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Providing Generous Support to Manufacturing in the Tango Province Based on Solid Technical Strengths and Extensive Experience
Kyoto Prefectural Textile, Machinery, and Metal Promotion Center
Kyotango City, Kyoto Prefecture
Keiichiro Takada (left), Director, Yoshiaki Mita (center), Technical Support Section Manager, and Ryuki Hirose (right), Engineer, Machinery and Metals Group, Technical Support Section

Address : 225 Arayama, Mineyama-cho, Kyotango City, Kyoto Prefecture
Established : September 1905
Businesses : Technical consultation and support, testing upon request, device lending, personnel development, research and development
URL : http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/oriki/

The Tango Province in the north of Kyoto is known for Japan’s famous Tango-chirimen (silk crepe) and Amanohashidate, one of the Three Views of Japan. This manufacturing area is home to numerous machinery and metal manufacturers. For this edition of the Mitutoyo Report, we visited the Kyoto Prefectural Textile, Machinery, and Metal Promotion Center, which is dedicated to providing support to the advancement of the region’s industrial technologies, and talked with them about their activities.
Establishment of a technical support department in response to support requests from companies
In 2000, the Kyoto Prefectural Textile Industry Guidance Center, which had until then provided technical support for the textile industry, changed its name to the Kyoto Prefectural Textile, Machinery, and Metal Promotion Center and became an official testing organization in order to provide support to the local machinery and metal industry. In the same year, the Center established the Machinery and Metals Group to be responsible for providing machinery and metal processing technical support. Yoshiaki Mita, Technical Support Section Manager, explains, “We established the Machinery and Metals Group in response to increasing calls by local companies for public technical support due to changes in the industry structure.” In 2008, the Center relocated to the Tango - Knowledge Craftsmanship Park and partnered with the Kyoto Industry21 Northern Part Support Center, a business support organization, to enable business operators to receive one-stop technical and business support.
Mitutoyo STRATO-Apex9166
The Center provides technical consultation and support, personnel development, testing upon request, device lending, and research and development. Keiichiro Takada, Director of the Kyoto Prefectural Textile, Machinery, and Metal Promotion Center, discussed the recent state of usage of the Center.
“Our central activities are technical consultation, technical support, and personnel development. In our technical consultation, Center staff provide advice on problems that businesses encounter with device usage and processing methods. In our personnel development, we carry more than 90 training sessions and seminars each year on a range of topics. Local companies can easily make use of our personnel development training, so our Center is popular and actively used.”
There has been growing demand for the Mitutoyo STRATO-Apex9166 high accuracy CNC coordinate measuring machine they added in 2015, and it is being increasingly lent out.
In research and development, the Center carries out new research upon request, as well as performing joint research with companies. In recent years, the Center has been carrying out research and development of CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) with a local company, using the new material to create innovative products such as golf club shafts and bicycle parts.
Using high accuracy CNC coordinate measuring machines to help improve the level of processing technology
Mitutoyo Bright-Apex707
Mitutoyo STRATO-Apex9166
The Machinery and Metals Promotion Group handles the Center’s visitors. All of the Group’s members are in their 20s, and diligently work to fulfil customer requests.
“The STRATO-Apex9166 is often used during technical consultation,” says Ryuki Hirose, Engineer in the Machinery and Metals Group, Technical Support Section. Lately, he says, there has been an increase in consultations from manufacturers who have received processing requests for metal parts made to order by other companies. “For example,” explains Hirose, “when a company consults with us because they want to learn processing methods that meet high-level precision demands, we measure both a sample part and a prototype part with the STRATO-Apex9166, and use the resulting data to provide advice on optimization of the processing method.”
The Center also uses the Mitutoyo Bright-Apex707. In the past, the Bright-Apex707 was often rented for its reasonable price, but as demands for greater product precision have grown, the use of the STRATO-Apex9166 has risen accordingly.
Director Keiichiro Takada
Many of the workpieces brought in for technical consultation and support cannot be accurately measured using contact measurement due to the nature of the materials they are made of. Hirose’s goal for the future is to improve measurement precision by performing contact-free measurement using line laser probes. “I want us to improve our measurement technologies and take on reverse engineering,” he emphatically declares.
Tango Province is well-respected for its craftsmanship, and in recent years the number of successful machinery and metal processing manufacturers has been on the rise.
Director Takada, discussing the direction the Center wishes to take in the future, says, “We want local craftsmanship to continue to progress, and hope to contribute to businesses by providing technical proposals.”
The Kyoto Prefectural Textile, Machinery, and Metal Promotion Center is closely tied to the community, providing its services with a wholehearted dedication to the advancement of the region. We expect its success to continue in the future.

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