Why Did Toray Become The World's Number One Carbon Fiber Manufacturer?

Carbon fiber has excellent properties such as high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance and friction resistance, and plays an important role in automobile, aircraft and other industrial fields. Japan's carbon fiber industry leads the world, and giants such as Japan's Toray, Toho, and Mitsubishi Rayon basically monopolize the global carbon fiber technology. Among them, Toray occupies 30% of the global carbon fiber market, and its position is very important.
   

At the end of the 19th century, carbon fiber entered people's field of vision. Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan invented the electric light by burning kapok and bamboo to make carbon fiber as a filament. But with the advent of tungsten filament, carbon fiber faded out of sight.



In the 1950s, the United States looked for a kind of ablation-resistant material for the space shuttle, and carbon fiber with high temperature resistance and high strength entered people's field of vision again. The United Carbide Corporation of the United States began to use viscose filaments as a precursor to produce carbon fibers.



At the same time, Akio Kondo of the Osaka Institute of Industry in Japan is also conducting research on carbon fiber. Akio Kondo uses polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as a precursor to make carbon fibers. The results show that the strength and modulus of carbon fibers fabricated from PAN precursors are much higher than those of viscose-based ones. In 1959, Akio Kondo applied for a patent on the research results of carbon fiber. Later, he licensed the technology to Toray Corporation of Japan.



Due to the high strength and light weight of carbon fiber, the main market positioning in the early stage has always been the aviation field. However, carbon fiber manufacturers in Europe and the United States have already occupied the aviation market. The United States exports a large amount of carbon fiber, and there is almost no place for Japanese companies to gain a foothold.



Just when everyone's eyes are on the US aviation industry and the military market, the carbon fiber of Japanese companies is aimed at the sports and leisure products market.



In 1972, Vlad from the United States discovered that using carbon fiber clubs could hit golf balls 30 yards more than irons. Carbon fiber clubs were popular with Japanese golfers, and the application of carbon fiber quickly expanded to tennis rackets, ski poles and other sporting goods.



Toray started out by producing synthetic fibers, including PAN precursors for carbon fiber production. In the 1960s, Toray began to study carbon fiber after acquiring the patented technology of Akio Kondo, and built a small pilot plant in 1971, which achieved mass production of the carbon fiber Toraca T300 that year.



In 1974 the Toraca Marketing Department was established. Toray's first carbon fiber product was a fishing rod. The success in the sporting goods market brought the explosion of Toray's carbon fiber business, and Toray's market share began to expand.



Although there is a market demand for fishing rods or golf clubs, Toray has never been profitable. Toray has spent more than 140 billion yen on research and development in the carbon fiber business, and it has always been in a state of loss.



In fact, DuPont in the United States and BASF in Germany also wanted to develop carbon fiber, but they did not persist because of losses. Although Toray sacrificed short-term gains, it cultivated performance that others could not match.



Today, Toray has become the world's largest carbon fiber producer, firmly controlling the market share of the world's high-end carbon fiber demand.