Toray Industries Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) is setting up a new three-floor, 8,600-square-meter research facility at its Nagoya plant in Aichi Prefecture to accelerate research and development (R&D) for a green transformation and advanced mobility. It is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of FY2026.

The facility will leverage the concept of fusing green and nano-based technologies to develop materials by integrating diverse elemental technologies from within and outside the Toray Group. It will also incorporate chemical engineering perspectives from the research stage and reinforce the company’s ability to propose digital solutions in creating a framework to bring together materials development, process design and customer proposals in a drive to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the economy.

To bolster materials development that helps achieve economic sustainability, Toray is bringing together polymer, chemicals and carbon fiber composite materials researchers, as well as digital transformation professionals and developers with chemical engineering expertise to drive nanotechnology advances. Such progress would incorporate materials informatics and computational chemistry in such areas as polymer design, nanostructure control and composite material design. The facility would integrate nanotechnology with recycling, biorefining and other green technology and reduce environmental impact from process perspectives.

The facility will be adjacent to the Environment and Mobility Development Center and the Advanced Composites Center, both of which engage in mobility-related development and evaluations. The goal is to generate synergies by integrating R&D and digital solutions proposals. Toray will reinforce open innovation internally and externally by creating an open laboratory for co-creation with customers and academia while deploying a framework to deepen communication among researchers and encourage ideas to emerge.

Since its foundation, Toray says it has pursued R&D into advanced materials by bolstering basic research and elemental technologies while integrating technologies and pushing their boundaries in the conviction that R&D paves the way to the company’s future. Examples of this have been seen in the company’s sustainable high-performance resins, carbon fiber composite materials and other innovative offerings.