Delegation Returns from IRC 2026 AICHI, Japan — Three Days of Technical Exchange on Sustainable Rubber

IRC 2026 | Aichi, Japan · November 2–6, 2026

From November 2 to 6, 2026, the International Rubber Conference 2026 (IRC 2026 AICHI), organized by the Society of Rubber Science and Technology, Japan, convened at the Aichi International Exhibition Center (Aichi Sky Expo) in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, alongside the Rubber & Elastomer Technical Exhibition. Under the theme "Future Rubber Technology toward Sustainability", this is the sixth time the conference has been hosted in Japan — following Tokyo (1975), Kyoto (1985), Kobe (1995), Yokohama (2005) and Kitakyushu (2016) — and the first in a decade.

Our delegation took part in both the conference programme and the exhibition, exchanging views with peers from home and abroad on material innovation, molding processes and green manufacturing.

Three Technology Threads on the Show Floor 

Thread 1 — Foaming: from weight reduction to precision control

The foaming segment mapped out the current landscape: high-expansion grades, high-temperature grades, CO₂-based systems, and gas-assisted foaming for automotive components. The noteworthy point is not any single product but how uniformly the industry's priorities have converged — fine and uniform cell structure, stable expansion ratio, lower environmental load, and mass-producibility on standard, general-purpose molding equipment. That last item matters most: whether a technology leaves the lab depends on how friendly it is to the production lines people already own.

product portfolio and global footprint board.

reviewing expansion ratio, cell morphology and molding windows with engineers.

Thread 2 — Power transmission & anti-vibration: low heat build-up becomes a hard metric

In power-transmission materials, the governing theme was low heat generation. For synchronous belts and drive belts running hot and fast, heat build-up directly determines fatigue life — and a belt change means downtime. The various routes on display pointed to one shared answer: through layered construction and compound optimization, raise heat resistance, interfacial adhesion and fatigue life at the same time. Material science often ends, quite literally, in a belt that runs a few thousand hours longer.

physical samples presented alongside performance comparison data.

Thread 3 — Process aids & surface treatment: sustainability pressure reaches the shop floor

Release agents, surface-treatment agents and rubber-to-substrate bonding solutions revealed another shift: environmental requirements are travelling downstream from materials to processes. Low volatility, low residue, and consistent film thickness under continuous cycle times were among the most frequent questions on the floor — less glamorous than the grand sustainability narrative, but far closer to real production.

residue control and cycle-time matching, point by point.

a productive exchange, captured in one thumbs-up.

Three Takeaways

1. "Sustainability" has moved from slogan to specification. Bio-based additives, gas-based foaming, low-VOC process aids and reclaim technologies led the pitch at virtually every booth.

2. High performance and green manufacturing are converging. Lightweighting, low heat build-up and long service life all reduce to one equation: less material, less energy, longer service — and a lower total cost of ownership.

3. Cross-border collaboration is now structural. Materials from one country, chemicals from another, application engineering from a third, sharing a single booth — this is no longer the exception but the norm.

 What's Next 

Our delegation returned with first-hand material on foaming-agent selection, low-heat-build-up formulation and process-aid application — all converging on one conclusion: pre-dispersing functional additives into rubber masterbatch is the pivotal step that turns formulation know-how into stable, repeatable production. Masterbatched blowing agents deliver finer cells and consistent expansion; masterbatch-introduced low-heat systems tighten dispersion and batch control; masterbatched release and surface-treatment agents cut dust and VOC while enabling automatic dosing. Building on our existing rubber masterbatch portfolio and customer requirements, we will advance formulation lock-in, sample validation and small-batch trials across three lines — lightweight foaming masterbatch, low-heat-build-up functional masterbatch and green process-aid masterbatch. Masterbatch is not merely powder turned into pellet; it is know-how solidified into a deliverable product. Technology only creates value once it ships. Our thanks to the IRC 2026 organizers and to every exhibitor for an open exchange, and we look forward to walking the sustainability road with more partners worldwide — one consistent pellet at a time.