Tokyo, December 27, 2001 - Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., Japan's leading paper and pulp manufacturing firm and a member of the Nippon Unipac Holding Group, today announced the introduction of AUROREN *1, a new non-chlorinated polyolefin product that promotes excellent adhesion in coatings for use on polypropylene plastic applications. Beginning in December 2001, the company shipped samples of AUROREN to potential customers while simultaneously ramping up production capacity at its Iwakuni Mill in Yamaguchi prefecture. The construction of the new manufacturing facilities there that are dedicated to the production of AUROREN will be completed in April 2002. Nippon Paper Industries has thus far invested 150 million yen in the expansion and upgrading of the Iwakuni Plant for the anticipated launch of AUROREN.

 

AUROREN is a new type of non-chlorinated polyolefin adhesion promoter that defies the common belief that non-chlorinated products provide inferior adhesiveperformance compared with chlorinated polyolefin products; in fact, this innovation has proven to be a viable alternative to the widely used chlorinated polyolefin products. Developed as a sister product of the SUPERCHLON series, a wide range of chlorinated polyolefin products, AUROREN excels in promoting adhesion not only on the polypropylene and polyethylene plastic substrates that present high resistance to many adhesives, but it also acts on aluminum and polyester materials. While SUPERCHLON has been used as an adhesive promoter with primer and base coat *2 paint for automobile bumpers, polypropylene printing ink for gravure paper, and other adhesive materials, AUROREN has even wider application, such as with coatings on polypropylene plastic substrates and other olefin-based films, as well as with the primer coat on polypropylene substrates, and with printing ink and other adhesive agents.

 

AUROREN is also soluble in a variety of environmentally friendly solvents, including non-toluene solutions. The new adhesive promoter presents no threat of dioxin formation during burning, because it is free of chlorine.

 

Nippon Paper Industries plans to promote sales of AUROREN for its use as an adhesive additive in such areas as food packaging films and construction materials. The company has an annual sales target of 300 million yen and total shipments of 300 tons in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2003.

 

NOTES

*1. AUROREN is named after Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn from Roman mythology, in the expectation that the new product will be like a bright ray of light for Nippon Paper Industries at the dawn of a new era of service to an evolving market.

*2. Base coat paint was originally a middle-coating layer between primer and clear coats in the metallic painting processes. Nowadays, however, base coats are often referred to as the combination of the primer and middle-coating layers, and both SUPERCHLON and AUROREN are used in the combined base coat.