Larch007
Replica of the first (successful) piston ring made by Soichiro Honda
Replica of the first (successful) piston ring made by Honda with Soichiro’s Honda’s signature etched in the glass. It was no mean feat…as the Honda website explains..
"Until the late 1930’ Soichiro Honda was involved in a successful vehicle repair business but in 1936 he began his first move to manufacturing. Unfortunately, investors opposed his wish to make piston rings as he was making good money through repair work but Mr Honda didn’t give up and sought the financial help of his acquaintance (Shichiro Kato) and set up ‘Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry’. He kept his day job doing repairs and at night developing piston rings.
The piston production venture was beset with difficulties; in the beginning he suffered a series of technical failures and so he enrolled as a part-time student at Hamamatsu Industrial Institute (now the Faculty of Engineering at Shizuoka University) to improve his knowledge of metallurgy. After a couple of years, the manufacturing trials were at last successful and in 1939 he joined Tokai Seiki full time as president.
Production of piston rings started as Mr. Honda had intended but he was still beset with difficulties. This time his problems had to do with manufacturing technology. Mr. Honda had a contract with Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., but out of fifty piston rings he submitted for quality control only three met the required standards. This was a major set back for Soirchiro and it saw him actually moving into the factory to work on the piston rings night and day. Over the next two years, he visited universities and steelmaking companies all over Japan in order to study manufacturing techniques; he was at last in a position to supply mass- produced parts to companies such as Toyota and Nakajima Aircraft. At the height of the company’s success it employed more than 2,000 people.
However, on December 7, 1941, Japan rushed headlong into the Pacific War. Tokai Seiki was placed under the control of the Ministry of Munitions. In 1942, Toyota took over 40% of the company’s equity and Honda was “downgraded” from president to senior managing director. The male employees gradually disappeared as they were called up for military service, and both adult women and female students began to work in the factory as members of the “volunteer corps.” Mr. Honda would calibrate the machines himself and took pains to ensure that the manufacturing process was made as safe and simple as possible for these inexperienced female workers. It was at this time that he devised ways of automating the production of piston rings…"
Replica of the first (successful) piston ring made by Soichiro Honda
Replica of the first (successful) piston ring made by Honda with Soichiro’s Honda’s signature etched in the glass. It was no mean feat…as the Honda website explains..
"Until the late 1930’ Soichiro Honda was involved in a successful vehicle repair business but in 1936 he began his first move to manufacturing. Unfortunately, investors opposed his wish to make piston rings as he was making good money through repair work but Mr Honda didn’t give up and sought the financial help of his acquaintance (Shichiro Kato) and set up ‘Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry’. He kept his day job doing repairs and at night developing piston rings.
The piston production venture was beset with difficulties; in the beginning he suffered a series of technical failures and so he enrolled as a part-time student at Hamamatsu Industrial Institute (now the Faculty of Engineering at Shizuoka University) to improve his knowledge of metallurgy. After a couple of years, the manufacturing trials were at last successful and in 1939 he joined Tokai Seiki full time as president.
Production of piston rings started as Mr. Honda had intended but he was still beset with difficulties. This time his problems had to do with manufacturing technology. Mr. Honda had a contract with Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., but out of fifty piston rings he submitted for quality control only three met the required standards. This was a major set back for Soirchiro and it saw him actually moving into the factory to work on the piston rings night and day. Over the next two years, he visited universities and steelmaking companies all over Japan in order to study manufacturing techniques; he was at last in a position to supply mass- produced parts to companies such as Toyota and Nakajima Aircraft. At the height of the company’s success it employed more than 2,000 people.
However, on December 7, 1941, Japan rushed headlong into the Pacific War. Tokai Seiki was placed under the control of the Ministry of Munitions. In 1942, Toyota took over 40% of the company’s equity and Honda was “downgraded” from president to senior managing director. The male employees gradually disappeared as they were called up for military service, and both adult women and female students began to work in the factory as members of the “volunteer corps.” Mr. Honda would calibrate the machines himself and took pains to ensure that the manufacturing process was made as safe and simple as possible for these inexperienced female workers. It was at this time that he devised ways of automating the production of piston rings…"