We look forward to welcoming Toshiaki to the 2024 IMPA London Innovation Zone on:

14:30 - 14:55, 11th September.

Speaker Bio:

Toshiaki Nagahama is R&D engineer working for Kuraray Co., Ltd.. headquartered in Japan. His scientific and technical knowledge relating to fiber material are cultivated by his master’s degree of fiber and textile in Graduate University of Fukui, a leading Japanese university in fiber and textile fields, and R&D carrier for 3 years so far in Kuraray, a global chemical company. As a graduate student, I gave an oral presentation at the 15th Asian Textile Conference (ATC-15).

Session Details:

With the continuous increase in demands within the shipping industry, worldwide trading vessels are increasingly operating in a variety of climates, including those with subzero temperatures or hot climates. These conditions pose a major challenge to existing synthetic mooring lines, increasing creep, abrasion, and heat fatigue, all of which shorten mooring line service life.

Until recently, there have only been two high-modulus mooring line fibers: para-aramid (Kevlar®, Technora®) and HMPE (Dyneema®, Spectra®). However, due to increasing demands created by vessels operating in increasingly extreme climates, Katradis Marine Ropes S.A. has introduced their new flagship tanker mooring line, LCP-Siri® S12, the only Vectran™ based mooring line in the world licensed by Kuraray, the world’s largest producer of Vectran™ liquid crystal polymer fibers.

Vectran™ is not only one of the world’s strongest materials, but also the only superfiber developed specifically for maritime ropes. In this presentation, Toshiaki Nagahama-san, Vectran R&D Engineer from Okayama, Japan, will introduce the science behind Vectran™ and compare its performance to existing high-performance mooring line fibers such as HMPE and para-aramid.

To see this session and the others this September, register to attend IMPA London 2024 by clicking here.