The Japanese Chemical Giant is in Trouble Again!

Recently, Toray published on its official website the news about the partial revocation and suspension of ISO9001 international quality management system standard certification.

On July 12, 2022, Toray Industries, Ltd., located in Tokyo, Japan, announced the results of a special audit conducted by the Japan Quality Assurance Organization (JQA). Note: JQA is a registered certification body of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

This audit is related to the Toray Group's disclosure on January 31, 2022, of misconduct related to UL LLC's ("UL") certification. After the audit, Toray Industries received a notice from JQA that its ISO9001:20151 certification will revoke the design and development of nylon resin, PBT resin, PPS resin, liquid crystal polyester resin and carbon fiber reinforced resin (Torayca resin) produced at the Nagoya Plant and manufacturing process, as well as the design, development and manufacturing process of ABS resin. Plus polylactic acid resin and carbon fiber reinforced resin pellets produced at the Chiba plant. In addition, certification will be temporarily suspended for all other products designed, developed and produced at the Nagoya plant as these products use the same quality management system.

Toray once again expresses its sincere apologies to users of these materials and to all stakeholders affected by this UL certification misconduct.

Toray takes JQA's decision extremely seriously. Based on the recommendations in the report of the expert committee investigating the incident previously published on April 12, 2022, and UL's instructions, Toray will take clear measures to prevent a recurrence and make every effort to regain the trust of customers and society. Toray will also endeavour to regain certification where it has been revoked and to obtain reinstatement of certification where it has been suspended.

Scope of revocation of certification activities

01

Nagoya Factory

Design/development and manufacture of nylon resin, PBT resin, PPS resin, liquid crystal polyester resin, carbon fiber reinforced resin (Torayca resin)

02

Chiba Factory

Design/development and manufacture of ABS resin, PLA resin, carbon fiber reinforced resin pellets

Scope of activities for suspension of certification

01

Nagoya Factory

Design/development of ε-caprolactam, isomers of halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons and alkyl benzenes, polyamideimide resins (dimers), nylon resins for fibers, modified nylon pellets, specialty nylon resins, methacrylic resins and manufacture • Design/development and manufacture of hexamethylene diamine, hexamethylene diammonium adipic acid • Design/development and manufacture of chlorocyclohexane (outsourcing)


Manufacture of polyester ether resin (Hytrel)

Design/Development and Manufacturing of Carbon Fiber Composite Intermediate Materials (Outsourcing), CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics)

Design/Development and Manufacturing of CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) Composites (Outsourcing)

Design/development and manufacture of organosilicon compounds and cyclohexene (outsourcing)


Event review

On April 12, the Japanese chemical giant Toray released an investigation report, acknowledging that some of the resin products produced by the company had obtained safety specification certification issued by a third-party organization through fraudulent means.

According to the investigation, when Toray Company applied to a third-party agency in the United States for safety specification certification for some resin products, it added non-flammable substances to the submitted samples, making the composition of the sample inconsistent with the actual product. Nearly 30% of the certified resin products, a total of 122 kinds, were fraudulent in the certification process.

The investigation found that the fraud dates back to at least 1986, a time span of more than 35 years, and had formed a default among the company's insiders.

It is worth noting that after the scandal of tampering with product quality inspection data broke out in Toray's subsidiary in 2017, a comprehensive investigation was carried out on the whole group, but no problem of certification fraud was found until it was reported by internal employees at the end of 2021. Only made it public.

On January 31, 2022, Toray announced that the company incorrectly identified certain resin products as having been certified by Underwriters Laboratories ("UL"), a global third-party safety science organization headquartered in the United States. We deeply regret that this has happened and sincerely apologize for all the concern and inconvenience caused.