One of our company’s specialties is one-piece molding, in which two or three different types of plastics of differing hardness are combined into one in the molding machine. To apply its technology to the medical field, the company launched a medical brand called Lustromedic, and in December of 2019, it launched its first product: a tongue depressor. Currently under development are surgical examination devices and needle-free syringes for animals.

We met with doctors at hospitals to investigate their needs, and found that tongue depressors are traditionally made of stainless steel or wood, but that stainless steel is hard and cold, and wood is easily broken and can splinter. To serve their needs, with our technology, we created a new-type of tongue depressor using a very soft material for the end that goes into the patient’s mouth, which is less likely to make them gag and is twice as strong as wood. Mayor Masato Takegami said, “We plan to use 2,500 of them for group medical examinations of infants, and another 2,500 in Holiday and After-hours Clinics.” He praised the product, adding, “Like syringes, disposable is welcomed and is the trend of the times. People want safety and security”.

The company will enter the medical market with its Lustromedic brand. Most medical instruments are made of metal, but some can be replaced with plastics. First, it will market its tongue depressors and vaginal speculums. In addition, it is looking to expand globally and develop ‘patient-friendly medical devices’ such as needle-free plastic syringes, that use special technologies the company has developed.

Iwasaki Industry Inc. will launch its own brand of medical equipment by the end of 2019. It has prototyped a disposable tongue depressor and a vaginal speculum that use a hard resin for the parts that need strength and a soft resin for the tip that is inserted into the body. It will begin demonstrating at five hospitals this spring. This is a switch from the typical metal instruments that are sterilized and used repeatedly. The new instruments will reduce labor at hospitals and ease patients’ discomfort.

Iwasaki Industry Inc. will be marketing products made of a material that is the subcritical fusion of resin and glass by 2021. The company will explore a new market by introducing products made of the material as alternatives to resin and glass: it has a better texture than resin, and is lighter and less breakable than glass. The company will be marketing everyday items such as tableware in 2021, and aims to expand to the automotive field in 2025. Their plan is to receive orders totaling approximately 1 billion yen a year with these new material products.

On the 29th, Kuwana City, which is working on a project to utilize bamboo as a resource and create a market for it, signed a “memorandum of understanding on a project to promote bamboo recycling” with Iwasaki Industry Inc., a plastic household goods manufacturer.

In its goal to process unwanted bamboo into nature-friendly biomass plastic that can be used to create various products, Kuwana City has finally assigned a company to develop such products.