Sugino Machine can trace its roots back to “Sugino Cleaner Works” that was founded by Rimpei Sugino in Higashiyodogawa-ku, Osaka, in 1936. It was there that Sugino began manufacturing and selling the very first “tube cleaner” developed in Japan.
Featuring a cutter head arranged in a clustered formation that rotates to remove scale build-up in the tubes of boilers and heat exchangers, Sugino released the tube cleaner as an essential maintenance tool.
At the time, the only tube cleaners available were those imported from the United Kingdom. In the wake of the Mukden Incident, Japan dropped out of the League of Nations and subsequently faced economic pressure, highlighting the need for the country to establish its own metals and machinery industry. It was under these economic conditions that founder Rimpei set out to develop tube cleaners made in Japan.
An Indomitable Spirit
Rimpei Sugino was born in Hongo Village, Shimoniikawa-gun (current Hongo, Uozu City) as the third son of parents Chonosuke and Kiku.
His parents passed away in 1901, shortly after he entered Uozu Junior High School. From there, Rimpei moved to Hokkaido where new land was being developed. Despite being plagued with sadness and poverty, Rimpei focused on any task with full commitment. He subsequently joined the army where he focused on his training, with his achievements recognized with various awards. Rimpei made the most of his abilities and lived life to the fullest, no matter how down he felt.
Founding “Sugino Cleaner Works” and Driven by Invention
Rimpei returned from the army in 1912 and started working at a rubber plant in Osaka. Four years later he set out and founded his own rubber manufacturing plant, but he was forced to close down those plants due to declining economic conditions.
He was 48 years old when he founded “Sugino Cleaner Works” in 1936 together with five employees and a plant with just over 60 m2 of floor space. The plant was where he made and sold his water and air-pressure tube cleaner - the first tube cleaner made in Japan. And so Sugino Machine was born.
Rimpei has 31 patents to his name for the products he invented. He came up with many other cleaning-related inventions by applying his imagination and creativity, for which he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1959 for his lifelong dedication to innovations that contributed to industry.
Rimpei also focused on countless inventions outside of the cleaning field, including portable refrigerators, fishing lures, window wipers and feathered ornaments, which he continued with even greater earnest when he was sick in bed.
Enthusiasm and Compassion
When he first founded his company, Rimpei used to carry his cleaners around the country with him to sell. One customer even had this tale to tell.
That customer met Rimpei directly when he came to sell his cleaners. The customer was using cleaners from another company, and explained that it was difficult to judge how effective Sugino cleaners were, no matter how much Rimpei talked them up.
Rimpei responded by stripping down naked, and using a rag he was given as a loincloth, climbed into the boiler and started cleaning it himself with the cleaner he had brought. Seeing Rimpei drenched and blackened from soot, the customer was so impressed with that level of enthusiasm, proclaiming that showing such confidence and passion was a surefire way to succeed with sales.
An employee who worked with Rimpei when he founded the company claimed that Rimpei’s design drawings were so neat, with so much attention to detail, down to every conceivable feature. The materials used for the main components of cleaners were not available in Japan at the time, including nickel chromium steel, high-speed steel and stainless steel. In fact, Rimpei had such an incredible sense of responsibility for quality, that his material and tool supplier friends called him the import maniac.
His tireless devotion to each and every single feature can be clearly seen in the products he made back then. Cleaners had his telephone number stamped on them. This was his way of letting customers know how to reach him if they had an issue using his cleaners.
Rimpei’s dedication to bringing his own ideas to life and selling them with service-minded confidence forms the basic approach and spirit that any manufacturer should adopt. Sugino Machine believes that this attitude should still be prevalent today, and has incorporated it into the corporate philosophy.
