Canon and Toray develop industry’s largest bio-based plastic exterior part for use in multifunction office systems

Plant-derived bio-based plastics, which curb increases in CO2 and decrease the consumption of oil resources, offer material properties that effectively reduce environmental burden. But because of the technological difficulties involved in realizing the moldability and other flow characteristics demanded of large-scale parts, while at the same time satisfying external appearance requirements and high mechanical strength and toughness criteria, bio-based plastics had proven difficult to adopt for use in exterior parts, particularly due to the high level of flame retardance required of such parts.

Through Toray’s material design technology, capable of controlling polymer structures on a nanometer-order scale, and Canon’s advanced molding technology, supporting the formation of large-scale parts, Canon and Toray realized improvements in material characteristics to successfully develop the industry’s largest exterior part made using bio-based plastic.

The part, which measures 640 (w) x 440 mm (h) and weighs approximately 1,100 grams, will be used in Canon multifunction office systems for production printing. In terms of flame retardance, it achieves 5V classification under the UL 94 flammability testing program. The newly developed part is approximately 11 times larger and approximately 6.5 times heavier than the previously realized largest bio-based plastic part that achieved the same level of flame retardance.

Compared with conventional petroleum-based plastic, the new bio-based plastic developed by Canon and Toray offers an expected reduction in manufacturing-related CO2 emissions of approximately 20%.

This successful development achievement will enable the use of bio-based plastic in not only small-scale exterior parts in multifunction office systems and other business devices, but also for replacing large-scale exterior parts used in multifunction office systems for production printing.

Through continued technical development, Canon and Toray will work to realize further enhancements in the field of bio-based plastics with the aim of expanding the range of applications in which they can be used.