Established in 1957, San-Eki Limited is one of Japan’s leading manufacturer of 2 and 3-roll pilger mills and tube weld mills. Since its inception, the company has sold around 250 weld mills and 30 pilger mills to clients spread all across Asia. San-Eki is the only single company to supply both weld and pilger mills and technology. Over 50 years of experience and satisfied clients with repeat orders give San-Eki a proven edge in providing tube forming & rolling solutions for critical grades and sizes. In recent times, the company has expanded its sales from the domestic Japanese market to South Korea, Thailand, and now India. In a recent interaction with Tube & Pipe India, Mr. Takeshi Shimada, President, San-Eki Limited, shared the company’s overview, product portfolio, sectors catered, recent developments, and the company’s future plans. He also discussed many other topics such as the company’s vision and aims for the Indian market in the coming years.
Tube & Pipe India: Please tell us about San-Eki and its history.
Takeshi Shimada: San-Eki Ltd, established in 1957 in Japan, is a manufacturer of 2 and 3-roll pilger (tube cold rolling) mills and tube weld mills. Clients use these mills to produce seamless & welded tubes for critical applications like aerospace, nuclear, medical, semiconductor, automotive, and process equipment; involving high-grade material (nickel alloy, SS, Ti alloy) and precision tolerances.
TPI: Cast some light on the infrastructure setup at your facility, product portfolio, and major clientele.
TS: We have a 20-person staff including 7 designers, 8 mechanics, and materials expert advisory from JSTP. Complete design, engineering, parts manufacturing, assembly, and testing are done in-house. Additionally, we have in-house pilger and weld demo mills for development trials.
San-Eki products and services include tube mills and consulting services. For seamless tubes, we manufacture pilger/ tube cold rolling mill having high-speed 2-roll & precision 3-roll. For round, oval, flat welded tubes, we have the welding mills (ERW, TIG, PLASMA, LASER). We also provide related spares parts and consulting services like customized tubing product and process line development, consulting for critical material manufacturing (Ti alloys, Zr, Ta, Nb, Ni, etc.), and high-quality and critical-grade raw material supply for tube manufacturing.
Since 1957, the company has sold around 250 weld mills and 30 pilger mills. Some multinational clients of San-Eki include Minebea Group of Companies (Thailand), HITACHI, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Group, Nas Toa (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Futuba Industrial Co. Ltd, Navien Inc., Furukawa Techno Material, JFE, T.RAD Co. Ltd.
TPI: What is your USP? What industries do your tube mills and tube rolling machinery serve?
TS: San-Eki is the only single company to supply both weld and pilger mills and technology. Over 50 years of experience and satisfied clients with repeat orders give San-Eki a proven edge in providing tube forming & rolling solutions for critical grades and sizes. San-Eki’s pilger mills used by tube producers to produce tubes have many applications including heat exchangers, condensers, instrumentation, superheaters, surgical tools, inter-stage coolers, precision tubing (liquid chromatography), fuel lines, structural and actuation tubes, boiler tubes, control tubes, high purity tube. The industries served by us are power generation, shipbuilding, chemical, petrochemical & refinery, oil & gas, fertilizer, nuclear, aerospace and defence, space, medical & life sciences, automotive, food and beverages, and semiconductor.
San-Eki has successfully supplied weld mills for the production of ferritic SS ERW tubes for the exhaust system, austenitic SS tubes for EGR coolers, CS tubes for shock absorbers & headrests, and laser welded SS tubes for heat exchangers.
San-Eki’s advantage is also in providing consulting – further to process the seamless/welded tubes into micro tubes using drawing technology and other processes. Such micro tubes are used for precision measuring instruments like thermocouple, pressure gauge; for processed parts like laser processing tip nozzles, suction nozzle, dispenser nozzles; for lifestyle products like clock parts, watch parts, ornaments, magnetic recording heads, musical instrument parts; for precision parts for home appliances; for optical communication -ferrule; for aerospace and space industry; for capillary tube for propellant propulsion system for satellites, micro heat pipes; for various process like ECM electrode tube and gas chromatography; for medical industry in stent, endoscope components, cannula needle, needle with lure-lock, dental equipment parts; and for electronic components & semiconductor like micro heat pipes, metal seal, contact probes used for electrical inspection of PCB, IC and LCD, mobile phone, antenna.
“San-Eki aims to assist the Indian industries in producing indigenous high-grade and precision dimension tubes for critical sectors such as hydrogen fuel, civil aerospace, space, nuclear, medical, and semiconductors.”
TPI: Could you tell us about recent & noteworthy projects accomplished by your company— specific to tube & pipe companies?
TS: Some noteworthy accomplished projects include, 2 roll pilger for the production of fuel injection tubes (Japan), medical tubes (Japan), semiconductors (Japan), and duplex grades. We have also in our name, 3 roll pilger for the production of nuclear tubes and grades βTITAN, Ti + Ni, and weld mill for the production of fibre laser welded flat tube (Korea), HF welded 400 series tube, laser welded tubes for heat exchanger.
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TPI: Do you undertake R&D at your company? How do you maintain the quality of your offerings?
TS: Yes, San-Eki is constantly investing in R&D to optimize the cold rolling and forming process. We ensure that quality is adhered to in the design as well as the parts used. All the machine parts are Japan-sourced. We have a dedicated in-house team of design engineers and have senior Japanese rolling, forming industry experts on board as consultants. Additionally, we have in-house pilger and weld demo mills for development trials. All this ensures optimal machine designs and end results with the highest quality standards.
TPI: What are your vision and plans for your company’s future? Do you have any specific plans for the Indian market?
TS: San-Eki’s focus has always been to benefit the clients and give them a high value on their investment. In recent times, we have expanded our sales from the domestic Japanese market to South Korea, Thailand, and now India. This expansion has proven successful. India and Japan have a high degree of congruence of political, economic, and strategic interests. San-Eki views India and Japan as partners that have responsibility for and are capable of responding to global and regional challenges. With this in mind, San-Eki aims to assist the Indian industries in producing indigenous high-grade and precision dimension tubes for critical sectors such as hydrogen fuel, civil aerospace, space, nuclear, medical, and semiconductors. This is possible with machinery and process consulting/know-how provided by San-Eki. We have partnered with OM Techcorp, India to provide local support towards technology awareness, sales, and after-sales services in India. Presently, San-Eki is executing 2-roll and 3-roll pilger mills orders for Indian companies and we look forward to sharing our expertise with ever-growing Indian tube producers and industrial consumers.
