Industry-Academia Collaboration Contributes to a Safe and Secure Society　 High Performance High Damp

Our Group is focusing on the development of infrastructure-related products that contribute to the safety and security of everyone's lives, too.

Among them, we are pleased to introduce “HDReX”, a high-performance high-damping rubber bearing, the results of which were presented at the Japan Society of Civil Engineers in fiscal 2022 and received favorable reviews from industry professionals.

HDReX is a seismic isolation rubber bearing installed at the fulcrums of highways and bridges,etc.

Launched in 2021, HDReX has been adopted as a temporary component in the Hanshin Expressway replacement project.

In December of the same year, the product was registered with “NETIS”* operated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

*A database created by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to allow anyone to view and review new technologies developed by private companies and others.

The new product has three main features.

・Significantly improved damping performance compared to conventional seismic isolation rubber bearings

Absorbs vibration energy from earthquakes, etc., and reduces the burden on piers supporting bridge girders, thereby protecting them.

・Reduced temperature dependence with our group's newly developed polymers and carbon

Polymers and carbon are the main components of rubber, and the Group's core competence, polymer material technology, was utilized.

Conventional seismic isolation rubber bearings are temperature-dependent and harden at low temperatures, which is difficult in terms of bridge design.

With this new development, the product now offers stable performance even in cold regions such as Hokkaido.

・The seismic response of the bearing is reduced compared to conventional products, and cost reductions can be expected.

Industry-University Collaboration

This product was developed through industry-academia collaboration.

“Industry”: We developed this product jointly with NIPPON CHUZO K.K. headquartered in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The company purchases the rubber body from the group, assembles the metal parts, and sells them as bearings for bridges.

Large-scale dynamic testing equipment and advanced evaluation techniques owned by them led to improved performance of this product.

“Academia": In collaboration with Professor Akira Igarashi of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, we developed a new dynamic model and verified its validity through vibrating table experiments.

The temperature dependence at low temperatures was verified through joint research with the Kitami Institute of Technology, which has one of the few test facilities for low-temperature environments in Japan.

During development and analysis, we received valuable feedback from the researchers, which we were able to reflect in our product development.

This is the result of practicing "building a team that responds flexibly to change" through collaboration with outside parties in order to create products that are required by the society.

This product is the result of 10 years of efforts to create a product that is required in people's daily lives through our Group's core competence and collaboration with industry and academia.

Our group's corporate vision is “A company that contributes to safety, comfort, and the environment for people, society, and the earth”.

We will continue to bring together the wisdom of the entire group to create products that contribute to people's daily lives.