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1980s

Photo Ceremony to establish a joint venture in the 1980s

1980s

Kuraray established a joint venture in the U.S. to manufacture and market EVAL™ to support overseas business development, and also began producing opto-screens.

1982

  • President Taichi Ueno took office.
  • Completed EVAL™ biaxially-oriented film plant (Okayama).
Food packaging products made with EVAL™

1983

  • Commercialized KURALON™ short staple fiber for cement reinforcement.
  • Established Eval Company of America jointly with Northern Petrochemical Company of the U.S. (became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1991).

1984

  • Established Techno Soft Co., Ltd.
  • Established Haru-Kuraray GmbH, a man-made leather sales company, in Germany jointly with Marubeni Corp. and Ha-ru GmbH.

1985

  • Commercialized soft contact lenses (Kurashiki).
  • President Hisao Nakamura took office.
Contact lenses

1986

  • Established Clarino America Corporation, a man-made leather sales company, in the U.S. jointly with Marubeni Corp. (absorbed into Kuraray America, Inc. in 2001).
  • Established Kuraray Family Products Co., Ltd. and Kuraray Travel Service Corporation.
  • Commercialized optical disks (Kashima: halted in 2003).
  • Commercialized diols (Kashima).
  • Eval Company of America began manufacturing EVAL™ in the U.S.

1987

  • Provided 1,4- butanediol manufacturing technology to Arco Chemical Company of the U.S.

1988

  • Established Central Research Laboratory, Tsukuba Office.
  • Commercialized opto-screens (lenticular lens) (Nakajo).
  • Established Securir Co., Ltd. (absorbed into Techno Soft in 2001).
  • Hook-and-loop fastener manufacturing transferred to Magic Tape Co., Ltd.
MAGICTAPE™ products

1989

  • Commercialized melt blown nonwoven fabrics (Kurashiki: transferred to Saijo in 1995).