Kuraray America PVOH/PVB - Polyvinyl Alcohol and Polyvinyl Butyral Products

About Us

Kuraray makes polymer products which are indispensable assistants in building materials, paints, adhesives, automotive windscreens, facial masks, product packaging, and sponges. While the products of Kuraray may be many and varied, one significant feature which they have in common is that, often even in small quantities, they impart positive properties to the broadest range of materials, thereby improving the quality of many products.

Innovation – the key to success

Extensive know-how, reliable raw material resources, cutting-edge process engineering and individually tailored products all ensure that Kuraray is a world-leading partner to many industries. The primary emphasis of Kuraray's R&D effort is on product, application and process development, focusing on customer requirements and recognizing that success is determined not only by the products but also by the way they are produced.

Kuraray is thus constantly updating its processes with the aim of optimizing product properties, minimizing environmental impact and maximizing the cost effectiveness of production and application. Research activities are decentralized and are mainly the direct responsibility of the Division concerned.

Polyvinyl alcohol / Polyvinyl butyral - Innovation in application

Although Polyvinyl alcohol was first discovered in the late 1920s and manifold research and development activities have been conducted over the decades, exciting new properties of Mowiol®/Kuraray Poval® are still being discovered today. These discoveries and inventions are made possible in our up-to-date research laboratories based in Frankfurt. Here, research and development efforts are focused on modifying Mowiol® / Kuraray Poval® with customer needs in mind so that their problems are solved and their wishes are fulfilled.

We have also devel

oped a fascinating new analytical technique that provides more insights regarding our products, thus leading to the introduction of even more specialized products. These products include Mowiol® / Kuraray Poval® for film applications with superior properties depending on the field of application and PVOH for use as a protective colloid giving rise to emulsions that exhibit well-advanced properties, to name but a few.

Polyvinyl butyral - Teach an old dog new tricks

Synthesized using our quality Polyvinyl alcohol, the broad range of Polyvinyl butyral products are constantly improved in our research and development facilities. The main focus is concerned with product improvements while at the same time making the production even more environmentally friendly. For example, auxiliary chemicals are reduced to a minimum while at the same time the product properties such as solubility, viscosity and handling are optimized to guarantee full customer satisfaction.

Mowital® with very low viscosities are in the centre of our research endeavors. It is expected that these new types of products especially suited for printing ink applications will be implemented in the near future.

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