2014 International Rubber Conference (IRC2014) was successfully held in Beijing, China on Sep. 16-18, 2014. More than 700 invited guests and industry representatives attended the meeting, who were from China, Malaysia, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Germany, India and other 21 countries and regions.
The meeting was hosted by the Rubber Committee of China Chemical Industry and Engineering Society, organized by Beijing Research and Design Institute of Rubber Industry(BRDI), co-organized by China Rubber Industry Association, China Synthetic Rubber Industry Association, China Natural Rubber Association, and Aeolus Tyre Co. Ltd, sponsored and supported by Aeolus Tyre Co. Ltd and a number of other companies. For the guidance of the conference, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Wang Fosong and Shen Zhiquan, academician of Chinese Academy Engineering Mao Bingquan and Cao Xianghong led to form the International Technical Advisory Board of IRC2014 with some other rubber industry internationally renowned experts and scholars. The Technical Committee was formed by domestic renowned scholars and scientific and technical workers, and named academicians Cao Xianghong and Wang Fosong as the chairman, professors He Xiaomei and Zhang Liqun as vice chairman.
On the day of the conference, academicians Cao Xianghong and Mao Bingquan appeared in person and delivered a wonderful speech.
Mr. Ma Liangqing, the executive chairman of the conference and vice president of BRDI, hosted the opening ceremony. Mr. Li Yongwu, the chairman of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China and the IRC2014 organizing committee, gave a welcome speech. He said, this is the third time for China to hold the international rubber conference after 1992 and 2004. During the past 10 years, China’s rubber industry has made great progress. Both the product yield and output value ranked the forefront of the world. China has become a great country of world in rubber products production and consumption, and rubber industry has made great contributions to promoting the healthy development of the national economy. Meanwhile, China and foreign rubber industry have great differences as well as complementarities, thus this would lead bright prospects for cooperation, IRC2014 will definitely promote exchanges and cooperation of rubber industry between China and other foreign countries to a new higher level. Mr. Anthony Hammond from Australia, the chairman of the International Rubber Conference Organization (IRCO), presented at the conference and made a speech. He firstly expounded the definitions of rubber industry and described the enormous changes of rubber industry occurred in Australia in recent years. And then Mr. Anthony Hammond gave a brief introduction of IRCO. Mr. Fan Xiaosen, deputy general manager of ChemChina, issued a congratulatory message with the theme of “Promote Win-win with Cooperation, Promote Development with Innovation”. On behalf of ChemChina, Mr. Fan Xiaosen sent his warmest congratulations to IRC2014 and sincerely hoped that the outcome of this conference can provide useful inspiration to promote the healthy development of global rubber industry.
The theme of the conference is “Green • Innovation • Development”, and the theme congress was held on Sep. 16, which focused on the development and technical progress of global rubber industry. There were in all ten experts from China, India, Japan, the United States and German represented their countries and regions exchanged and communicated with each other about hot topics. Academician Cao Xianghong delivered a report of which theme was “Establishing a strong China synthetic rubber industry via innovations and reforms”. The report pointed out that: China has become a great country of world in synthetic rubber production and with progress of technology. But in recent years, synthetic rubber industry in our country has been developed with regardless of resources and technical conditions, a number of projects are carried out hasty and unquestioning. In case of this opportunistic practice, we should strengthen basic research to overcome the technical bottlenecks, improve the quality and environmental protection, develop new technology of synthetic rubber with green and clean process. And also we need to take some other several measures, such as strengthening the process science and engineering technology development, following the market forces, and eliminating backward industrial capacity. Only through this kind of targeted measures could we ensure the sustainable and healthy development of China’s synthetic rubber industry.
On the days 17th and 18th, in the conference, 5 branch fields were set up and 170 lectures in account were arranged. Many well-known experts, scholars and engineers exchanged their new research findings around seven topics. The seven topics are （1）Natural rubber, synthetic rubber and bio-based elastomer. （2）Reinforcing agent, skeleton materials, new environment-friendly additives. （3）Rubber blending and compounding. （4）Rubber recycling and tire retreading. （5）Green tire, special tire and rubber products: New technology and new products. （6）Analysis and test: New methodology, instrument and results. （7）Processing and equipment: Energy saved and emission reduced technology, cleaner production. Oral reports including 66 invited reports. These invited reports are reported by highly influential Chinese and foreign experts and professors of rubber industry, which greatly improved the quality of oral reports, and also attracted wide attention and resonate in the industry.
In addition, in order to expand the exchange range, 110 research papers with high academic and scientific value were posted.
On the attach exhibition, a total of 30 exhibitors showcased their latest products and technologies, including tires, rubber goods, rubber raw materials, rubber equipment and machinery, rubber testing and analysis instrument, tire retreading technology equipment and materials, rubber industry magazines and so on. Visitors who attended the conference showed great responses.
Compared to the International Rubber Conference held in other countries before, IRC2014 is a rich international rubber conference with a number of innovations. First, in order to facilitate the submission, review and revision of papers, the organizers developed an online system. All the papers could be submitted and modified on the internet. Experts could review, editors could edit, and the incoming and outgoing mail could be passed and operated through the system. The system would be sure to reduce the operating steps and facilitate the author to check their papers reviewing progress online.
Secondly, as the theme of the conference is “Green • Innovation • Development”, the organizing committee has decided to use E-book to publish papers instead of traditional paper collection. Finally, all the 248 domestic and 102 foreign papers have been collected and divided in the E-book according to seven different topics. Saving paper means green and resource saving, and E-book is convenient to carry as well as reusable.
Furthermore, since there would be many people to present, the organizing committee has confirmed to open on-site registration in case of disorder. The on-site registration which contains information confirms, register, payment, print vouchers, draw documents and E-books could be much more easily by using intelligent solutions system. The intelligent solutions system is supported with several computer groups and can reduce handwork and mistakes which further promote the reception capacity. Attendance at this conference reached more than 700 people, but due to the effective management, there were no gigantic registers at the registration station. We arranged documents delivery in good order without missing or wrong delivery.
In addition, in order to facilitate the search and timely disclosure of relevant information reported by each venue, the organizers developed a mobile client APP which is approved and widely acclaimed by delegates.
For the convenience of scholars and technicians to communicate and listen to the report, all the venues were provided with simultaneous translation. Obviously, it worked well.
IRC2014 is a large-scale and full of remarkable achievements international event. It built a high-end communication platform for the global rubber industry. Through this platform, China showed the scientific and technological strength and economic strength of China rubber industry to the whole world. Thus it will enhance the communication and cooperation between domestic and foreign scholars and experts. To some extent, it will promote the technological innovation of rubber industry continuously and help the global rubber industry develop new breakthroughs.
IRC2014 has received supports and sponsors from many enterprises and research centers. They are Aeolus Tyre Co. Ltd, Shandong Linglong Tire Co. Ltd, China Petrochemical Corporation, Jiangsu Xingda Steel Tyre Cord Co. Ltd, Shanghai Hankook Tire Sales Company, ExxonMobil Chemical, Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. Ltd, Red Avenue Group, Quechen Silicon Chemical Co. Ltd, Zhejiang Hailide New Material Co. Ltd, Wuxi Boton Belt Co., Ltd, State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Key Laboratory of Beijing City on Preparation and Processing of Novel Polymer Materials, Engineering Research Center on Elastomer Energy Conservation and Resource Recovery of Ministry of Education, the Strategic Alliance of Tire Industry Technology Innovation, Research Center of Advanced Elastomer Materials of Beijing University of Chemical Technology.  IRC2014 has achieved a complete and great success!

IRC2014 Organizing Committee Secretariat