Kitamura

Study notes

• Legal name: Kitamura Machinery.
• Founded in 1933 by Genji Kitamura in Kanayamachi, Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture, under the name Kitamura Iron Works.
• Early work was sub-contract manufacturing of paper pulp machinery for Komatsu Ltd.
• 1960s: became a domestic planer manufacturer and developed the plano-miller, combining planer and milling machine functions.
• 1970s: first vertical machining centres, models T-12, T-15 and T-20, introduced an ultra-fast automatic tool changer.
• 1980s: developed the SUPERCELL-300, described in the document as the first 5-axis automated machining centre.
• 1990s: 1,969 ipm rapid feed rates on solid box ways, gear-driven spindles reaching 20,000 rpm, and patented twin ballscrew and dual feedback technology.
• 2000s: first 5-axis VMC (Mytrunnion-5), F- and H-Series machining centres with accuracies up to +/-0.00004 in full stroke, 2,362 ipm rapid feed on solid box ways, and introduction of the Arumatik-Mi CNC control.
• 2010s: field-expandable pallet pools and tool changers, further Supercell series 5-axis horizontal machining centres, and the Anywhere Remote IoT monitoring system reporting machine status by email.
• 2020s: 90th anniversary, Kitamura Innovation Factory opened with NTT DoCoMo at the Japan Head Office and Works, and Auto Part Producer software for users without machining experience.
• Products named in the document include the Arumatik-Mi control, Supercell-300G, Supercell-1000G and MedCenter5AX.
• The document states the company holds more than 200 patents and patents pending in machining centre design.