Engineering Business
About the Noritake Group
Tomoaki Maeda
With our core technologies of heating, mixing, filtering, and cutting, we provide wide range of engineering equipment to a variety of industries including automotive, electronic components, chemicals, medicines, and food. We contribute to greater efficiency and energy savings in the manufacturing workplaces. We develop and design drying furnaces, heating furnaces, mixing and stiring machines, filtration equipment, cutting machines, and other equipment to match the customers' needs.
Main products
●High-efficiency heating furnace roller hearth kiln ●Far-infrared drying furnace ●Mixing and stiring machines (static mixer, etc.) ●Cutting machine ●Carbide-tipped circular sawing machine
Performance in fiscal 2020
Sales of our primary drying furnaces and heating furnaces have been
down for major customers, given the delays in equipment installations and
the restraint for equipment investment that resulted from COVID-19. Sales
for mixing and stiring machines remained good for food industry, but sales
were weak for chemical customers. Sales were lower for filtration systems.
There were orders for large-scale devices for domestic machine part customers, but overseas demand trended lower. Sales for carbide-tipped
circular sawing machines declined dramatically, given the slump of
automotive and industrial machinery customers both domestically and
overseas. Engineering Business net sales therefore were 18.720 billion,
down 16.2 percent YoY, and operating profits were 1.871 billion yen, down
28.5 percent YoY.
Progress of the Three-year Business Plan
The Engineering Business is involved in promoting the development of
competitive new products and new technologies for the 11th Three-year
Business Plan. Installation work is needed when delivering new equipment, but
after overseas travel restrictions were announced in early FY2020, we have
been unable to work onsite. We have also been unable to meet with customers
to share our new products and to identify new markets, which resulted to the
delays for development and proposal work.
We are involved in efforts to develop new products and associate higher
value propositions for existing products as we concentrate in core competence
that will allow the business to return to the right direction. In addition to
focusing attention on promoting drying furnaces and heating furnaces to
battery material and electronic component customers, where growth is
expected to continue, we are also promoting the development of new products
for automotive customers. Promotions are underway to introduce mixing and
stiring machines to pharmaceutical and cosmetic customers, and filtration
systems to automotive parts customers. Regarding carbide-tipped circular
cutting machines, we focus on developing new materials and on construction
material customers.
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Static mixer -
Roller hearth kiln -
Coolant filtration system -
Food sterilizer -
Rotary kiln -
Carbide-tipped circular sawing machine (Thin Cut Master)
Our medium- to long-term business vision
The Engineering Business provides machinery and equipment designed to
meet customer applications and needs. We support manufacturing in a variety
of different industries. There was favorable growth for heating furnaces for
lithium-ion battery and 5G-related business customers. Our prioritized focus
has been on technological development here. The Heat Technology Testing
Center for this business unit, located in Komaki City, Aichi, receives product
inquiries from customers. Based on their requirements, test equipment is
selected, and the center performs verification testing, changing the
temperature and transportation conditions. This type of development system
has been able to support the rapidly changing technological needs of our
electronic component customers. We are currently performing higher heating
efficiency verification testing on heating furnaces for lithium-ion battery
materials. This facility has also provided the heating process work for
multi-layer ceramic capacitors used in electronic components, but recently we
have been using two heating processes: non-binder and re-oxidation.
Development is underway for a new system that can offer non-binder, heating,
and re-oxidation all in one. We have already entered the testing phase for it.
Given concerns over material shortages, we are preparing to work with new
battery materials. Moving forward, plans call for aggressive research and
development with an outside partner with experience in technologies we lack.
For mixing and stiring machines, we have completed work on an all-in-one
system to allow for a switch to a serial line from what was once batch
processing. This will be promoted to customers in the pharmaceutical and
cosmetic fields. This uses the ultra-compact static mixer developed last year
within a systematic approach. We are also moving forward in finding uses for
the fine bubble generators, capable of creating microscopic foams. One of the
primary items for filtration systems has been for gear grinding equipment. At
present, the primary coolant for gear grinding is oil-based, but we are now
promoting a water-soluble coolant filtration system that is more eco-friendly.
Dedicated personnel are critical for continually and stably enabling these
systems. Such personnel can conduct onsite inspections at manufacturing
locations for different industries. Moving forward, more attention will be given
to personnel training. This business has a constant eye on the future. We are
working vigorously toward the vision we have developed.
TOPICS
Developed the World's First Gas-Fired Serial Heating Furnace for Lithium-Ion Battery Electrode Materials
Noritake has developed the world's first gas-fired serial heating furnace for lithium-ion battery electrode materials, using a unique ceramic radiant tube burner. Sales began in August of 2020. This product was born from a melding of different technologies. Noritake offered heating furnace technology and Tokyo Gas and Tokyo Gas Engineering Solutions, offered gas-fired heating technology. This new and highly efficient heating equipment can realize up to a 40 percent reduction in energy costs. The lithium-ion battery electrode manufacturing process, for which there has been increasing demand in recent years, requires a heating process that can be stably maintained at high heats of 1,000°C or more. A solution arose when combining technologies for gas-fired high-temperature heating issues from three companies, and we brought that solution to market.
