MFN had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Hiroji Aoki, Manager, Sales, SINTOKOGIO, LTD. Sinto Blastec Company.

Under the corporate policy of "Give Form and Life to Process Materials", Sinto has for more than 60 years created "Updated Value" together with its esteemed customers by delivering reliable world class technologies, products and services as integrated systems to every field of process material applications such as foundry operations, surface treatment, environment improvement, mechanical electronics, ceramics, plastics, dies and molds.

(?) MFN: In the last decade SINTOKOGIO has established itself as the leading manufacturer of shot peening equipment within the ASEAN countries. What were the company's focuses to make this possible?
(!) Hiroji Aoki: Sinto supplies total surface treatment systems with the integrated hardware and software of  Technology Equipment, Consumables Know-How and Maintenance Service.
Sinto offers best surface treatment technologies, including blast cleaning, peening, precision finishing, barrel finishing and surblasting and more than 420 types of machines and equipment to perform these technologies as well as abrasives and consumables to determine the best possible quality of surface treatment and finishing.  It is Sinto that engineers and supplies the most appropriate systems to meet the materials, shapes and treatment conditions of the products.
These Sinto's technologies and systems are supplied from the production bases in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and Thailand in Asia and Brazil as well as through worldwide sales networks, and perfect maintenance service and parts supply are provided after the systems have been delivered.
Specialised shot peening is required to ensure stable peening effects, and Sinto has set the basic policy of improving its technology in both hardware and software.  For this purpose, Sinto set up "Sinto Shot Peening Center" and has been extensively involved in developing peening technology, communication of information and solution of problems from its customers.

(?) MFN: SINTOKOGIO delivers equipment throughout Asia. How does it maintain its presence in the different markets.
(!) H. A.: Sinto Group of companies have production bases of equipment and abrasives in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and Thailand in Asia and Brazil as well as through worldwide sales networks.  All of these production bases and sales networks are run by Sinto's local partners under the mutual trust and confidence with Sinto.

(?) MFN: Your company is world-wide one of the few manufacturers that offer both, wheel peening and air peening technology. What is the philosophy behind that?
(!) H. A.: Applications of surface treatment spread from basic industries to frontier technologies.  Process materials to be treated include not only ferrous and non-ferrous metals but also plastic, ceramic, wood, stone and rubber products.
In the peening applications, the best method and machine must be selected and offered depending on the products to be peened (shape, size and portion), peening intensity (peening specifications), kind of abrasives and form of production.  Sinto selects wheel blast equipment for the products requiring wide range surface peening and air blast equipment for peening concentrated areas.
In recent years needs for higher peening technology are increasing.  High precision air blast peening is applied for micro finishing of glass, ceramic, silicon and other hard and fragile materials, semi-conductors, liquid crystal displays and electronic devices.  High precision micro finishing of wires up to 20 micron in diameter and perforations of 30 micron in diameter is now possible.  This technology is paid as much attention as the dry etching process to replace the conventional ultra-sonic finishing and laser process.

(?) MFN: Looking at the diversity of technologies available at your company, is there            a particular one which symbolises more than the others, why SINTOKOGIO has a leading position within the Far East?
(!) H. A.: Sinto is the only  company in the world that manufactures both peening machines and various kinds of abrasives.
Sinto has accumulated thousands of substantiated peening data accumulated over more than 30 years.  It has various types of peening test machines and measurement equipment and devices of residual stress, hardness         and surface roughness.  With these technologies and equipment, Sinto serves any peening requirements.
Sinto's Peening Sensor detects the shot blast volume, blast pressure and blast impact in real time.  It enables you to control the peening efficiency and Sinto's peening machines are equipped with the finishing quality maintaining and controlling system using the latest integrated information technology and sensor technology.  This is the answer to the needs for best available peening requirements.
In addition to the sale of equipment and offer of technology, Sinto does peening jobs in its facilities where its profound technology and know-how in peening are provided to the customers.  The reliable data and experience thus obtained from such peening jobs are fed back to serve for further deepening and developing Sinto's peening    technology.

(?) MFN: In Europe and North America there have been substantial changes in the surface preparation industry by literally dozens of companies being combined in one large group. It reshaped the industry in a way never seen before. Has this development influenced SINTOKOGIO and the market in Asia?
(!) H. A.:  Sinto has so far conducted its marketing operations for surface treatment equipment markets mainly in Japan and other Asian countries.  Sinto has numerous applications in "Manufacturing", and has accumulated valuable technology and know-how in a wide range of surface treatment applications for the automobile industry as its major customers.
In this era of worldwide restructuring of industries, it is now the big chance for Sinto to expand its own application know-how which is only available in Japan to the markets in the United States and Europe.

(?) MFN: World-wide, and especially in Asia the Aviation Industry is booming. A doubling of the air traffic is foreseen within the next 10 years. Does that influence the strategy of SINTOKOGIO.
(!) H. A.: Shot peening of aircraft parts is one of the important applications of peening technology and Sinto has supplied many of its peening machines and systems to the major aircraft manufacturers in Japan.  We are confident that Sinto's updated peening technology can contribute to the efficiency improvement of aircrafts.

(?) MFN: Looking into mid term future. Where do you see your company 5 years from now?
(!) H. A.:  With the corporate business policy of "Three-in-One" where Sinto provides its integrated service of hardware, software and consumable parts required for shot peening and other surface treatment, it is Sinto's intention to expand its business of serving customers with shot blast related services, precision finishing and environment improvement and recycling services by utilizing the latest information technology. 

The MFN team would like to thank you for the interview.

For Information:
Sintokogio, Ltd
Nakamura-Ku, Nagoya 450, Japan
Tel.: +81 52 582 9217
Fax: +81 52 586 2279
Internet: www.sinto.co.jp