November 21, 2024
70 year anniversary of Ikeuchi
This month, Ikeuchi could celebrate its 70 year anniversary on the 8th of November 2024. We will commemorate this by going back in history to when it all started…
1954
Ikeuchi was founded in 1954 as an export trading company by Hiroshi Ikeuchi. At the time, textiles was the main business in Japan, and Ikeuchi took on the challenge to invent high quality products for this industry. As traditional metal spinnerets became unavailable when they were confiscated by the army for use during WW2, textile companies developed spinnerets from alternative materials, such as glass and porcelain. As Japan’s textile industry started to decline after the war ended, these ceramic spinnerets became obsolete. Ikeuchi found it a waste to let this outstanding technology fade away and put all his efforts into developing a ceramic spray nozzle. This became the first ceramic spray nozzle in the world.
1961
Afterward, in 1961, Ikeuchi established a small factory in his hometown of Kure, Hiroshima prefecture. At the time, Bordeaux mixture was widely used as an agricultural pest-control agent, but spray nozzles for this agent tended to wear down quickly. Major pesticide-sprayer manufacturers were more than happy to adopt Ikeuchi’s new ceramic nozzles, which offered high wear resistance to mitigate this problem. Later in 1973, Ikeuchi also started to produce spray nozzles made from steel.
AKIMist® dry fog humidifier was invented
In 1980, Ikeuchi expanded into a number of different industries with the invention of the first AKIMist® dry fog humidifier with AKIJet. AKIMist was a gamechanger amongst industrial humidifiers due to its tiny droplet size and low energy use, and would become the flagship product of Ikeuchi for years to come. Since the first version, there has been several improvements and changes, and the current green AKIMist® “E” counts as the 7th version. AKIMist® especially became popular for the growing SMT industry inside and outside of Japan as a means to reduce ESD related errors. The factories could benefit from energy efficient humidification without the risk of wetting their equipment. Ikeuchi received an achievement award from The Institute of Electrostatics in Japan for the development of this anti-static system.
Spray nozzles for the steel-making industry
In 1983, Ikeuchi expanded into another industry when it started to develop spray nozzles for the steel making industry. What started with optimizing the cooling process for continuous casting machinery, has since then expanded into a broad number of solutions for improved gas cooling, surface finish, dust suppression and so forth. The gas cooling solutions and dust suppression solutions were also widely adopted by other industries as air pollution control became more regulated.
New branches around the world
In 2001, Ikeuchi established its first branch abroad in Shanghai, China. Since then, an office was established in Vietnam in 2005, in the US in 2006 and in Europe in the Netherlands in 2008. In 2013, another branch was opened in Indonesia and in 2016 in Thailand.
Outdoor cooling solutions
In 2006, Ikeuchi became more involved with outdoor cooling solutions in order to combat the “heat island-phenomenon”. With its origin in Japan which is known for its hot and humid summers, outdoor cooling solutions have been installed in several places such as outdoor restaurants, public places like parks and train stations and even at sports events, like marathons. These cooling solutions were later adopted by the livestock industry as a means to cool down animals during summertime. In 2010, Ikeuchi launched a cooling division and develops a Ikeuchi develops a gas turbine cooling system to increase the efficiency during heatwaves.
Cooling and humidification for greenhouses
In 2011, Ikeuchi expands into the greenhouse industry and develops cooling equipment CoolBIM® for cooling and humidification in greenhouses without wetting crops. Later, Ikeuchi Ponics is developed and Ikeuchi Japan starts to grow and sell its own brand of tomatoes.
Disinfection equipment against the COVID epidemic
When the COVID epidemic shuts down most of the world in 2020, Ikeuchi developed the SETOV ready-to-use disinfection unit to help combat COVID. The unit was used by many public institutions and shops to help people to stay safe.
2024
Today, Ikeuchi can celebrate its 70 year anniversary with more than 600 employees, 7 international branches, and more than 42.000 products. We look back on this period with proudness and thank all of our customers who made it possible to succeed for the last 70 years. We look forward to assist our customers in the years to come with new innovations and quality products, and continue to enrich society around us.