Automation Triples Productivity of Bridgestone Rubber Manufacturing Process

Bridgestone Corp. (TYO:5108) has introduced a newly developed pre-forming method that improves productivity of the manufacturing process for seismic isolation rubber. The new method is in use at the company’s Yokohama Plant where it manufactures seismic isolation rubber. In the pre-forming method, the interior rubber is injection-compression molded (ICM) to eliminate the rolling and punching processes. The use of robots…