Sumitomo Metals' Corporate Research & Development Laboratories Completes Construction of New Research Building and New Laboratory

Today, the Corporate Research & Development Laboratories of Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. (Sumitomo Metals) in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture completed construction of its new research building and new laboratory. The construction began in June 2010. With these new buildings, we aim to accelerate research and development through intellectual exchanges among our researchers in different fields, who are currently dispersed but will be brought together to work on the same floor.

1. Outline of buildings
The Corporate Research & Development Laboratories (Amagasaki City) are located in the center of the Kansai region. They function as an urban-type research base with easy access for the customers. The buildings designed by Nikken Sekkei, Ltd. aim at promoting higher productivity in development activities by researchers. Upon completion, the new buildings will be unveiled to the Sumitomo Metals Group companies on December 6 when the Exhibition of Corporate Research & Development is to be held and to the media on the following date.

(1) New research building
Researchers who are currently dispersed among old buildings will be relocated to this new research building. From the second floor to the fourth floor, an expansive pillar-free open space office, as large as one football field in aggregate, has been created. Ample open space is designed to facilitate researchers, who are assigned to different products or technical areas, to actively communicate with each other and share their ideas and knowledge. This should lead to synergy and create new value.

(2) New laboratory
A new laboratory, which is next to the new research building, will consolidate small-sized lab equipments. Our aim is to improve mobility of researchers and speed up research and development activities. Laboratory tours will become available and our customers can watch some of research activities up close, which we hope to help building closer relationship with our customers.

2. Outline of construction
(1) Environmental performance
The new laboratory has a double-skin facade, which comprises two layers of glass for the outer walls. This enables entry of sunlight and helps reduce the interior air cooling burden by circulation of outside air between two glass layers, resulting in about 30% energy savings when compared to conventional highly-functional office buildings.

(2) Structure
The new research building has used the "SSS1000" for the first time in the world. This product is the world's strongest structural steel material, and a product that Sumitomo Metals has developed. Together with a vibration control device (product name: Steel Unbuckling Brace "SUB"), a high level of seismic protection capacity has been realized.

In addition, our unique building materials such as a new-structure steel pipe pile installed by the rotary penetration method (product name: GEO-WING PILE™ II) and lightweight welded H-beams (product name: SMart BEAM™) were used for the buildings.

 

(3) Location：	1-8 Fuso-cho, Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture
(4) Major buildings：	New research building (No. 1 Building) 5 floors above ground; gross floor area of 20,377m2; capacity for about 600 people
	New laboratory (No. 2 Building A) 4 floors above ground; gross floor area of 5,633m2
(5) Investment：	Approximately 10 billion yen
(6) Construction：	From June 2010 to October 2011
(7) Design and supervision：	Nikken Sekkei Ltd.
(8) Construction：	Shimizu Corporation

＜Reference＞

1. Completion ceremony

(1) Time and date:	Starting at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
(2) Place:	Inside of the new research building of Corporate Research & Development Laboratories
(3) Ceremony organizer:	Yutaka Akahane, Managing Executive Officer and General Manager of Corporate Research & Development Laboratories of Sumitomo Metals
(4) Attendees:	Approximately 80 people including the Mayor of Amagasaki City; representatives of construction-related companies; labor union representatives; representatives of affiliates; Hiroshi Tomono (President) and Yasuyuki Tozaki (Executive Vice President) of Sumitomo Metals

Photo (1) The exterior of the new research building

The outer wall is a glass facade. The double-skin structure is adopted to achieve energy saving. The adopted design enables the steel frame can be seen through the glass wall.

Photo(2) “SSS1000” and vibration control device　

“SSS1000,” the world’s strongest steel construction material, was used in pillars of the first floor, for the first time in the world. By installing the steel unbuckling brace, "SUB," when an earthquake occurs, most energy is to be absorbed by this vibration control device while the “SSS1000” pillars are to swing smoothly. As a result, high seismic protection capacity is to be achieved.