ISOWA NEWS LETTER Vol.83

March 1, 2016 at 9:00 am | Posted in English version | 2 Comments

———————————————————————

 

 

ISOWA NEWS LETTER

 

 

2016/3/1     Vol. 83

 

———————————————————————

 

ISOWA NEWS LETTER is a newsletter for the benefit of special customers only. Each month we bring you information about our company and its products ― information you won’t find on our home page or in our catalogs. We hope ISOWA NEWS LETTER will help you feel closer to us.

 

Hi! I’m Yuto Aoki of ISOWA AMERICA.

It’s been exactly a year since I last wrote the foreword for the ISOWA NEWS LETTER, and it’s now been more than a year since I came to America. The last time I wrote, I was still studying English at ASU but now I am flying around North and South America on work assignments as a staff member of ISOWA AMERICA.

The most enjoyable time for me is looking down on the great nature from the airplane as I move around. I never tire of being overwhelmed by the magnificent scenery, the like of which we just can’t see in Japan.

In February last month, I had the chance to visit a customer in Canada.

Phoenix where ISOWA AMERICA is located was gradually getting warmer and reached a maximum temperature of 30°C. But it was definitely still winter at the customer’s location in Canada. It varied from day to day but basically the temperatures went down to a minimum temperature of -20°C. That was a 50°C temperature difference! And of course, I immediately caught a cold. I’ll have to get more adaptable to different environments.

Still, I get the opportunity to experience and see things that I would not be able to do in Japan, so every day is full and productive for me.

 

And now, let’s turn to Vol. 83 of the ISOWA NEWS LETTER.

We hope you like this edition.

 

 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Introducing the desire of i Machine CF60 developer

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Hi, I’m Seiji Yamashita of the Osaka Domestic Sales Department.

 

In this edition of the ISOWA NEWS LETTER, I’ll introduce the CF60 Minglefacer, which is an i Machine.

We at ISOWA aim at “Creating a company with the best corporate culture in the world that makes us and our families happy”. “i Machine” are machines that ISOWA people developed to supply the customer with “satisfaction, comfort, and happiness”, as well as the functionality and performance we delivered in the past. Instead of just following what we have done before, we started again from a blank page, which takes a lot of energy and an extremely long time. To overcome this significant barrier, many ISOWA people got their heads together to combine their knowledge.

Our customers demand a singlefacer that can handle the manufacture of multiple flutes. Singlefacers that enable flute change are usually cartridge-type machines, but the cartridges have to be handled, which increases the operator’s workload. Steam pipes need to be connected and disconnected, and removing them incorrectly can lead to a major accident. So, to achieve greater safety and ease of use, we developed the CF60 according to the development concepts below.

 

<<CF60 Development Concepts>>

1) Singlefacer that can be installed in the existing space and manufacture multi-flutes.

2) Singlefacer that allows safe and easy cartridge replacement.

3) Singlefacer that manufactures high-quality sheet with little paper damage.

 

I went to watch the CF60 in production the other day, and I felt that cartridge replacement by a single button operation was quite revolutionary.

I’d like to introduce the desire of the ISOWA people who developed the CF60.

 

◎Mr. M of the Engineering Department

The CF60 Minglefacer was developed according to the principles of reducing the burden on the operator and allowing safe and simple operation.

During the development, we found it difficult to turn our desire into reality.

Customers updating machines may consider the advantages of introducing a new machine and demand a higher-rank model than the current machine and request a cartridge-type singlefacer that is able to produce C and E flute. But models like that are large in size and are impossible to install in some cases, and it may have been sometimes necessary to move a splicer or mill roll stand.

We wondered what we could do under these conditions and came to the strong conclusion that we needed a singlefacer that is able to manufacture multiple flutes in the space that had been occupied by a conventional singlefacer. Furthermore, a lot of things have to be investigated with a cartridge-type singlefacer, such as connecting and disconnecting the steam pipes, evacuation of the paper rolls on the operator’s side, maneuvering cartridges from the cartridge standby space, changing cartridges and restrictions on lift movement.

After these considerations, we resolved to develop a singlefacer with a small installation footprint that is able to manufacture multi-flutes to high quality and replaces the cartridges automatically. This would be a totally new type of machine with no track record and I was unsure if we could make it. But we were able to work together to make it happen since we have a lot of ISOWA people who take the initiative, extend a hand, and brighten the atmosphere. I got ideas from many people and even took advice from outside the company on occasion. Some of the ideas were fantastic while others were unrealistic. Day after day we tested them but didn’t get great results. What to do next? We compiled these ideas and determined a certain direction and resolved to go with it. It took a great deal of time and effort to get to that point but it was very fulfilling for an engineer.

After the direction was determined, we proceeded comparatively smoothly to complete the CF60 No.1 machine and it operates properly on the customer’s site.

At the current stage, I don’t think that the machine is in its final form yet. As an engineer, I’ll continue to strive to enhance its accuracy.

 

◎Mr. T of the Electrical Engineering Department

Discussions between the Electrical Engineering Department and other departments on what sort or machine we could make to please our customers resulted in the birth of the CF60 Minglefacer. The CF60 is a cartridge-type singlefacer that incorporates two types of corrugating roll. Although it is a cartridge-type machine, we really struggled with it as it had to be designed to be more compact than our CF40.

