Canon, Toray Develop Bio-Based Plastic With World’s Highest Level Of Flame Retardance For Use In Multifunction Office Systems

LAKE SUCCESS N.Y. – Canon U.S.A, Inc., today announced that Canon Inc. and Toray Industries, Inc., have successfully developed a bio-based plastic that achieves the world’s highest level of flame retardancei. The new bio-based plastic, which includes more than 25 percent (by weight) a plant-derived component, will be used in exterior plastic parts for Canon multifunction office systems to be launched beginning next year.

Plant-derived bio-based plastics, which curb increases in CO2 and decrease the consumption of oil resources, offer material properties that effectively reduce environmental burden. To date, however, bio-based plastics have not performed as well as conventional petroleum-based plastics in such areas as flame retardance, impact resistance, heat resistance, and moldability, and therefore their use in products had been limited to a very few number of parts.

Canon and Toray, through the establishment of new material design and molding technologies, were able to develop “Ecodear,” a bio-based plastic that realizes improved materials characteristicsii. Particularly in the area of flame retardance, Ecodear is the world’s first bio-based plastic applicable for use in multifunction office systems to achieve 5V classification under the UL 94 flammability testing programiii.

Compared with conventional petroleum-based plastics used in multifunction office systems, the new bio-based plastic developed by Canon and Toray offers an expected reduction in manufacturing-related CO2 emissions of approximately 20 percent. The development of the new bio-based plastic will enable its use not only for select parts in multifunction office systems, but also for replacing petroleum-based plastics used for exterior parts, which require a high level of flame retardance.

Beginning next year, Canon intends to introduce multifunction office systems that incorporate the newly developed bio-based plastic, with initial plans to use approximately 100 tons of the material per year.

Through continued technical development, Canon and Toray will work to realize further enhancements in the field of bio-based plastics with the aim of expanding the range of applications in which they can be used.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2007†, with global revenues of $39.3 billion, is listed as one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in America and is on the 2007 BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company’s RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/pressroom.

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† IFI Patent Intelligence Press Release, January 2008
Specifications subject to change without notice.

i As of October 1, 2008, the only bio-based plastic to receive UL 94-5V certification.
ii Ecodear is a registered trademark of Toray Industries, Inc. A plant-derived polylactic acid that, with the addition of Toray-proprietary technology, realizes significant improvements in flame retardance, heat resistance, impact resistance and moldability.
iii. the Underwriters Laboratories Standard for Flammability of Plastic Materials for Parts in Devices and Appliances. UL 94 specifies the following classifications related to materials commonly used in manufacturing enclosures, structural parts and insulators found in consumer electronic products: (in descending order) 5V, V-0, V-1, V-2, HB.