Introducing Yamamoto Corporation’s rubber materials: All materials are manufactured in the factories (in Japan) of Yamamoto Corporation. The factories have obtained ISO13485 Certificates, the international quality standards for medical equipment manufacturers. Yamamoto Corporation manufactures products under complete quality control.
Yamamoto Corporation’s rubber materials have a completely closed-cell foam (honeycomb structure), boasting very low density (light weight), high flexibility and excellent thermal insulation properties. Yamamoto Corporation can provide superior high-quality materials that meet the usage demands and environments, and at the desired thicknesses.
The grades shown with stars below are general indications after comparing them with other materials. Strength and flexibility will change when other processing is applied and/or fabric is attached.
One of Yamamoto Corporation’s regular materials. This material is frequently used as wetsuit material for wild marine sports such as scuba diving, kayaking and sailing, as well as spear fishing.
This is the most common material, even called Yamamoto 39 in overseas markets. This material is used in surfing, triathlons, swimming and spear fishing.
This material was developed by improving the flexibility of #39. This material is adopted as wetsuit material for surfing and triathlons, which require the wearers to have a flexible range of motion.
This material is the most flexible, and wetsuits made from this material are mainly worn by free divers and professional women pearl divers. Many divers love the wetsuits made with #45, after experiencing its comfort.
This material is a favored wetsuit material by professional women pearl divers and other professional divers, who need to dive in deep water.
Specialized strength material made by increasing the density of Yamamoto Corporation’s rubber through special compression. This material is used for dry suits.
Rubber material homogenously containing precious metals used as materials for the health promoting “Biorubber” and the medical care product “Medical Biorubber.” This material has the feature of emitting high-level infrared rays.
Introducing Yamamoto Corporation’s rubber material surface types: The usage for each rubber material is decided by the original surface of Yamamoto Corporation’s rubber materials, the surface after processing, which comes to the front or back when used and the difference in body parts, etc.
The grades shown with stars below for strength and flexibility are general indications after setting “S (Smooth Skin)” as having three stars for both strength and flexibility. Some surface processing cannot be applied to the rubber materials depending on the item number. The grades shown with stars are indications after comparing them with other materials. Strength and flexibility will change when other processing is applied and/or fabrics are attached.
Surfaces that are innate to rubber materials are called “Smooth Skin.” Smooth Skin is applied on the outside or inside of wetsuits, and its feature is its beautiful surface.
This surface is called “Cell Skin,”obtained by slicing the inside of raw rubber boards. The sectioned surface with the closed-cell foam is utilized to generate such effects as non-slip materials. In many cases, it is used on the surface after Jersey laminating.
Processing the surface of rubber materials with “Cross Mesh Skin,” generates a moderate slip-proof effect and increases the strength of the surface.
This material is called “Shark Skin.” The fine and deeply curved patterns on the rubber surface are to increase density and enable the highest strength rubber surface.
The process called “Taper Emboss” produces a sequential form like the end of a raw rubber board. It is generally used for separating rubber by each ditch such as in the neck, wrist and ankle parts of a suit.
The “Step Emboss” is produced by embossing and creates narrow ditches deeply curved into the material. The separated “Step Emboss” slip is used for the elbow, knee, shoulder and side parts of a suit, which are rubbed when you wear, and bend in only one direction.
“Compression Emboss” processing that provides compression by wearing. By adopting it to the parts for calves and the upper part of arms of a wet suit, it exercises compression function and can lead to alleviating fatigue.
“Super Honeycomb” is one of the “Intelligent Skin Series” that can control the flow of water. Regular hexagons are lined up to have ditches with 60 degrees. This realizes a reduction in resistance from water by controlling the water flow in a honeycomb (beehive) format.
The “Y-Grid” of the “Intelligent Skin Series” has a design that is like half of Yamamoto Corporation’s logo placed in a grid-like (lattice) pattern. As this pattern has a similar configuration, which is based on 60-degrees as a regular hexagon, the Y-Grid Intelligent Skin also reduces water resistance in the same way as the “Super Honeycomb” from the same series.
“Water Wing” is the only process in the “Intelligent Skin Series” that increases water resistance. It can be used for parts that need to strongly grasp water by applying water resistance, and to add pressure.
Introducing Yamamoto Corporation’s surface processing line-up for rubber materials: The application of surface processing enables improvement of functionality including heat‐retention, buoyancy and decreasing friction, as well allowing a wide variety of coloring.
These are textile materials made of polyester, nylon, etc. Applying Jersey on the rubber surface reinforces the strength as a material, and using it on the outside surface enables a wide array of colors and patterns. Jersey applications on the inside surface where there is contact with skin, makes it easy to put on and take off. • Elasticity 180~380% • Water absorption 0~5%
“SCS (Super Composite Skin)” is the processing for the surface of “Smooth Skin.” By applying micellar structure processing with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties, it coats the surface with water molecules when the surface is wet. This leads to reducing the resistance when putting on and taking off, and alleviates water resistance. A number of the world’s top free divers wearing wetsuits with SCS processing on the outside have set new records. • Friction resistance coefficient: 0.32 ~ 0.021 cdf
By applying “Ti-Alpha (Titanium-Alpha)” that uses a titanium alloy, it reflects the body temperature inwards and keeps the inside warm while the coldness of water outside so that the coldness does not affect body temperature. It is typically processed as a layer between the rubber material and Jersey. • Heat reflectivity: 25~40 %
This is the international patent material which has many air holes evenly placed on the rubber material. It can be used for reducing the weight of the material. The function of releasing body humidity can be added by using with Jersey. In addition, using it with rubber will add buoyancy by keeping air bubbles in the air holes, and it is even able to improve heat-retention due to the heat insulating effect of the air bubbles. AERODOME is mainly used as a material for triathlon wear.
This material had been widely adopted for competition swimsuits by many manufactures before the rules for competition swimming had been revised (until the use of rubber for competition swimsuits was banned), which resulted in a number of swimmers getting on the winners’ podium in international competitions. This is now used in triathlons and for open water swimming. Many divers use wear made with BRS, especially at free diving competitions. It uses an ultra-thin rubber material and has more excellent heat-retention properties than normal swimsuits, and it is also used in swimwear for swimming practice by competitors. This material is used for outdoor goods, parts of work clothes, and even for clothes in the fashion industry.
Specialized strength material made by increasing the density of Yamamoto Corporation’s rubber through special compression. This material is used for dry suits.Textile-based high-speed swimsuit material that does not use rubber. TX is officially approved as a qualified competition swimsuit material by the International Swimming Federation (FINA), and many swimsuit manufacturers around the globe have adopted TX. Yamamoto Corporation makes improvements to the TX series every year. It creates a coat of water by catching water at the molecular level and is able to keep the resistance value of water to a minimum.