Soft Robot Hand, developed by Bridgestone’s Softrobotics Ventures, has won the Good Design Award 2023 sponsored by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion. Bridgestone is challenging the soft robotics business, which supports safe and secure movement and motion of people and objects with soft robots that can cooperate with humans, by using rubber artificial muscles (rubber actuators) that use the...
Japan’s first public road test of in-transit power supply for EVs has begun at Kashiwanoha Smart City in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture. The technology for supplying power to EVs while driving has been studied since 2018 by a joint research group including the Fujimoto-Shimizu Laboratory of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo, Bridgestone, NSK, Rohm,...
Production of high-pressure hoses for construction machinery has been strong. Although the overall production volume of high-pressure hoses (new rubber volume) continues to be lower than that of the same month last year, demand for hoses for construction machinery, the main source of demand, remains brisk, backed by the strong North American market. Inventories built up in the market due...
Belt manufacturer Bando Chemical held in September a webinar on how to select materials for transmission belts. Takamitsu Akashi, General Manager of the Industrial Materials Division Sales Department and General Manager of the Power Transmission Sales Group, served as MC and instructor for the day. For rubber toothed belts, the rubber materials used include chloroprene rubber (CR), ethylene propylene rubber...
Industrial rubber products, whose prices have been raised in recent years against a backdrop of soaring raw material prices, are facing the need for further price increases. Utility costs such as electricity and gas remain high, and distribution costs are also rising. In addition, labor costs must be further raised to secure human resources, and the weak yen, which is...
The Sumitomo Rubber CSR Fund, which is funded by employee volunteers, will donate a portion of its reserves in addition to subsidies starting this fiscal year to help the company achieve the SDGs goals even more than before. Since 2010, the Fund has been providing grants to NPOs and volunteer groups that are engaged in activities such as environmental conservation,...
