With Customers

Portfolio Transformation

The COVID-19 pandemic created a new normal that is expected to significantly accelerate the transition to a digital society and fundamentally altered consumer behavior. Recent years have also heightened corporate awareness of the importance of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Amid these paradigm shifts, the DIC Group has identified five priority business areas where ESHrelated issues/social changes intersect with its core competencies: Sustainable energy, healthcare, smart living, color science and sustainable packaging.

Over the short term, the DIC Group will concentrate management resources on smart living, which focuses on chemitronics, with the aim of swiftly creating new businesses. The R&D Management Unit will step up its efforts in the smart living area by leveraging new design technologies for inorganic materials and biomaterials, among others, as well as its polymer design and organic materials design technologies. The New Business Development Headquarters is charged with transferring those new business seeds thus developed that are seen as likely to yield synergies to the business groups, reinforcing collaboration with the business groups to realize new businesses with the potential to quickly achieve viability and profitability.

Next-generation and growth businesses are highly competitive and evolve rapidly. In addition to strengthening internal cooperation to promote the commercialization of new products in such areas, the DIC Group will make active use of external resources by promoting open innovation by, among others, leveraging corporate venture capital (CVC) and connections in other industries, investing in start-ups, and collaborating with academic institutions and other companies.

01Commencement of Efforts to Develop Innovative Biomanufacturing Technologies for Engineering Hydrogen-Oxidizing Bacteria that Use CO₂ and H₂ as Feedstocks

As part of its effort to achieve carbon neutrality, DIC is participating as one of six partners in a project focused on the development of innovative biomanufacturing technologies for engineering hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria that utilize CO₂ and H₂ as feedstocks. This project was selected for sponsorship under the Green Innovation Fund, administered by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), in the “Promotion of Carbon Recycling using CO₂ from Biomanufacturing Technology as a Raw Material” category.

Hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria have one of the fastest CO₂ fixation rates of any microorganism. DIC’s role entails developing and conducting demonstration tests for optimal production processes using hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria that have been genetically engineered to leverage its outstanding CO₂ fixation capacity to facilitate the highly efficient production of biochemicals. These biochemicals are used as raw materials for a variety of everyday applications, including plastics, inks and coatings, textiles and cosmetics.

Additionally, bacterial residues from the production process can be used as an alternative protein source for feedstock, demand for which has been increasing in recent years. These new biomanufacturing technologies will thus simultaneously further raise the decarbonization value of businesses and contribute to the resolution of feedstockrelated issues. DIC and its partners look forward to contributing to the achievement of carbon neutrality by commercializing sustainable biochemicals engineering using hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria.

02Development of Essential Technology for a Groundbreaking Epoxy Resin Curing Agent

With the issue of waste plastics being an increasingly urgent social imperative in recent years, efforts to step up the recycling of thermoplastic products, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, is accelerating around the world. This is possible because of the heat-deformable nature of thermoplastics. However, epoxy resins and other thermosetting plastics, which are favored for applications requiring durability and heat resistance—such as automobiles and electrical appliances—are difficult to recycle because they harden when heated.

DIC has succeeded in developing an essential technology for a groundbreaking epoxy resin curing agent that preserves the outstanding conventional qualities of epoxy resins, including excellent heat resistance, durability, adhesiveness, mechanical strength and electrical insulation, while also facilitating remolding. The Company’s research has confirmed that this new technology will facilitate the production of a curing agent that maintains a consistent recovery rate of over 90% for heat resistance and mechanical strength even after a heat-cured molded product is recycled, i.e., crushed and then remolded five times.

DIC aims to advance to the verification stage for this new basic technology by 2027. Looking ahead, the Company will accelerate the expansion of its lineup of sustainable products by developing innovative technologies that help address social imperatives.

Physical properties of epoxy resin molded products after being remolded five times

03Development of Nanosized MoS₂ in Sheet Form that Delivers an Excellent Lubricating Performance

Friction between the sliding surfaces of moving parts causes energy waste and wear that shortens the useful life of cars, trucks and other machines. Lubricants are used to reduce this friction and wear. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) is a commonly used solid lubricant because its crystal structure allows excellent cleavage. However, most commercially available lubricants have large micrometer-sized MoS₂. Disadvantages include unstable dispersions in which large particles can settle in the lubricant and difficulty of use between tightly fitting parts.

Using a unique production process, DIC succeeded in developing a nanosized MoS₂ in sheet form with an average particle diameter of approximately 250 nanometers and a particle thickness of approximately 10 nanometers. Use of this new additive in commercially available engine oils or lubricating greases yields significant advantages, including a consistently stable dispersion, further reduction in the coefficient of dynamic friction and decrease in damage to sliding surfaces on test samples. DIC anticipates leveraging the unique format and performance features of this new nanosized MoS₂ to encourage its adoption for applications in such fields as energy and electronics.

