Smart and efficient pellet screening

Kubota has come a long way from being a weighing scale manufacturer since the development of mechanical scales in 1924. The history of Kubota scale business corresponds exactly to the "History of the Weighing Scale" as it prides itself for having been well-known and an established brand not only in the Japanese market, but also in overseas markets. And now, Kubota is still at the top of this field as the first manufacturer in Japan of the digital load cell, which guarantees high accuracy, greater stability and noise protection performance.

At IPF 2014, Mr. Hideki Saiki, Section Manager of Kubota's Overseas Weighing Equipment & System Section, Precision Equipment Sales Department, shared with International Plastics News for Asia (IRNA) the key factors that enables the company to remain highly competitive in both domestic and international markets.

Hideki Saiki, Section Manager, Kubota

IRNA: Why did Kubota choose to exhibit at IPF 2014? How important is this show for the company's sales and marketing strategy?
Mr. Saiki: IPF is a major show for the plastics industry in Japan and we continue to have our booth at this show. The 2014 edition was a busy one as we had more visitors than in the previous editoin. In the second day alone, we had 120 visitors, 20% higher than in the past show. As expected, aside from Japanese visitors, we also had visitors from abroad. Both existing customers and new ones visited our booth so we could say that our participation at this show had been very fruitful.

IRNA: Do you view Japan as Kubota's major market given the opportunities outside?
Mr. Saiki: The domestic market currently accounts for about 50% of our overall sales. But we cannot expect so much growth in Japan in the future since the population is decreasing, so we are trying to focus more on the overseas markets. With branches in China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, we sell our machines all over the world.

IRNA: What overseas markets are you eyeing for expansion?
Mr. Saiki: Of all the overseas markets, China is the biggest one accounting for half of the whole global market. Therefore, we established the Shanghai Feeder Technical Center in 2008. This spring, we have just expanded this centre. It provides highly trained technical support, as well as local service and maintenance network. We can handle not only performance confirmation tests before new equipment installation, but also selection of parts to change feeding capacity and/or materials of existing feeders. We used to enjoy a good relationship with China's Japanese companies only. However, in recent years, they are losing markets to Chinese local companies, as well as Taiwanese and Korean companies. Now, we are trying to develop and attract more local Chinese customers.

IRNA: How would you describe Kubota's role in the plastics industry? What are the important attributes that have led to your success in this industry?
Mr. Saiki: Kubota has also been keen on innovating. Since our clients' demands continue to grow, we need to move at a faster pace to meet their demands. We have been launching products focused on the plastics industry and these have been well-received by plastics manufacturers the world over. One of our important product is the Super Platon II Pellet Screening System. We released the first generation in 2000, and 11 years later, we released the third generation, Super Platon. Now, we brought the fourth generation, the Super Platon II on exhibit at IPF 2014. The Super Platon II Pellet Screening System can sort out foreign matters based on colour differences, such as minute black spots, blurs, off-colour particles, etc  that are generated during the production process of plastic pellets. Its screening performance is dramatically higher than that of conventional products.

IRNA: What makes Super Platon II a highly recommended product?
Mr. Saiki: The Super Platon II uses a newly developed lighting system and line sensor cameras to achieve a detection resolution of 0.03 mm. These new technologies permit an improvement of accuracy in detecting minute, 0.1 mmdiameter black spots; as well as screening of transparent plastic pellets, which can be a difficult feat for ordinary or conventional machine. As a result, the Super Platon II improves the ability of contaminants detection and rejection in pellet production. This is the flagship model of Platon Pellet
Screening System. The new Super Platon II will help plastics manufacturers in enhancing the quality of their plastic pellets in the areas of engineering plastics, super engineering plastics, high-function films, and other plastic pellets with high added values in the production process of plastic pellets, by removing very small-sized foreign matters and minute black spots. Also, it is easily operated via colour liquid crystal touch panel. Its anti-dust design, automatic self-maintenance function, simple assembly and disassembly
without tools all make the Super Platon II easy to maintainance.

IRNA: Aside from the Super Platon pellet screening equipment, what are the other products offered by Kubota for the plastics industry?
Mr. Saiki: Kubota is also a leading manufacturer of gravimetric feeders and provides process industries with advanced gravimetric feeding technology. Many kinds of new materials are being used and improved every day. Kubota's feeder line with a variety of models and configurations provide customers with flexible adaptation to their systems for a wide diversity of materials. A variety of control systems and peripherals are also available. Kubota also offers a centralised operation control system to control multiple feeders comprehensively.

Kubota Corporation
Tel: +81-72-993-1897
Fax: +81-72-993-2829
E-mail: hideki.saiki@kubota.com
Website:www.keisoku.kubota.ne.jp