Technical Center Japan
Quality is not an accident – it is the result of informed effort, experience, and attention to detail. At Kubota Brabender Technologie, Technical Centers have an important role to play here. They model production lines, analyze materials, and put feeding applications through their paces, all to achieve optimal process reliability – and thus premium quality – for customers’ production facilities.
"Whether optimizing production or developing new products, testing is essential to achieving the best possible results – including powder analysis and handling as well as optimal feeder operation," emphasizes Akira Miyachi, Leader of the Feeder Technical Center (FTC) in Sakai, Japan. "This is exactly where we come in. It is our mission to select the optimal feeder models and parts, predict potential issues that might arise during long-term operation, and advise customers based on these insights."
Kubota's Precision Equipment Business Unit recently opened a new Feeder Technical Center in Sakai, an industrial center located in Japan's Osaka Prefecture. "The former Yao site had certain constraints when it came to further advancing the testing environment with a view to the future,” says Akira Miyachi. “The Sakai facility allows us to work in a state-of-the-art environment designed precisely to our requirements, spanning two floors and covering an area equivalent to two football fields." As part of the relocation, the experts placed particular emphasis on expanding their capabilities and enhancing safety, strengthening their testing framework for emerging market needs.
New Feeder Technical Center at a Glance
- 50 to 120 tests every year
- Total area around 500 m² over two stories
- Nine specialized test sites
- Temperature-controlled chamber
- 45 feeders, including FX120, FX80, and other Kubota Brabender Technologie devices
- Inventory of around 1,000 feeding screws, agitators, …
- BagMaster bulk bag discharge system
- Pellet screening system
- Variety of dust collection systems (large, nano, mobile, and explosion-proof) as well as draft chambers
- Personal safety equipment including powered air-purifying respirators (protection factor 1,000)
- First established in Yao over 40 years ago
- More than 12,000 test materials and over 50,000 test samplings recorded
Specialized Test Sites for Different Applications
Previously, tests were conducted in an open test area divided into booths. Now, the Feeder Technical Center's experts work in enclosed rooms called sites, each designed specifically for a particular purpose. "This is a major upgrade," says Akira Miyachi. "Apart from the functional advantages, the individual test sites also help prevent material scattering and leakage, which creates a safer, cleaner testing environment."
Each test site offers functional features ideally suited for its intended use. The washable test site features a waterproof flooring system to ensure easy and thorough cleaning. For stubborn, highly adhesive residues, the experts employ a specialized Sobijet high-pressure cleaning system. By combining compressed air, water, and a specific grade of sodium bicarbonate, it removes contaminants effectively and sustainably, keeping the site clean and preventing cross-contamination with other test materials. The site proofed against dust explosions is ideal for working with materials that may generate combustible dust, allowing the experts to develop safe production assemblies with goods like fine organic powders, metal powders, and other substances that may potentially ignite and explode. There is even a site with a dedicated dust collector intended specifically for work with nanomaterials – nanoscaled materials with particles sized 100 nanometers or less that can be uniquely challenging to feed.
Precision Solutions for a Sustainable Future
Kubota Brabender Technologie is part of Kubota Corporation's Precision Equipment Business Unit. This division provides various industries with solutions based on measurement and metrology technologies. Its goal is to develop and deliver products and services that contribute to sustainable solutions for food, water, and the environment.
Boosting Efficiency and Synergy
Efficiency was a special concern when planning the new Feeder Technical Center. Large feeders no longer have to be manually top loaded, but can easily be charged from the second floor with the BagMaster discharging system. The number of test lines has increased from five to nine, and remote monitoring cameras as well as an automatic data collection system ensure that the feeders are always carefully monitored during test runs. In addition to providing numerical test results, the testing experts also supply video recordings of the tests, giving customers greater transparency and confidence in the process and performance.
Being on-site at Kubota's Sakai plant has many advantages for the Feeder Technical Center's specialists. The plant is a manufacturing hub for engines as well as agricultural and construction machinery, and also plays a key role in Kubota's R&D for core technologies. Here, the Feeder Technical Center has direct access to Kubota's manufacturing capabilities – an especially invaluable factor when developing new products. Conversely, the Kubota Group can more immediately test and apply the measurement, weighing, and monitoring technologies the Precision Equipment division develops.
BagMaster intalled in the Charge Site.
