Swiss-Japanese perfectionism boosts productivity

Iidzka Seisakusho Co., Ltd., founded in October 1964 and headquartered in the Nara Prefecture near Osaka, is a leading manufacturer of automotive parts using cold press and cold forging technologies. The company produces high-precision parts for airbags, seatbelts, steering and other car systems. With 209 skilled and dedicated employees, Iidzka manufactures products in two Japanese plants – one in Hari, some 40 kilometres from the head office, and the other in the Kagoshima Prefecture in the south of the country.

When it was established in the 1960s, the company was active in sheet metal processing and mainly focused on the export business. It shifted to cold forged parts and built up its expertise in the cold forging technology in the decades thereafter. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Iidzka Seisakusho manufactured high-value-added products, invested in research and development, and expanded both domestically and internationally – laying the groundwork for the company of today. Since then, it has continued to make technological advances.

Childhood memories

Mr Satoshi Iidzka joined Iidzka Seisakusho in 1995 and became Director of the Development Department in 2000. Since 2015 he has served as Vice President. He has been around the family enterprise all his life: his father Hiroshi Iidzka founded the company and is now the Chairman, while his brother Yasushi Iidzka serves as President.

“I was only around ten years old when I first heard about Hatebur. My father had been invited to an unveiling ceremony of the first Hatebur AKP 4-5 in Japan and brought back a brochure about the company and the machine – I still remember that,” says Satoshi Iidzka. “My father had long been eager to purchase a Hatebur machine. Seven years ago, we got a second-hand Hatebur COLDmatic AKP 4-5, which had previously been in operation in Thailand – it is currently installed at our group company, Fujita Seisakusho Co., Ltd. We immediately recognised its high reliability and quality, even though the former had been designed 40 years earlier. We were particularly impressed by the stability of the transfers and the cutting quality.”

Monozukuri & Kaizen

The ultimate goal of purchasing a new Hatebur cold former, explains Mr Iidzka, is also connected with the Japanese concepts of Monozukuri, which describes a mindset of manufacturing and craftmanship, and Kaizen, the pursuit of continuous improvement. Mr  Satoshi Iidzka: “My father, a gifted engineer, has mastered precision forging technologies. Our company’s drive toward perfectionist manufacturing went hand-in-hand with the goal of working on the best available machines.”

The two companies stayed in touch: In 2006, Iidzka Seisakusho asked Hatebur for a preliminary feasibility study with the goal of increasing precision, productivity and price competitiveness. The experience of the unique quality of the old Hatebur former was the driving force behind the decision to purchase a new Hatebur COLDmatic CM 625 in 2022. The deal was finalised at the WIRE trade show in Düsseldorf that same year.

Intensive process

From deliberations, calculations, and discussions to the purchase decision and finally the shipment, installation and training, the process was an intensive one. Many factors needed to be considered: How would the war in Ukraine affect shipments from Europe? How would exchange rates develop? Would material prices continue to rise? Ultimately, everything worked out according to plan, and the COLDmatic CM 625 was safely delivered to Iidzka’s Kagoshima plant. The machine was installed in early 2024, and the first tests began shortly thereafter.

Versatile & flexible

The Hatebur CM 625 cold former is a marvel of versatility and flexibility. Featuring a compact design, reduced space requirement, short commissioning time and easy set-up and changeover, it is the ideal machine for forming precise and complex parts. The six-station cold former can handle parts with a diameter of up to 32 mm, features a press capacity of 2,500 kN and boasts a lightning-fast speed of 170 parts per minute. Some of the stand-out advantages of the CM 625 are the accurate servo infeed system, the precision high-speed shearing, the accurate and versatile part transfer system, the gentle part discharge and the high flexibility and broad range of applications.

200% productivity increase

No wonder that the Iidzka experts have high expectations of the new machine: “After our experiences with the AKP 4-5, we anticipate that we will be able to use the COLDmatic CM 625 for a very long period of time in the future. The CM 625 will improve our precision and boost our output – we expect a productivity increase of 200% compared to the vertical formers that we used before,” says Mr Iidzka. On top of that, the Vice President believes that the new machine will enable the company to manufacture new parts, receive additional orders and increase sales.

The brand-new CM 625 will be used for the forming of air bag parts and other components. The parts are very complex. Up until now, they have been manufactured on vertical formers in multiple steps. With the CM 625, the process will be shifted to a horizontal press, resulting in a boost in speed and productivity. Instead of 40 parts per minute, Iidzka will be able to reach between 130 and 140 parts per minute.

The training of the machine operators took part in Switzerland. “We ran a very professional five-day training course at the head office of Hatebur in June 2023, half a year before the delivery of the machine,” recounts Mr Iidzka. “When I saw the assembly plant, I was deeply impressed by the commitment of the Hatebur engineers to machine precision. Two operators and I attended in the training.”

Love for the mountains

The trip to attend the operator training sessions was not the first time that Mr Iidzka had visited Switzerland. Because the cooperation of Iidzka and Hatebur reaches back decades, he visited the Hatebur head office and assembly plant in Reinach in 2006, together with his father Hiroshi and one engineer. “I have so many good memories. At that time, Thomas Christoffel took us to the mountains, and we were able to enjoy the magnificent nature of Switzerland. Last year, I had the opportunity to visit the same places again. I enjoy the beautiful scenery and the Swiss traditional cuisine.”

Mr Satoshi Iidzka will surely have many more opportunities to visit Switzerland, because the collaboration of Iidzka and Hatebur remains strong. When looking to the future, the Vice President says: “Our company’s strength is our own system, which enables an integrated production with process design, die design and the manufacturing of cold forged parts. We work hard to gain and keep the trust of customers by providing high value-added products at competitive prices, and by using high productivity machines for high-precision parts. Hatebur is a very valuable partner on this journey.”