Trip to Komatsu Japan

[Elopster]

Recently I visited the Old Komatsu HQ in Komatsu City Japan where they have a little museum and some old books and articles about the history of Komatsu. I was most interested in reading about their relationship and development of the Komatsu Shantui joint venture. We had been importing Shantui parts that cross referenced directly to Komatsu parts by the sea can for our Komatsu Dozer and Excavator rebuilds but it always felt a little sus ordering them from parts exporters in Shangdong China where Shantuis big plant is. After reading the article it gives a little more faith that the parts are from the OEM factory but just missing the Komatsu branding since they built a big parts plant together in that region but I'll make up my own mind on the truth of these parts on my next trip to Asia when I visit there plant.

There was also some information about the Komatsu Cummins relationship, they have named the subsidiary Industrial Power Alliance, Ltd. you can read some whitepapers on the engines through their website http://www.ipalliance.co.jp/eng/knc/

Also I had bought a bunch of merch but I ended up losing the whole bag except for one hat, but at least it was cheap. They were selling the hats for 600 YEN or around ~5 CAD. Visited the Awazu plant and Osaka plant from the outskirts as well (didn't go inside)

 

[Elopster]

May be hard to read the Shantui article, but if you open the image in a new tab it should open bigger and be readable for most.

 

[John Shipp]

Apparently once a year there is a big festival there, when you can see some of the factory. Possibly after summer, I have been trying to find this out.
Edit: looks like it's April this year, and more aimed at kids so no factory.

 

[John Shipp]

Osaka factory may have been October last year, can't find about this year yet. Also heard, if you have komatsu shares you can get on some kind of factory visit.