risk of substrate deterioration and deformation during the drying process.

In 1970, DIC developed Daicure, a UV-curable ink containing a highly sensitive resin photoinitiator, facilitating instantaneous curing and setting with the application of UV light. In addition to broadening the range of substrates suitable for printing, Daicure promised to improve productivity and print quality, among others. Since it contained no solvents, the new ink also attracted attention for its environmental benefits.
A public demonstration of Daicure was carried out shortly after its development was announced. Here, the new ink garnered high marks from the approximately 130 printing companies from across Japan in attendance.

In December 1986, DIC acquired the graphic arts materials division of Sun Chemical Corporation, a leading U.S. chemicals firm, with which it had enjoyed a cooperative business relationship since 1954. At the time, the division, which had reported fiscal 1985 sales of approximately $560 million—accounting for 63% of Sun Chemical's net sales for the year—and operating income of about $40 million, qualified as the largest manufacturer of printing inks and organic pigments in the United States, in terms of both business scale and performance.

With the acquisition, DIC took over the Sun Chemical company name, head office and central R&D laboratory, as well as the graphic materials division's 13 production and sales facilities and 3,800 employees in the United States and overseas. This transformed DIC into the world's top manufacturer of printing inks, with a global market share of 13%, and the third-largest manufacturer of organic pigments. These two businesses, combined with its printing supplies business, meant that DIC was now the world's largest manufacturer of graphic arts materials.

Prompted by the increasing awareness of environmental concerns, manufacturers of home electronics appliances and office automation (OA) equipment in the late 1990s had begun to incorporate the concept of recyclability into product design by, for example, choosing to use recoverable plastics. However, detaching the industrial adhesive tapes used to affix parts for disassembly and recycling required considerable effort and cost. Finding ways to reduce both was thus a key challenge for manufacturers.

In 1997, DIC introduced a double-coated industrial adhesive tape (#8800CH) made with newly developed acrylic adhesive and a tensile strength–boosting nonwoven fabric substrate that delivered both reliable adhesion during use and easy peel-off for disassembly—seemingly incompatible performance features.
This new product quickly attracted the attention of home electronics appliances manufacturers struggling to ensure compliance in advance of the enactment of Japan's upcoming Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances. Orders for the new industrial adhesive tape mounted quickly as one manufacturer after another elected to adopt the new adhesive tape.

With awareness of environmental issues on the rise, ink manufacturers had been vying for some time to develop environment-friendly printing inks made with vegetable oils instead of petroleum-based solvents. While these efforts had yielded products with a solvent content as low as 10%, instability and a marked slowdown in drying speed continued to prevent the absolute elimination of solvents in favor of vegetable oil.

In 1999 DIC succeeded in developing New Champion Naturalith 100, a 100% vegetable oil–based ink. To facilitate this achievement, DIC increased the molecular weight and modified the molecular structure of the synthetic resins it used, an approach that enabled the elimination of solvents without compromising drying speed, thereby eradicating volatile organic compound (VOC) content except for those contained in auxiliary agents—less than 1% of total volume.
New Champion Naturalith 100 earned DIC an Award of Excellence and a Nikkei Industrial Daily Award in the 1999 Nikkei Superior Products and Services Award, sponsored by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc., publisher of Japan's leading financial and business dailies. This was the first time either award had been given to a company in the inks industry.

Established on February 15, 1908, as a manufacturer of printing inks, DIC is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. Over the past 100 years, DIC has evolved into a leading manufacturer of fine chemicals with operations that include printing inks, organic pigments, synthetic resins, high-performance products, and electronics and information materials. Early to establish operations overseas, DIC has also grown into a multinational corporate group comprising more than 200 companies in approximately 60 countries.

Taking advantage of the opportunity provided by its centennial anniversary, DIC has refocused its attention on accelerating growth by strengthening its Group capabilities and global business development, restructuring its business portfolio and reforming its corporate structure. Accordingly, with the aim of promoting a greater sense of cooperation among DIC Group companies and reinforcing global recognition, DIC made the decision to change its name to DIC Corporation. The name “Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Incorporated” has a long history and proud heritage, and the Company has long been known both in Japan and overseas as “DIC.” The new name will allow DIC to continue maximizing its considerable brand assets, while at the same time it reinforces DIC’s image as a global organization. Going forward, DIC will take assertive steps to promote “DIC” as its corporate brand.