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| Mitsubishi Chemical Functional Products, Inc. |
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| February 2006 |
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| Alpolic products from the overseas leader in metal composite material, Mitsubishi Chemical Functional Products |
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| In what kinds of places is it used? |
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A gas station sign. Alpolic is used in the yellow sign in the canopy. |
Alpolic is used in signs for gas stations all over the world.
Alpolic is a metal composite material, which is composed of plastic surrounded by metal. Pre-production sales were commenced in 1971, and the product found uses chiefly as a substitute for aluminum sheets in billboards, signs, housing materials, and other applications. However, it isn't just a substitute for aluminum sheeting, and it has attracted attention from the beginning for its unique features as a composite material, like its high rigidity and superior flatness. In the 1980s, with the introduction of automatic painting lines and the realization of high quality painted finishes, these unique composite features came to be highly rated and used around the world in gas station signs, as well as in applications like billboards, signs, and housing materials. |
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| Efforts to make the plastics incombustible - Adoption as a material for the exterior walls of high-rise buildings. |
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Striving for a composite material with superior fire-retardant performance suitable for the exterior walls of high-rise buildings.
Making plastics incombustible has been a long-desired dream. In particular, it has been very difficult to manufacture incombustible plastics at the same cost as conventional plastics. However, after overcoming numerous obstacles, we established the manufacturing technology that enabled us to produce the plastics at the same price level as conventional ones, and with even more unique features, Alpolic came to be used in the exterior walls of famous buildings in major cities around the world.
Alpolic is now used in the exterior walls of a great many famous high-rise buildings that function as landmarks in major cities all over the world.
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The Singapore National Library. The white exterior wall material is Alpolic. |
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Left: 126 Philip Street - Deutsche Bank Place Building in Sydney. The silver exterior wall material is Alpolic.
Above: The Shinawatra Building, seat of the government of Thailand in Bangkok. The silver exterior wall material is Alpolic. |
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| A new composite material - Efforts toward a titanium composite. |
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Titanium composite material adopted for use in the roofing materials of the National Grand Theatre in Beijing.
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A rendition of the National Grand Theatre in Beijing - It has the unique appearance of a UFO sunken partway into a lake. |
Mitsubishi Chemical Functional Products has developed a titanium composite material called Alpolic/fr-TCM as a sister product to Alpolic to keep up with the recent diversity in building design. The first project to utilize this titanium composite material has been the National Grand Theatre currently under construction in Beijing, on which the Chinese government has put its national prestige. November 2002, the decision to use our titanium composite material for the roofing materials in this project was the result of a sales effort uniting manufacturing, marketing, and technology skills. With our president Fujii in attendance, the signing ceremony for the contract with the Proprietor Committee of the National Grand Theater was held in Beijing.
43,000 square meters of titanium composite material were delivered in 2003, and the as of now (December 2005) the subsequent construction work with the titanium composite material is 90% completed, with the roof expected to be completed around March 2006. The theatre was planned and designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, and consists of three halls: a concert hall, an opera house, and traditional arts theatre, with a total seating capacity of over 6,000 people. The building rests in an artificial lake and has an egg-shaped dome design measuring 220 meters long, 150 meters wide, and 49 meters high. The roof is divided into two parts. One is a glass part, and the other is a part made of our titanium composite material. It is being built in a prime location in Beijing, in the company of such landmarks as the Gugong, Tiananmen Square, and the Great Hall of the People.
On the heals of the National Grand Opera project, Alpolic/fr-TCM went on to be adopted for use in the roofing material of the Hangzhou Grand Theatre in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, also in China, with the project reaching completion in Autumn 2004. After that the composite was again employed in the construction of the recently completed Taipei Arena in Taiwan.
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The Grand Theatre in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The silver roof is Alpolic/fr-TCM. |
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The Taipei Arena Stadium in Taipei City. The exterior wall material is Alpolic/fr-TCM. |
It has been over 30 years since we got into the business of marketing Alpolic. This long product life is the result of great efforts combining manufacturing, marketing, and technology skills, such as investigation and development of market needs, compilation of technical data, development of processing methods, and establishment of the right manufacturing conditions. Mitsubishi Chemical Functional Products leads the world in the areas of incombustible core material of composite materials and dissimilar metal composite materials. |
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| What was the background of the product's creation? |
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To meet for the needs of architects who want new materials.
Alpolic is a composite of aluminum and polyethylene and has found uses in the exterior and interior walls of buildings, billboards, signs, and other construction material applications. Besides wood, stone, brick, concrete, and glass, materials used in the exterior walls of buildings include metals like aluminum, copper, iron, and stainless steel, but out of all of those aluminum captures the biggest market owing to its light weight, corrosion-resistance, processability, and other strong points. Recently, however, there has been a climate of increasing demand for diversity in design, requiring new materials, and one of these new materials is titanium. Titanium is getting attention for its features like light weight (specific gravity 4.5), superior durability, and soft color tone.
Alpolic/fr-TCM, a composite material of titanium and stainless steel, is a product that meets for these kinds of diversity needs. As the diagram shows, the composite consists of a highly fire safety core material encased in a 0.3 millimeter thick layer of titanium and stainless steel, with a total thickness of 4 millimeters. Incidentally, the 'fr' in the product name means 'fire retardant' and indicates non-combustible, while 'TCM' stands for Titanium Composite Material. |
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| At the Alpolic manufacturing plant, now. |
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World-leading composite technology
Alpolic manufacturing plants are located in Ueda City in Nagano and Joetsu City in Niigata. We have taken on recycling activities from early on in order to reduce the environmental burden and cost reduction at the plants. While there have been numerous technical difficulties with using recycled items, their utilization rate is increasing. In 2004, the Mitsubishi Chemical Group for the first time received the certification of Nationwide Recycler of Designated Industrial Refuse from the Ministry of the Environment. In the recycling process, used Alpolic is collected from all over Japan, separating the Alpolic gathered from demolished buildings into metal and resin components, and then reusing the materials through our recycling process.
We are now developing Alpolic composite materials to satisfy the demands of the world's architects, while making efforts to raise the recycling rates in our plants. We are working on informing all our users of the fact that Alpolic is a product that can be recycled from beginning to end without having to throw it away. |
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Mitsubishi Chemical Functional Products, Inc.*
2-2 Nihonbashi Hongokucho 1-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0021
TEL: [+81] (0)3-3279-3061
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Mitsubishi Chemical Functional Products, Inc. has started to operate its business as Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. as of April 1, 2008. |
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