Ningbo Daxie Development Zone Soken Chemical Co. Ltd.: Promoting environmental protection throughout product design and production for the green development of ICT industry

Company profile
 
Ningbo Daxie Development Zone Soken Chemical Co. Ltd. (Soken) is a leading producer of industrial tapes and adhesives in China. Established on May 18th, 1994, it is a US$18.5 million joint venture between Daxie Development Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of CITIC (China International Trust & Investment Corporation) and Soken Chemical Co. Ltd. Japan. As a high-tech enterprise engaged in the research, development, production and sales of high-performance and functional adhesivqewruiops for industrial applications, Soken is a leading manufacturer of special pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes in China. Its main products are optical films, functional films and special PSA, black and white light-shielding tape, pressure-sensitive adhesive, film protective film, etc. Moreover, these products involve various industries such as chemistry, home appliances, automobiles, OA equipment, computers, LCD liquid crystal displays, and smart phones. 
 
Soken has been committed to improving the product technology and overall R&D strength, and has cooperated with Zhejiang University, Wenzhou University and Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences to conduct product research and development cooperation. Its technical center was rated as Enterprise Engineering Technology Center of Ningbo City in 2012 and was rated as Enterprise Technology Center of Zhejiang Province in 2013. 
 
Challenges
 
As the end products of the ICT industry (such as mobile phones and computers) is becoming both easier and more invisible, the end product manufacturing enterprises are widely supervised, and the society exerts higher requirements for the development of ICT industry. Among them, the environment and supply chain are two major concerns in the ICT industry. The green performance of the various links in the upstream of the industrial chain affects the environmental performance of the end products. The green development of the ICT industry requires the cooperation of the entire industry chain. For example, end products require an adhesive product (bonding material) to bond all parts of the product together in a stable and safe manner. However, most of the raw materials for the production of adhesive products are chemical products, and processes such as processing, degradation and use are likely to cause pollution. For Soken, whether the design of adhesive products is conducive to the improvement of green environmental performance of end products, and whether the production process reduces waste and reduce pollution, is related to whether the ICT industry can achieve environmental protection from the source.
 
Solutions
 
Soken puts energy conservation, environmental protection and sustainable development into one of the company's main development directions. Relying on the strong technical force of the parent company, Soken focuses on the green performance of production and use of adhesive products in the ICT industry and the green development of the whole industry chain, and makes continuous innovation and technology to design energy-saving and environmentally-friendly adhesive products, and adhere to the green environmental protection throughout the production process and in each specific link.
 
Designing and R&D of energy-saving products
 
Soken adheres to environmental protection in the product design process and designs energy-saving and eco-friendly products that meet social needs. Considering that raw materials are an important factor affecting the eco-friendly properties of products, Soken chose to use non-toxic and harmless raw materials. In 2015, the company developed the BZ and BR series of halogen-free shading tapes with fixed backlights that can be widely used in LCDs display devices of products, such as laptops, mobile phones, and PDAs. This series of tapes does not contain halides, which can avoid hydrogen halides during processing degradation and corrode equipment, saving resources while achieving environmental indicators.
 
Soken also designs organic solvents such as toluene and ethyl acetate. It is suitable for one-pass protective film for the process of packaging and shipping protection of products in optoelectronics and information industry to reduce the harm to the human body during use and environmental impact. In addition, it also pays attention to reducing waste when designing products. The onepass protective film is designed to be produced without the need to attach release film or release paper, so that it can be taken from the back, reducing the operation steps and facilitating customer use, which greatly reduces the generation of waste and saves a lot of resources for the society.
 
Integrating eco-friendly concepts throughout the production process
 
Soken strengthens management in the production process to avoid pollution. Environmental protection is an important factor in the selection and procurement of raw materials for Soken. The company adheres to the use of eco-friendly materials, has been adopted high-solids, low-solvent adhesives since 2015, and checked the quality of raw materials when they enter the factory, so as to control the negative impact of the product on the environment and final quality from the source. In the production line, employees are strictly required to operate according to the production process requirements and procedures to prevent major production accidents caused by operational errors, which probably affects the environmental properties of the finished products and even cause environmental pollution.
 
In the field management, the process inspection is carried out to avoid waste of resources or production failures and environmental hazards caused by defective products caused by rework. After the end of each production process, the product is tested and then can be passed before entering the next process. Regular detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is conducted to find problems in time and repair, and reduce VOCs emissions. The hazardous waste generated by the production is also uniformly regulated under the supervision of the environmental protection department to avoid waste pollution.
 
Achievement
 
Social benefit
 
The energy-saving and eco-friendly products designed and developed by Soken can, while ensuring the same performance of the products as the ordinary products, meet the requirements of environmental protection, help achieve environmental protection of the terminal products, and maximize the comprehensive utilization of resources and reduction of negative environmental impact. At the same time, Soken adheres to the whole green production process of its own products, helping the ICT industry to achieve environmental protection from the source, and further promoting the green development of the entire industrial chain of the ICT industry.
 
Economic benefit
 
Soken has continuously developed and designed energy-saving and eco-friendly adhesive products, thus improving its technical capacity. Thanks to its positive contribution to environmental pollution control and constant emphasis on the environment in operation, in 2011, Soken passed the Clean Production Certification of Zhejiang Province and was selected as a Green Enterprise in Zhejiang Province in 2012.
 
Prospect
 
In the future, Soken will continue to focus on the research and development of new technologies, actively develop and produce eco-friendly and social-friendly products, and contribute to social progress and human happiness with high-quality and energy-saving products.