One day we realized that the space above the singlefacer was hardly utilized so we stopped thinking of the machine as a flat plane but as a three-dimensional space, like a multistorey car park. But then we realized it would be impossible to safely lift the 4-tonne corrugating rolls by human power and decided we had no option but to mechanically automate the machine. When automatically replacing the cartridges, they have to be removed while controlling risks of knocking the cartridges together or dropping them. We really struggled for a long time to investigate where to apply interlocks.

As most of the rolls are independently driven in the CF60, it requires more than 1.5 times as many motors as the previous CF40. The amount of electrical equipment increases proportionally and large control board is required but, by incorporating motion technologies and other technologies we hadn‘t used before, we achieved savings in space and cost and reduced the electrical work required on site.

It was the first machine and a singlefacer like no other, so we struggled really hard to think only with an imagination and bring it into existence. The first machine caused all sorts of unexpected problems from the time it was delivered, but with the experience we‘ve gained from it, I‘m sure we’ve managed to create far more perfect machines from the second machine on.

I‘ll continue to work to create safer machines that can be used with complete peace of mind.

 

***************************************************************************

 

In ISOWA, the CF60 is nicknamed “Minglefacer”.

The development of this machine involved an exchange of ideas between all departments – Sales, Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing, Service, and Machining – to mingle everyone‘s knowledge and develop the machine. The word “mingle”, which means “combine together”, was just perfect for the name of this machine developed by combining our knowledge.

This CF60 Minglefacer is the very first i Machine, where the “i” signifies:

– i for ISOWA;

– i for me, one of the ISOWA people; and

– i (sounds like a “love” in Japanese) for our customers.

 

We at ISOWA have a love for manufacturing machines and put our soul into making them. When a customer uses one of our i Machines that we made, we hope it is truly a “loved (=i) machine”. At ISOWA, we’ll continue to develop machines, including i Machines, which deliver value for our customers.

Thank you very much.

 

———————————————————————-

Tales of ISOWA People, Continued
———————————————————————-

Behind every company, there is a product; in the shadow of every product, there is a person; within every person, there is a history. ISOWA People—the ISOWA employees who shaped ISOWA into the company that it is today.

Busy Days and Relationships of Trust

On an excursion with bosses and colleagues. From left to right: Higuchi (formerly Assembly Dept.), Funahashi, Yamaguchi (formerly Assembly Dept.), and Eiichi Isowa (formerly adviser).

In the sixth year after Mr. Funahashi joined the company, the company headquarters shifted to the current location in Kasugai. At the same time, the Assembly Department was split into four teams. The number of staff and site area both increased and they made a correspondingly larger number of machines. In a single year, they delivered 13 corrugators. Dryers (now called “doublefacers”) and cutters also sold like hot cakes. At that time, each team comprised two people who worked as a pair but, as the production volume increased, they were shorthanded for many years. Mr. Funahashi worked hard to fabricate a variety of machines. One time, after working for a long time to make a machine, he’d got it back to front by mistake. Of course, he got told off and then had to work overnight at fever pitch to re-assemble it correctly.

“I was really surprised at the time,” he said when thinking back on those busy times.

After a while, the number of machines dispatched overseas increased and the team leaders often spent a long time away. The person responsible for the training and guidance of new staff at that time was Mr. Funahashi. He taught them the extensive skills and techniques that he had learned since joining the company. This allowed the team leaders to go away on trips without worrying anything and allowed the young staff members to steadily grow. Through this, Mr. Funahashi developed a relationship of trust with everyone, younger and older alike.

 

 

———————————————————————-

What Lifts Me Up

from President Isowa’s Blog, ISOWA DIARY

———————————————————————-

ISOWA’s supporters association. It consists of 38 suppliers of ISOWA. And they had a party for…

 

▼To read more about it, visit the below website (President Isowa’s blog, ISOWA DIARY)

http://h-isowa.blogspot.jp/2015/07/what-lifts-me-up.html

 

*　*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *   *  *  *  *  *  *  *

 

We thank you for reading through the ISOWA NEWS LETTER.

How did you like our press letter?  If you have an interest in a particular subject, please kindly inform us. We are willing to bring your subject to the press.

 

———————————————————————

Click here to see back issues of the ISOWA NEWS LETTER.

https://isowa.wordpress.com/category/english-version/

 

About this mailing:

-If you have any opinions or feedback, please contact us via this email address.

If you know of anyone who is interested in receiving this newsletter, please kindly send us his/her email address.

 

You are receiving this e-mail because you are a valuable and important customer to ISOWA Corp. ISOWA Corp. respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this ISOWA NEWS LETTER’s e-mail, please kindly return this email to us with a note labeled “Unsubscribe.”

 

“Quickness and Interaction”

1) Take the Initiative – Accepting challenges is the highest of virtues

2) Extend a hand – Nurturing mutual trust and communication among people

3) Brighten the atmosphere – Creating a frank and open working environment

 

——————Copyright(C) 2009-2016 ISOWA Corporation—————–