News

Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Yasuaki Wakui) is holding a groundbreaking ceremony today at Kuraray Tamashima Co., Ltd. (Tamashimaotoshima, Kurashiki, Okayama) for new facilities for the manufacturing of KURARISTER, a transparent barrier film used in food packaging retorts.

This transparent barrier film for food packaging retorts, manufactured at Kuraray Tamashima Co., Ltd., features high gas-impermeability, durability under retort treatment and excellent secondary processability. The development of the new barrier film emerged from Kuraray's research and development in the field of nanotechnology, grounded in the world's most advanced barrier-material technology, which Kuraray developed in the pursuit of its EVAL(*) business. KURARISTER is a new polyester film coated with a special composite material developed by Kuraray using original technology.

* EVAL
Kuraray was first in the world to commercialize ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) resin (an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer). It has the highest gas-impermeability of any plastic, about 10,000 times that of ordinary polyethylene, which makes it an excellent material for preserving food. This, and its transparency are fueling worldwide growth in demand for EVAL resin and film.

Outline of KURARISTER Production Facilities

Location Kuraray Tamashima Co., Ltd.
7471, Tamashimaotoshima, Kurashiki, Okayama
(President: Katsuhiko Nishiguchi; capital, ¥10 million, Kuraray 100%)
Production capacity 50 million m² per year
Commencement of operations July 2006
Total investment Approximately ¥1.0 billion