Report
MEDICA is the world’s largest medical equipment expo, held at the same time and venue as COMPAMED.
Visitors: 132,000 people. Exhibitors: 4641 companies.
According to Mr. Ozawa, a sales manager at Tokyo Titanium Co. Ltd. and who exhibited at MEDICA, people rated the performance and quality of Japanese manufacturers’ products very highly. He feels the next step would be to identify the target audience, re-examine PR strategies, and continue to exhibit in the expo for 3 to 5 years in a row in order to raise the level of recognition. Here are 5 small and medium sized manufacturing companies located in Saitama and Fukushima prefectures. Currently, these five companies are working hard to deliver applications to their respective target customers.
Uchida Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer that specializes in designing, developing, and producing prototypes of parts that use the composite material CFRP, made of carbon fiber and resin. Uchida’s biggest strength is an in-house integrated production system which includes: CAD/CAM, a five-axis machining process, forming dies, jig production, manufacture of products, painting, measurement inspections, and after-sales services. The company possesses two autoclaves. Uchida pursues the possibilities of CFRP through its highly technical capabilities, such as high precision processing, and an integral lamination process in the clean room which meets United States’ standards. They continue to challenge themselves by producing parts used in two-wheel and four-wheel top races and responding to sophisticated requests from the aerospace field, while expanding their field of business to consider the environment in the next generation industrial equipment, robots, and medicine. In 2011, Uchida established a new global operating base that goes from the design to painting process for large next-generation helicopter blades sent overseas, all completed confidentially in-house for the first time. In November 2013, as a company responsible for making technical advances in next generation, research on using CFRP in engine parts was jointly started with Italian luxury car manufacturer Lamborghini, making small steps toward putting the products into practical use. A prototype production system is scheduled to be introduced this year, and is one of the few in the world that can produce three different types of molds.
Actment Co., Ltd. develops and manufactures medical devices and new materials such as a shape-memory alloy (Nitinol), and Inconel, which is based on the basic technologies of manufacturing wire springs and plate springs. For the company’s main product, wire springs, products such as precise 0.1mm springs to 8mm coil springs, extension springs and torsion springs are manufactured by contract. Actment is also expert at mold design and manufacturing plate springs using press work. It handles customers’ requests including the limited or mass production of a variety of press products using its wealth of experience, know-how, the latest equipment and proficient skills. Actment is able to develop functional parts using a shape-memory alloy (Nitinol) and trial products for customers using new materials such as Inconel (a heat- resistant and acid-resistant alloy) to meet a wide range of needs. The company is involved in the field of advanced technologies, such as springs using beta-titanium which is 65% lighter than stainless steel yet has the same hardness. These springs were utilized in the antenna actuator on the engineering technology satellite Kiku 8, launched in December 2007. It has clean rooms (1,000 and 10,000 class) and is actively working to increase its contracted manufacture of medical products.
Tokyo Titanium’s main plant is located in Saitama City in Saitama Prefecture and the company sells titanium materials and designs, processes and sells products using titanium. It has its own warehouse for storing materials, an internal design division and processing equipment (machining, sheet metal processing and welding). With one of the only integrated production systems for titanium products in the world, it is expert at making deliveries in a short time or in small lots.In addition to selling titanium materials in various shapes, Tokyo Titanium also designs, develops, processes and sells heat exchangers, heaters, equipment parts, medical equipment and electrodes. It also has an abundance of experience with various titanium parts for underwater seismographs and seabed exploration vehicles that are expected to be in greater demand in the future to develop oceanic resources, and provides the design and development of such products using its own know-how. Products of Tokyo Titanium, which obtains ISO13485 specializing in the manufacture of medical equipment, have been shown at medical equipment exhibitions in Ireland, Germany and the United States where the company has been highly evaluated for its extremely high machining precision, unique production know-how and quality management. Tokyo Titanium is aiming to increase its sale of titanium products to medical equipment manufacturers in the European region.
Nippon Serbig Co., Ltd. develops and manufactures various coil winding machines and auxiliary equipment, mainly coil winding machines for perfectly layered winding coils. It manufactures a wide range of winding machines, from heavy wire to extremely thin wire winding machines.
The winding process for heavy wire often includes many specific details and conditions from a round shape to a more angular shape. On the other hand, extremely thin wire can be as small as microns.
Serbig is able to efficiently coil extremely thin wire with a diameter of 20μm, and is pursuing precise winding conditions for even thinner wire materials in order to further reduce the size of coils.
Because of this, tremendous advances in the freedom of internal equipment layouts for industrial design are possible and this technology also contributes to increased performance and miniaturization of portable devices, digital cameras, electronic tags and robots. A system for handling orders from overseas is currently being put into place. Serbig’s sales staff have a wealth of experience in such areas as the process of customs declarations to export coil winding machines and creating manuals not only in Japanese, but in the local languages where the units are installed. A distributor has been established in China to further increase its market share and Serbig is working to further increase its number of customers in the United States. A Southeast Asia subsidiary located in Thailand is working to strengthen their presence in the Southeast Asia market, which is growing at a remarkable rate.
Looking ahead, they have their eyes set on the European market and the further strengthening of their overseas network.
E.S.Q. Ltd. is a new manufacturer established in 2000 with the goal of becoming the one and only manufacturer to “produce precision pipes that no one else can produce.” The company manufactures pipes out of stainless steel, nickel alloy and rare metals (Ta, Nb, Mo and Ti) and performs secondary processing. It is able to manufacture pipes with an external diameter between φ0.3 and φ20, a thickness of more than 0.015mm and a length from 1.0mm to more than 2,000 meters. Its products are used in a variety of fields including medical equipment, ABS parts for vehicles, nuclear power equipment, advanced analysis equipment and other electronics. Although the quality required differs for each field, E.S.Q. thoroughly examines the major points for quality and details not included in the technical drawings from the product design development stage. The company’s name, E.S.Q., derives from Eco-friendly, Specialist and Quality. The company continues to challenge the boundaries of new products based on these three points of its philosophy.
