Left to Right: 1927: Daiji Okawara (front row, left) in the company’s early days, The through-air dryer when it was initially developed, Manure dryer from around 1964 and SLUDGE DRYER (Mandarin orange peel processing plant)
Our Roots: A Manufacturer of Machinery for Tea Production
| 1927 | Okawara Manufacturing Company was established by its first president, Daiji Okawara, as a private company in Kando, Yoshida-cho, Haibara County, Shizuoka Prefecture, and begins manufacturing of dryers for tea production. |
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| 1945 | Company incorporates, and changes its name to Okawara Manufacturing Company, Ltd. |
| 1948 | Becomes a joint-stock corporation. |
| 1952 | Develops the Okawara Tamaryokucha Green Tea Machine, and receives an award for the invention from the governor of Shizuoka Prefecture. |
Development into a Manufacturer Specialized in Drying Equipment, and Pursuit of Environmental-Related Equipments
| 1956 | Develops a through-air dryer. Expands into food, agribusiness, marine, chemical and pharmaceutical fields. Establishes itself as a state-of-the-art dryer manufacturer. | |
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| 1962 | Develops a rotary through-air dryer. Applies for patents in Japan and the United States. | |
| 1964 | Develops a livestock manure dryer (with deodorizer). Pioneers the environmental field with the development of a small scale SLUDGE DRYER. | |
| 1970 | Develops a rotary fluid-bed dryer. Applies for patents in Japan, the United States, Great Britain, and West Germany. Subsequently receives the ’70 CP Idea Prize at the Chemical Plant Show in Japan.. | |
| 1971 | Develops a large scale SLUDGE DRYER. Actively promote the sales expansion of environmental equipments. | |
| 1973 | President Daiji Okawara is awarded the Medal with Yellow Ribbon by the Government of Japan.. | |
| 1975 | SLUDGE DRYER was awarded the Japan Society of Industrial Machinery Manufacturers’ Chairman’s Award at the 1st at the 1st Excellence Pollution Control Equipment Awards. | |
| 1979 | Chairman Daiji Okawara is awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th Class. | |
| 1982 | Develops ACE, a sludge and waste circular shaped incinerator. | |
| 1983 | Develops MIXGRAD, a continuous fluid bed granulator. Technical collaboration with Vaclav Feres Co. of Germany for EVAPOR, a centrifugal-flow thin-film vacuum evaporator. Develops FREEZE CABIN, a vacuum freeze dryer. | |
| 1986 | Develops SLURRY DRYER, a fluid bed dryer using heating medium balls. | |
| 1991 | Develops FLOW-JET GRANULATOR, a continuous agitating granulator. | |
| 1992 | Develops FUZZY DORINCOM, a fuzzy-controlled sludge dryer and incinerator. | |
| 1995 | Through technical collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Konica develops RIBOCONE, a conical ribbon mixer/dryer FUZZY DORINCOM receives the Japan Society of Industrial Machinery Manufacturers’ Chairman’s Award at the Society’s 21st Outstanding Environmental Equipment Awards. |
Responding to with Globalization, Environmental and Energy issues
| 1998 | Obtains certification for meeting the ISO9001 international quality management standard. |
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| 1999 | Develops FV DRYER, a filter vacuum dryer. |
| 2000 | Purchases Kikkoman Corporation’s engineering business. |
| 2002 | Develops FLASH EVAPO, a high speed cyclo-flow vacuum evaporator. Develops INNER TUBE ROTARY, a continuous conduction heat dryer. |
| 2003 | Establishes Okawara Powder Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., a fully owned subsidiary in China. |
| 2004 | HEAPUM FLASH EVAPO, a heat pump-type vacuum evaporator jointly developed with Tokyo Electric Power Company, wins the Japan Institute of Energy’s Progress Award (Technology Division). |
| 2008 | Concludes a sublicensing agreement with Matsubo Corporation for the manufacturing of inverting filter centrifuges. |
| 2012 | Through a technical tie-up with the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry,develops a system using cerium oxide deodorizing treatment catalyst. |
| 2013 | Establishes OKW Korea Co., Ltd. a fully owned subsidiary in Korea. |
| 2015 | Sales alliances have been concluded with Nol-Tec Europe S.r.l (Italy). |
| 2017 | The company has been certified as 100 new diversity management company by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. |
