News

Kuraray Co., Ltd.

Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hitoshi Kawahara; hereinafter “Kuraray” or the “Company”) hereby announces that CLARINO™, a man-made leather has been chosen by Lenovo Japan for use on the kickstand and keyboard back of its ThinkPad X1 Fold laptop computer series. This is the second series of Lenovo laptop computer that has used CLARINO™ and follows on the product’s selection for the ThinkPad Z13 Gen 1 in June 2022.

Lenovo has been developing new ThinkPad laptop products for users who are not only concerned with performance and design but are also environmentally conscious. For this project, Kuraray’s environmentally friendly CLARINO™ suede type man-made leather made from recycled plastic aligned with the product concept and was adopted for the ThinkPad X1 Fold, a laptop computer with a folding display.

・The microfiber nonwoven fabric used as the base material for CLARINO™ is recycled PET resin derived from recovered plastic drinking bottles (the ratio of recycled raw microfiber material is over 95%).
・ This high-end man-made leather is used in luxury applications; it has abrasion resistance, chemical resistance and other features required for the kickstand and keyboard back of ThinkPad laptop computers, which are characterized by high durability, as well as a soft texture and beautiful appearance.

Kuraray has launched its medium-term management plan, “PASSION 2026,” as a five-year plan through 2026, the 100th anniversary of its founding. To realize our long-term vision, “Kuraray Vision 2026” (“a Specialty Chemical Company growing sustainably by incorporating new foundational platforms into its own technologies and contributing to customers, society, and the planet”), we will strengthen internal and external organic collaboration and create innovation.