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Sumitomo’s machinery business traces its roots back to 1888. The company had started operating a modernized smelter and had built copper and sulfuric-acid refineries and a railroad for transporting ore. It was the height of the period of mine modernization, and Sumitomo established a new section to repair and maintain the required parts and tools. It was not glamorous, though—more a blacksmith’s shop than a machinery plant. Equipped with just one manual lathe and one drill press, it initially produced bolts, washers, pickaxes, and other like items.
But the people who worked there did more than just produce such items and disassemble and repair imported machinery. They displayed a hunger for learning leading-edge technologies- doing things like creating detailed technical diagrams of the imported machinery as they worked. From there, the shop gradually evolved to the point where it was involved in the design and installation of equipment and machinery at every stage of production, including extraction, beneficiation (ore preparation), smelting, and refining. It even begin producing rock drills, motors, and cranes.
But in contemplating the prospects of this operation as an independent company, it became clear that it had no products that were superior to those of competitors already in the market. So the machining unit’s first step in becoming a viable enterprise was to focus on areas it already had experience in—machinery for ore extraction, beneficiation, smelting, and refining, as well as for metalworking. It pulled together, refined its technologies, concentrated on reducing its costs, and started to seek orders from outside Sumitomo. With this kind of steady persistence—and the help of a recovering economy—the business grew, and in November 1934 Sumitomo Kikai Seisaku (Sumitomo Machinery) was founded. Subsequently renamed Sumitomo Kikai Kogyo (Sumitomo Machinery Industries), this was one of the two predecessors of today’s Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI). |
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The Besshi handheld pneumatic hammer
The Besshi handheld pneumatic hammer was 50 cm long. Prior to the introduction of this tool, Sumitomo had relied on larger, heavier imports that smaller-stature Japanese workers found difficult to use. Sumitomo’s machining unit produced this model in 1916 after 10 years of research and refinement. |
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