Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd has decided to renew the facilities of its Corporate Research & Development Laboratories at Amagasaki city with construction work having started on 24 June. The main project of the renewal is to build a new research building and a new laboratory for the purpose of enhancing the technological capabilities of these laboratories as an urban-type research base. The first floor of the new research building will use the world’s strongest structural steel materials that Sumitomo Metals has developed (product name: SSS1000) for the first time in the world, to ensure high seismic capacity. The aims of the renewal project, which will entail the construction of a new research building and a new laboratory, are to enhance the laboratories’ capabilities as an urban-type research base, promote technological development, and ultimately raise customer satisfaction. The new research building will use the “SSS1000” for the first time in the world. This product was developed jointly with Osaka University, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Nikken Sekkei Ltd, and Katayama Stratech Corp. By intensively installing the “SSS1000” and a vibration control device (product name: Steel Unbuckling Brace “SUB”), on the first floor of the building, the “SUB” will absorb most of the seismic energy while pillars made of the “SSS1000” swing sinuously at the time of an earthquake.
