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| Year | World Carbon Fiber Technology Development and Other Related Activities | Carbon Fiber Technology Development by Toray | Carbon Fiber Technology Development by Mitsubishi Rayon | Carbon Fiber Technology Development by Toho Tenax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | U.S.A.: DuPont had developed Orlon technology by this year. | Toray commenced basic research activity for acrylic fiber development. | ||
| 1954 | U.S.A.: UCC started selling high-tension-rayon based fiber Thernel-25. | |||
| 1957 | U.S.A.: Barnebey-Cheney started selling carbon fiber-tow, mat, and rayon based
cotton. Japan: Asahi Kasei and other companies published materialization of acrylic fiber commercial production. |
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| 1958 | U.S.A.: National Carbon, a subsidiary of UCC, supplied rayon-based carbon fiber to Air Force Material Laboratory (AFML). | |||
| 1959 | Japan: Dr. Shindo, a member of Osaka Technical Laboratory (OTL), filed a basic patent applications relating to PAN-based graphite fiber technology (Patent publication SHO-37-4405 and -38-12375) | Toray registered its trade mark "Toraylon". | ||
| 1960 | Japan: Asahi, a newspaper publisher, reported achievement of Dr. Shindo's above-mentioned R&D | |||
| 1961 | Japan: Dr. Shindo published his technical reports relating to PAN-based graphite fiber on Journal of OTL. | Toray commenced its R&D for carbon fiber technology. | ||
| 1962 | Japan: OTL, Nihon Carbon, Tokai Electrode, Matsushita Electric, and Nitto Textile started carrying out of R&D of carbon fiber technology. | |||
| 1963 | U.K. Royal Air Public Corporation (RAE) succeeded production of PAN-based highly-elastic carbon fiber. | |||
| 1964 | "U.K. Royal Research & Development Corporation (NRDC) obtained a patent right relating
to highly-elastic carbon fiber and nation-wide development project of carbon fiber in
U.K. was commenced. Japan Nihon Carbon and Tokai Electrode respectively announced commercialization of carbon fiber production based on OTL technology." |
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| 1965 | U.K. Royal Nuclear Power Corporation (AERA) commenced R&D of industrial production technology of carbon fiber. | |||
| 1966 | ||||
| 1967 | U.K. Rolls-Royce carried out development of commercial jet engine using carbon fiber. | |||
| 1968 | Toray filed three patent applications relating to carbon fiver. | |||
| 1969 | Mitsubishi Rayon commenced its basic R&D for precursor technology. | Toho Tenax commenced its R&D for development of precursor and carbon fiber technology. | ||
| 1970 | Toray got license of Dr. Shindo's patent rights. | |||
| 1971 | Toray started commercial production of its carbon fiber "Torayca". | |||
| 1972 | Japan: A Japanese company Olympic displayed its fishing rod for fishing of Ayu fish,
“Seiki”, made of Toray’s “Toreka” at a trade fair. Pacific Masters Golf Tournament: Gay Brewers won championship using golf clubs having carbon fiber shaft, which stirred boom to buy and use “black shaft golf clubs”. |
Toho Tenax commenced its R&D of carbon fiber technology at its pilot scale plant. | ||
| 1975 | Toho Tenax determined commercialization of its carbon fiber technology and started up its carbon fiber commercial production. | |||
| 1976 | Mitsubishi Rayon started its market development using imported intermediate carbon fiber products and commenced its own commercial production of intermediate carbon fiber products. | |||
| 1977 | Mitsubishi Rayon was granted license of HITOCO’s carbon fiber calcinations technology and started import of carbon fiber from other producers. | |||
| 1981 | Mitsubishi Rayon commenced its commercial calcinations of carbon fiber. |
