TPT September 2023

Sanyo Seiki Co Ltd

n What does your company specialise in and why is it the best at what it does? Sanyo Seiki Co is a forming roll manufacturer serving the welded steel pipe industry. We are proud to have contributed to the success of our customers in over 40 countries through our expertise of advanced designing and machining of forming rolls. Sanyo Seiki has also invented many forming methods that have become standard in our industry worldwide. Partial Step Forming (PSF) helps achieves less work hardening and contributes to removing the heat treatment process from welded stainless steel automotive pipe making. W-Bend Forming is used to achieve better welding matchup for welded carbon steel pipe production, especially for heavy thickness and high tensile material. The floating flange (Idle roll) structure rolls prevent roll scratch, which occurs due to the difference of circumferential speed between the top and bottom of the roll profile. Furthermore, we supply products with total commitments as we buy raw steel material directly from Japanese steel makers and our manufacturing process are basically all done in house including heat treatment. INTERVIEW Takeshi Takiguchi, president, Sanyo Seiki Co Ltd “We are proud to have contributed to the success with our customers in over 40 countries through our expertise in the advanced designing and machining of forming rolls. Sanyo Seiki has invented many forming methods that have become standard in our industry worldwide.”

n Can you tell us a bit about the history of your company since it was established? In the beginning Sanyo Seiki was established in 1965 in Japan as a sub-contracting company of Hitachi Metal (Currently Proterial). Later, Sanyo Seiki went its own way and became one of the top forming roll makers in Japan, along with Hitachi Metal and some other competitors. In the early 1990s, Sanyo Seiki established SST Forming Roll, a subsidiary in the USA to serve in the North American and European markets. Soon world class welded pipe mill makers such as SMS Meer (currently SMS), Abbey Etna (currently Fives) and many pipe makers around the world started to order forming rolls from Sanyo/SST for high-end pipe application such as OCTG, line pipe, automotive pipe, precision tube and high tensile heavy gauge pipe. To this date, Sanyo Seiki exported forming rolls to more than 360 customers outside Japan, not only in Europe and USA, but also Africa and South America. n Can you tell us about yourself and your career at Sanyo Seiki? I was a national level tennis player in high school and university, but it was long time ago. After graduating from the law department of Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, I joined Sanyo Seiki in 1982. As a new employee, I was assigned to the engineering department and worked in this section for the first five years, mainly making roll drawings under experienced senior roll designing staff. Then I also started to help the exporting section and communicate with overseas customers as a sales engineer. Later, I was transferred to the sales department, and looked after both domestic and international markets. I have visited our customers in South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Oman, Brazil,

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SEPTEMBER 2023