News Releases
April , 2005
NACHI-FUJIKOSHI CORP.
NACHI-FUJIKOSHI CORP.
Expansion of Broach Business for Automobiles
NACHI-FUJIKOSHI CORP. will strengthen the production structure of broaches centering on large-diameter helical broaches to machine parts of automatic transmissions and continuously gearless transmissions for automobiles to meet active demand and to expand business.
1.Backgrounds
(1)Increase of demand for large-diameter helical broaches
- The market trend of automobiles is comparatively steady in Japan, U.S. and Europe. In addition, their demand is expected to drastically increase in Asia, East Europe, Russia and South America, and it seems to continue in future.
- In this environment, Japanese auto-makers are developing worldwide strategies in a full scale. They are working on the establishment of new factories and reinforcement of existing factories in the world, and they are expanding global market share. Along with this, manufacturers of main parts including transmissions are also strengthening the production structure in Japan and overseas.
- As for the trend of transmissions, demand for automatic transmissions (AT) and continuously gearless transmissions (CVT) is increasing in mainly Europe and Asia. Moreover, in the countries where AT is popular like Japan and U.S., number of gears is increasing. Up to now, three or four gears have been popular, but now they are increasing to over six gears.
- In AT and CVT, ring gears are built. Especially in AT, the number of ring gears increases in accordance with the increase of gears. There is a drastic increase in the demand for helical broaches to machine difficult-to-machine spiral gears in the inner diameter of ring gears with high precision and high efficiency.
(2)Trends of round broaches
- Large-diameter helical broaches and other broaches are precision cutting tools to mainly machine inner faces and surfaces of work with high precision and high efficiency. In the automobile-related field, adoption of broaches for the machining of important parts such as transmissions, engines, constant velocity joints and power steering is increasing.
2.Advantages and a position of our company
- Utilizing an advantage of having both cutting tool division and machine tool division, our company supplies machining systems as a set of machines and cutting tools, contributing to customers' manufacturing. Moreover, our company has divisions for materials, heat treatment and coating, with a lineup of cutting tools with superior technology that other companies cannot imitate.
- Our company has global market share of approximately 25% (estimation) and domestic market share of approximately 60% for broaches. As for broaching machines, our company has global market share of approximately 30% (estimation) and domestic market share of approximately 90%. Both products have number one share in the world. Especially for large-diameter helical broaches and broaching machines, our company has global market share of over 80% (estimation), being on the overwhelming position.
3.Reinforcement of production structure for broaches
- Our company will newly construct a factory for round broaches. We will reinforce equipment by introduction of NC machines and automation, strengthen production capacity by improving line layout, and improve productivity to meet active demand from manufacturers of automobiles and automotive parts, and to expand broaching business.
(1) Establishment of a factory for round broaches
| Place: | Toyama Plant |
| Investment amount: | About 2 billion yen (For buildings: 1.2 billion yen) (For manufacturing equipment and others: 800 million yen) |
| Size: | Total area: About 8,200 Building: About 9,200 (A two-storied building, the second floor will be an office.) |
| Schedule: | To be completed in September, 2005 |
(2) Effects of investment (Fiscal year 2004 --> 2006)
| Production capacity: | 1.4 times (Current production capacity for round broaches 1,200 pcs/ month --> 1,700 pcs/ month in the fiscal year 2006) |
| Lead time: | Average 45 days --> 30 days |
| Employees: | 80 persons --> 60 persons (Reduction of 20 persons) |