August 17, 2020 - Dow-Mitsui Polychemicals (MDP) donated 7,000 sheets of tailor-made face shields to hospitals, local municipalities and Minato School for the Children with Special Needs in Tokyo. The face shields were produced using Dow’s Ionomer technology manufactured at MDP’s local manufacturing site together with local partner company, based on the design Dow developed for the front line workers of COVID-19. MDP is a 50:50 JV of Dow and Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
Leveraging advantages of its unique properties of Ionomer resin* with excellent transparency and gloss, it has been used as the bottle materials for luxurious cosmetics application. More recently its application is expanding to such as food packaging materials which helps to mitigate food loss with its high sealability. The face shield produced using the ionomer resin enables transparency, lightweight and flexible design as well as high chemical resistance which stands against continuous disinfection with alcohol, and it is scratch and crack resistant.
Dow in Japan has a long-term friendship with Minato School through supports by DEN to host “DEN Café” which is an educational activity at the workplace where students practice to serve coffee to Dow employees. The donated face shields will be utilized as PPE which is still in need at schools. MDP made donations of additional face shields to local municipalities, hospitals and Red Cross organization.
Tomoyuki Sasama who led the project comments “I am very pleased to be able to deliver the face shields to the students of Minato School with Special Needs who are really looking forward to the practical on-site education and that they were able to use them in time for the activity day. At the same time, I am deeply grateful for the partner company who supported the development, the Dow colleagues in the headquarters, the colleagues from China, and the Chinese customers for their cooperation behind the scenes. I realized that when you make donations, in fact, you were actually given a precious gift. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the volunteers from R&D and marketing team who supported this project and completed the development of the face shield”.
*in Japan, a joint venture, Dow-Mitsui Polychemicals Co., Ltd., manufactures and markets under a license from Dow