Ricoh was founded eighty years ago as a startup company based on new technology of paper. Today, we offer mainly equipment and services for business persons in office. Starting with our history, this paper outlines the structure of technology management that underpins the current businesses, followed by the research and development process citing recent cases, and finally the essentials of how we place the target technology in light of creating a new business.

Nanocelluloses are promising bio-based nanomaterials prepared from abundant wood biomass resources. Numerous inter-fibrillar hydrogen bonds are present in native wood fibers, which causes high energy consumption in preparation process of nanocelluloses. Hence, various chemical and enzymatic pretreatments of wood fibers have been developed to reduce energy consumption in mechanical nanofibrillation process and to prepare nanocelluloses with fine widths as much as possible. Because bulk nanocellulose materials and nanocellulose-containing composite materials have unique properties applicable to high-tech fields, nanocellulose-related fundamental and application studies have been extensively and intensively carried out in this century. From this aspect, some presentations reported in 2016 TAPPI Nanotech Conference held in Grenoble, France, are introduced in terms of creation of new nanocellulose-based industries.

Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) are nano-sized cellulose fibers with a high aspect ratio, which are produced by fibrillation of pulp. In order to facilitate fibrillation of pulp efficiently, chemical pretreatments are often used before mechanical treatments. We investigated phosphate esterification method as a chemical pretreatment. Using this method and mechanical treatment, CNF could be prepared easily while controlling its size. CNF is known to exhibit low coefficient of linear thermal expansion (CLTE), high modulus of elasticity and high strength because of the extended chain crystals. Further, due to the nano size, the CNF dispersion has extremely high transparency and viscosity. We have developed not only the dispersion of CNF but also the wet powder and the transparent sheet of CNF. As a result, it is expected that CNF can be used in a wide field.

Nanocellulose satisfies the emerging demand for environmentally-friendly and sustainable nanomaterials. Due to the excellent material properties, such as high Young’s modulus, high strength and low thermal expansion coefficient, nanocellulose has been attracting attention as a future nanofiller in polymer nanocomposite materials. However, in development of the nanocomposites, incompatibility with hydrophobic polymers often become critical issue. Generally, to achieve homogeneous distribution of nanocellulose in hydrophobic polymer matrices, melt compounding at high temperatures or solution casting using organic solvents are necessary. In other words, to overcome the high interfacial energy between them, the nanocomposite preparation requires a lot of energy and careful processing, which hinder the commercial viability. Here, we report on a facile method to prepare nanostructured nanocellulose/hydrophobic polymer composite, through aqueous polymerization process. Surface-carboxylated nanocellulose with a width of ~3 nm was prepared by TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl)-mediated oxidation of wood cellulose. The nanocellulose/polymer composite was successfully prepared by polymerizing the monomer encapsulated in the emulsion, with the assistance of the nanocellulose as a stabilizer. In this study, we demonstrate that the ultrafine nanocellulose can construct organized polymer nanoparticle/nanocellulose structure, and act as reinforcing nanofiller in the resulting composite materials.

ZAIKTHENE was developed in 1965 to enhance paper functionality, and its application has been expanded widely in industrial processes since then. The characteristics and applications of ZAIKTHENE and water based emulsion products will be introduced in this article. In the modern society where switching to water-based products is attracting attention, we believe that it is meaningful to introduce our products with this article. While applications in which water-based emulsions are used for coatings, binders, dipping, dispersants, and many others, we hope that the creation of new ideas or new values based on this article will be achieved.

The increased use of carbon fiber reinforced composites has rendered their recycling a crucial requirement. On the other hand, composites from recycled discontinuous carbon fiber are inferior in mechanical properties compared with continuous fiber reinforced composites. In order to utilize recycled carbon fiber as composites reinforcement, it is required to improve the mechanical properties of discontinuous fiber reinforced composites. This paper introduces developed novel techniques which achieve improvement of mechanical properties of discontinuous fiber composite, i.e. fiber opening technique of discontinuous fiber, fiber alignment technique of modified yarn manufacturing process, and local reinforcement technique by continuous fiber tape placement.

Papers for carbonization were prepared from pulp and organic fiber, and carbonized as sheet-like carbon. The carbonized papers retained the properties of original papers such as porosity and so on. In addition, they had high electrical conductivity, so they were used as electrode materials for secondary batteries. The Si-based anode for lithium ion secondary batteries consisted of a carbonized paper and Si powder was advantageous to absorb severe volume changes of Si particle by the three-dimensional carbonized fiber framework and exhibited excellent capacity retention. The cathode for lithium air secondary batteries consisting of a carbonized paper and electrode catalysts exhibited more superior initial polarization properties and more superior cycle characteristics by controlled carbon deterioration during charging.

Two examples typical of paper-based devices will be introduced in this article. Paper is a material with a high Young’s modulus that vibrates sensitively due to environmental noise, voice, and sound. This study aims to create a triboelectric power generator to convert sonic vibration energy into electrical energy. A triboelectrically charged polytetrafluoroethylene sheet and a back electrode were attached to a paperboard. Another paperboard with a counter electrode attached was vibrated in the out of-plane direction. The generated power between the two electrodes reached 11.8 μW at 2 MΩ load. Water containing excessive amounts of Cu²⁺ is extremely harmful to human health and the biology of other animals. The other study developed a user-friendly, low-cost, sensitive, and ion-species-selective paper-based sensor to inspect drinking and industrial water for excessive Cu²⁺ levels. The paper-based sensor was fabricated simply by printing a quinone derivative dye solution onto a filter paper. The color of the dye on the sensor changed from yellow to purple in presence of Cu²⁺ as low as 2 ppm. Quantitatively, linear relationships were observed between the surface fluorescence intensity and Cu²⁺ concentration in the water samples.

The important role of corrugated packaging is to safely deliver products from manufacturers to consumers, while maintaining the quality of the product without damaging it. However, the mechanical function corrugated board offered may not be sufficient in terms of protection depending on products. Therefore, the demand for functional corrugated board with special features has increased, which made manufacturers work diligently to develop functional packages for a wide range of uses of corrugated board. In this paper, the development and application examples of recyclable functional corrugated board are introduced.