Supplier To Worldwide Toyota Factories: Made In Japan Trinc-North America

Excerpt from "Supplier to Worldwide Toyota Factories: Made in Japan,"

Static electricity and its companion, dust, are more than a minor annoyance. They damage printed circuits, mar painted surfaces and harm numerous other processes, raising costs and lowering profits. We live in an age of business competition where brand value is created by superior quality, product performance and product design. Effective antistatic and anti-dust measures can ensure a company achieves quality superior to that of its rivals, scoring a home run in the competitive race.

One might be mistaken, and think an ionizer is a niche product and has nothing to do with international manufacturing competition. The anti-static measures that superior ionizers provide can greatly improve performance in many industries needing to reduce or eliminate defects and productivity loss attributable to static electricity and dust. The international manufacturers who will become the leaders of the future are those who recognize the importance of static-free production in their own processes.

That is the message that I believe and deliver.

A salesman called on the Toyota Motor Philippines factory in autumn 2001, carrying with him a demonstration ionizer. The salesman told the factory management, "I brought this ionizer to show you how powerful it will be in helping you solve your problem. Companies like yours have various problems with other ionizers, but this is an amazing, innovative ionizer an engineering development company invented and patented."

The new product he brought with him was an ionizer that neutralizes all static charges in a large space without using any device such as a built-in fan or compressed air. Without air propulsion, ions travel a very short distance before they are neutralized. Those that use air propulsion do not stand a ghost of a chance of performing more than a tiny fraction as well as the new, far superior ionizer. Its ions travel several times farther, vastly increasing the size of the space that can be treated.

The mechanism consists of two bar ionizers, each of which discharges either positive or negative ions. When the bars are placed up to 9 meters apart and face-to-face across a space requiring ionization, the positive ions emitted from one bar and negative ions from the facing bar are strongly attracted to each other, greatly increasing the distance they travel and filling the entire space between the bars with ions. As a result, everything within the space is ionized, effectively neutralizing all static electricity without requiring turbulent air to move ions around.

Some other anti-static systems use moisture. In theory, raising the humidity in an enclosed space should dissipate static electricity. However, excessive moisture in a manufacturing process usually causes problems, such as oxidation (rust). Eliminating unnecessary moisture can solve several additional manufacturing and quality problems.

The salesman demonstrated ionizing to the Toyota managers, using his sales tool. "Watch carefully, as static charges disappear almost instantly," the salesman said. The sales tool is a mannequin with plastic hair that stands on end when charged with static electricity. When the ionizer was switched on, its hair fell into place within seconds, completely devoid of static.

When the Toyota management team witnessed the instant disappearance of static electricity, they felt they were watching an amazing magic show. One of the executives from Toyota Motor's Motomachi factory in Nagoya, who was stationed at Philippines Toyota, stared at the salesman, eyes wide. "Great! I've never seen a thing like this before," he said.

The manager from Philippines Toyota asked, "If you don't mind, can you leave this ionizer here for a while?" The salesman replied to the Toyota manager, "I understand. We make it a rule to lend the product to enable to test it in your own factory. If you would like to demonstrate it at any other factory, I will be pleased to assist you."

After that initial visit, the salesman anxiously waited to hear the results of the factory test. When they phoned, they told him, "The test yielded excellent ionizing performance! However, we do not have the expertise to accurately assess its performance here, nor do we have a budget for purchasing at this time. But we feel that we should not drop the investigation of this instrument. If you don't mind, we would like to send it to the factory in Japan for a thorough assessment. Is it possible?"

The company had made numerous presentations to many factories and had heard a variety of reactions from them, but Toyota was the first case in which the customer itself offered to perform a large-scale test. The next phase of the Toyota story moved to the Motomachi factory in Toyota City in the Aichi Prefecture, about 200 miles southwest of Tokyo. It began with a call from Mr. Fuchigami, the manager in charge of the factory's painting processes, asking to talk to me. Although the name Fuchigami was unfamiliar, I accepted the call, eager to learn what Toyota had decided.

Fuchigami explained, "Thank you for arranging for your sales staff to take your ionizer to our affiliate company in the Philippines. Now we request you to lend us the device that you demonstrated there. As you might know, Toyota needs and uses many ionizers, but we would like to test your new product. Is this acceptable?"

When Fuchigami's request was completed, I thanked him for his interest and explained that when the product is loaned for a week, a Trinc technician usually would go out to a customer's site to assist in the installation and testing.

However, Fuchigami said, "It's not necessary. Our own engineers will install it, design tests, and measure its performance compared to ionizers in use."

How would the ionizer be accurately and fairly tested? Even with my absolute confidence in the technology and efficacy of the product, it was nevertheless natural to be anxious about the outcome, considering that Toyota is one of the most respected companies in the world.

The one-week lending period flashed by, and Trinc still waited impatiently for a reply from Toyota. Would the call come today or tomorrow? But, day after day passed with no response at all. Time continued to pass, three weeks, then four and then five with no response. After lengthy suspense and anxiety, human psychology is such that the mind learns to hide from hope and resigns itself to disappointment. Trinc gradually came to expect that Toyota must have dropped the performance test and forgotten they had borrowed the product for just a one-week trial.

Finally, after six weeks, the phone call came. Fuchigami said, "Can you please visit us? I want to meet you here as soon as possible." He spoke calmly without revealing his thoughts, but his intention was clear. Because he had asked me to meet with him, it was obvious that he intended to present Toyota's decision.

The discussion began with Fuchigami's summary: "We borrowed the ionizer for a long time, and we have tested it and evaluated its performance in various ways. We have installed it in the factory to test its dust adherence results on real automobiles. The video I am going to show you now will explain the actual test."

He turned off the room lights and began to screen the footage. The video showed an automobile flanked by my ionizers at the Motomachi factory prototype test/tryout site, beside the production line, where prototype vehicles are taken through several chambers similar to classrooms or laboratories, to test various performance factors.

A black vehicle, assembled at the factory, was mounted on a paint dolly. On both sides of the vehicle, which maintained zero voltage through grounding, a pair of the ionizers had been set up in preparation for testing. The story told by the video was intensely interesting, from an engineering standpoint. First, before activating the ionizers, the lab technician standing beside the vehicle on the painting dolly shook and kneaded some gauze fabric, causing white, dust-like particles to fall alongside the vehicle's black body, like a light snow shower. Next, with the ionizers activated, the technician dropped the white particles in exactly the same manner as before.

Fuchigami explained, "The painting problem caused by dust is an everlasting issue. No matter how you clean the room, and even if you use other ionizers, there is a limit as to how much dust is removed. On the paint line, we have been fighting dust with tremendous efforts including investment and manual labor. Well, please look at this next scene carefully." Saying so, he resumed the video.

With the video running, Fuchigami commented, "Look at this carefully. When ionizers are on, not only is the number of dust particles sticking to the body dramatically reduced, but also the remaining particles clinging to the body can easily be removed. Dust removal, which until now has been impossible using any other ionizers, is now possible for the first time. Yours is a marvelous invention, isn't it?"

One week after showing me the amazing video made at Toyota's Motomachi factory, Toyota placed an order for the mechanism. It was remarkable that Toyota took action so speedily, once it had completed its own test. It is the usual (albeit superb) way Toyota operates, but it was a unique, historic day for me. Once Trinc delivered the first devices to Toyota, it began to order more and more and also bought several other popular products that are similar to those of other companies, but my inventions incorporate better and completely different technology.

About the author: Makoto Takayanagi is president and founder of Trinc Corp. and the inventor of its ionizer products. He also serves as board chairman of the Japanese Static/Dust Consultative Meeting.