Material Analysis and Processing Tests
At the new facility, a dedicated powder analysis laboratory supports the detailed characterization of powders and bulk materials. State-of-the-art equipment enables precise measurement of key parameters such as particle size, shape, flowability, density, and chemical composition. This analysis is a vital step not only in delivering optimal processing solutions to customers, but also in advancing Kubota Brabender Technologie’s own product development.
Another major focus is feeding and discharging tests using customers’ actual materials. At the Feeder Technical Center, specialists repeatedly conduct full-scale tests while adjusting screws, agitators, and other system components to determine optimal feeding conditions and equipment configuration.
Beyond evaluating powder properties and feeding accuracy, the team of experts carefully monitors the powder’s dynamic behavior and flow characteristics inside the hopper. Based on the gained insights, they can select the most suitable test components and propose optimized operating methods for each specific material.
A Glimpse into the Powder Analysis Laboratory
In the dedicated powder analysis laboratory, Sakai Feeder Technical Center's specialists can analyze and characterize materials in great detail.
A morphological analysis system provides an in-depth understanding of particulate materials. By analyzing the individual particles' sizes and shapes in detail, the powder experts gain a deep understanding of a sample’s characteristics.
A powder rheometer analyzes the rheology – or flow properties – of powders. Analysts simulate processing conditions by testing powder samples in various states, from consolidated and moderately stressed to aerated or fluidized. By assessing dynamic powder flow as well as bulk and shear properties, they gain comprehensive knowledge of how a powder behaves under almost any circumstances.
A micron powder tester provides further key details. By measuring ten individual powder characteristics – such as angle of repose, bulk density, cohesion, compressibility, and angle of fall – analysts gain extensive insight into the sample's flowability and floodability.
Extensive Range of Customer Services
"Thanks to the increased number of test lines and our new multi-purpose room, we can now offer an even more extensive range of services," says Akira Miyachi. "We provide customers with pre-delivery training, maintenance instruction, and operational workshops, all using actual equipment. We also hold workshops with distributors and service members for more hands-on experience." As another highly in-demand service, the Feeder Technical Center supplies feeding systems to customers on a rental basis. This allows companies to test equipment in their actual production facilities, and even conduct trials for several possible set-ups before committing.
Before becoming the Feeder Technical Center's director, Akira Miyachi worked in Kubota's Sales Department for 27 years, and also gained experience in the Manufacturing Department; he is thus well-aware of customer needs and how best to meet them. "We want to optimize our customers' production and minimize operational problems," he says. "We find the best feeding solution for the customer's actual need, adapt it to their production processes, and instruct the people who will work with the equipment on how to use it to its full potential. We also provide peace of mind by offering our customers the opportunity of thorough testing under actual production conditions, so there are no surprises."
The center works with almost all major Japanese plastics and chemical companies and has customers from various sectors of the industry, including plastic compounding, chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, food, batteries, non-ferrous metals, and recycling.
Kubota's Global Network
As an integral part of the Kubota Group, the Sakai Feeder Technical Center is in constant communication with the corporation's product development, engineering, sales, and service departments around the globe. It collaborates closely with the other Technical Centers; Shanghai and India provide reviews of and feedback for tests, while Japan, Canada, and Germany regularly exchange not only discoveries and insights, but also staff. When it comes to safety, the Sakai center occupies a special role: Japan is a forerunner in this field and shares its rules and best practices with the German and Canadian Technical Centers.
Optimizing Production with Existing Equipment
The Feeder Technical Center's material and feeding experts are dedicated to finding the best solution for customers. Sometimes, the most effective way to overcome production challenges is to make the best possible use of existing equipment. "Even with difficult-to-handle materials, we often find optimal operating methods using existing systems. A change in material does not necessarily require an entirely new production line," says Akira Miyachi. When customers test new powder materials, the Feeder Technical Center does not immediately introduce new equipment. Instead, the feeding experts evaluate whether stable feeding may be possible using the equipment customers already have. In addition to selecting appropriate components, they also propose handling methods and operating conditions suited to the material characteristics, providing practical solutions tailored to each production site.
One of the specialists' more difficult cases involved a material that grew unstable at high screw speeds. By analyzing the material's thermal transition points, the feeding specialists could set suitable speed limits and achieve a stable feeding process. In another case, the experts identified upper and lower limits for the hopper fill level in order to allow safe operation with a material prone to bridging or torque overload.