Looking forward to 2030, DIC is working to establish inorganic materials design as a new basic technology for the DIC Group. Nanosized MoS₂ is one of the first achievements in this area. The Company’s efforts to contribute to a sustainable society will continue to encompass helping to save energy and extend the lifespan of machines of many types.

Benefits of adding nanosized MoS₂ to lubricating grease (Observation of damage to sliding surfaces on test samples)

04Expansion of the TrinDy DT Series of 3D Printing Materials for Dental Appliances

Technological innovations in printing processes, an increasingly diverse range of materials and advances in performance have driven significant growth in the 3D printing market, with applications expanding from the creation of prototypes and mock-ups, for which it was originally used, to include the production of practical and finished products for the automotive, aerospace, medical and apparel industries. 3D printing is also attracting increased attention from a sustainability perspective for its ability to significantly reduce waste and CO₂ emissions attributable to the transport of products by facilitating a shift to on-site production.

DIC has leveraged its distinctive polymer design technology, as well as its technologies for designing and formulating composites, to expand its TrinDy line of 3D printing materials. Recent achievements include the TrinDy DT series of stereoscopic 3D printer materials that facilitate the printing of dental appliances that are closer in terms of precision produced by dental technicians, in addition to being quicker to produce. In 2019, the TrinDy DT series earned certification under ISO 13485, the International Organization for Standardization’s standard for quality management systems for medical devices. Since then, DIC has expanded its array of products for use in orthodontic appliances and denture bases, earning high marks from dentists, dental clinics and laboratories.

DIC recently began providing a new 3D printing material that holds promise for use in various applications related to denture bases.This new material boasts low water absorption and excellent stability over time when in the oral cavity. This enables it to deliver an excellent balance of strength and toughness, as well as compatibility with materials commonly used in dental prosthesis, including cold-curing resins and orthodontic wax, and is biologically safe.

DIC will continue to provide 3D printing materials for dental applications with the goal of contributing to advances in digital dentistry. The Company will work to further cultivate next-generation and growth businesses, emphasizing the priority business area it has dubbed “smart living,” as set forth in its DIC Vision 2030 long-term management plan.

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DIC Invests in the UMI-Administered UMI III Fund

DIC recently invested in UMI III Investment Limited Partnership, known generally as the UMI III Fund, which is administered by Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd. (UMI). This is the Company’s second investment in a UMI fund and follows its investment in UMI I Investment Limited Partnership (the UMI I Fund) in 2016.

UMI is a venture capital firm specializing in the materials and chemicals industries that seeks to strengthen Japan’s technological capabilities by fostering outstanding materials and chemicals companies and cultivating an industry structure that can compete in the global arena.

The UMI III Fund, together with the simultaneously established UMI III Decarbonization Investment Limited Partnership (the UMI III Decarbonization Fund), will invest in the decarbonization area, where materials and chemicals technologies promise key solutions, creating a framework that is expected to encourage open innovation that transcends industry boundaries.

In DIC Vision 2030, the DIC Group seeks to contribute to a society that is increasingly green, digital and QOL-oriented. The Group is fostering new basic technologies in such areas as inorganic materials design and biomaterials design, and combining these with its exiting basic technologies to create new businesses that go beyond the provision of fne chemicals, as well as to develop new products. The Group will continue to make use of open innovation to broaden its technology platform and advance initiatives aimed at swiftly creating next-generation and growth businesses. 

UMI Website

https://www.umi.co.jp/en/

TOPIC

DIC Launches Skincare Brand fillwith, Which Pleases Users’ Sensibilities and Benefits Their Skin

In fiscal year 2022, DIC launched new skincare brand fillwith. Designed to please users’ sensibilities, fillwith is the embodiment of “comfort.” In addition to moisturizing, these products resonate with the senses of sight, touch and smell, appealing to refined sensibilities and enveloping the user in luxury. They are designed to be an extension of the individual user, inspiring an emotional response and evoking the progress of life and the changing of the seasons.
Drawing on the bounty of nature, fillwith cosmetics are crafted with carefully selected natural ingredients, including fragrances, derived from plants and algae. Particularly notable is a naturally derived macromolecular polysaccharide, extracted from Suizenji nori blue-green algae, that boasts approximately 10 times the moistureretention capacity of hyaluronic acid.* Sales of fillwith cosmetics, which are available exclusively via an official online store, commenced in February 2023.
Looking ahead, DIC will continue to offer fillwith cosmetics made with macromolecular polysaccharide extracted from Suizenji nori that respond to changing skincare needs, helping to support users’ physical and spiritual well-being.

• As measured by the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology using a modified tea bag method.

Official Brand Website

https://fillwith-style.com/shop