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Toray Develops Eco-Friendly Textile Incorporating Toyoflon™

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Mar. 2, 2022

Toray Industries, Inc.


Tokyo, Japan, March2, 2022 – Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it has developed a high-strength textile that employs Toyoflon, a low-friction polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) fiber. The new textile retains the outstanding friction resistance of fluoropolymers. Toray tests found that the slide durability is 25 times greater than that of existing counterparts, with friction dropping by more than 50%.
 
 
The new textile should reduce slide areas owing to its performance benefits and a higher surface pressure while enabling miniaturization and weight reductions. Enhanced slide durability should extend textile usage under tougher conditions. Another key benefit is a lower environmental impact from oil-free sliding, reducing environmental impact by cutting maintenance costs and conserving resources owing to less frequent replacements.

Toray will draw on the features of the new textile to broaden applications, including for industrial machinery, plant facilities, automotive parts, and bearings.

PTFE offers low friction and excellent heat and chemical resistance. Toray employed its advanced matrix yarn technology to develop a uniform, high-quality filament while retaining the features of PTFE resin, which is normally hard to make into a fiber.
Toyoflon fibers

Toyoflon delivers the best and most stable low-friction performance among chemical fibers. It serves as a sliding material in the automotive, industrial machinery, and other fields. Toray created this textile by uniformly transferring Toyoflon wear particles to high-strength fibers under friction to form a low-friction interface. A high-strength fiber backbone prevents excessive wear. 

Toray’s new textile should contribute to industrial progress and economic sustainability. The company will continue to provide innovative technologies and advanced materials to transform societies in keeping with its commitment to innovating ideas, technologies, and products that deliver new value. Toray will exhibit the new textile at the 26th Mechanical Components & Materials Technology Expo at Tokyo Big Sight, which starts on March 16.

Details of new textile

1.     Description: Toyoflon textile with low-friction and high sliding durability 

2.     Features
(1) Sliding durability 25 times greater than that of conventional Toray counterparts
(2) Lowest friction among synthetic fibers (less than half that of conventional Toray counterpart)
(3) Resource savings from reduced maintenance costs and longer service life

3.    Technological overview
(1) A structure uniformly dispersing low-friction Toyoflon PTFE fiber and high-strength fibers
(2) Toyoflon wear particles transferred uniformly to high-strength fibers during friction to forming low-friction interface
(3) High-strength fibers serve as backbone to minimize Toyoflon wear, for lower friction and enhanced sliding durability

4.    Sales plans 
(1) Launch timing: March 2022
(2) Key applications: Sliding materials for parts moving under high pressure, including industrial machinery, plant equipment, automotive parts, and bearings

5.    Sliding endurance test results


Reference
Toyoflon website (Japanese)
 https://www.toray.jp/mf/product/toyoflon/