Following recent statements from Toshiba Corp. reporting significant losses in its nuclear power business, Toshiba Machine Co. bought back 18.1 percent of the 20.1 percent total shares of stock owned by its parent company.
"As a result, they are no longer our top shareholder and we no longer belong to the Toshiba Group," said Toshiba Machine chairman and CEO, Yukio Iimura, during a formal announcement at the company's North American headquarters in Elk Grove Village, Ill.
According to Mr. Iimura, the transition for Toshiba Machine has been seamless, with no impact to its operations, customers, shareholders, employees or business partners.
"This is a very exciting, very positive time for us," said Mr. Iimura. "For more than 79 years, we have developed peerless technical know-how and a culture which values hard work, integrity, quality and customer responsiveness. Buying back our shares provides greater flexibility so we can be even more responsive. We look forward to continuing our growth and industry-leading contributions to the markets we serve in the future."
The company certainly seems to have hit the ground running after the split, with the announcement of two new models in its EC-SXII series of all-electric injection molding machines and three new models in its TVM series of vertically articulated robots.
Toshiba Injection Molding Machines
More generally, the EC-SXII Series offers a variety of plastic injection devices with high-load, high-injection pressure and high-speed injection specifications for automobile parts, optical parts, the medical and food container sectors and more.
The series’ INJECTVISOR V50/S51 control system includes a new core-back control circuit option for foam molding, and supports various plug-ins such as sub-injection units for double injection molding machines.
"Combined with our industrial robots, which will be produced in our China factory, this is a system solution for meeting the needs of our customers,” said Masafumi Ito of Toshiba Machine’s regional operating headquarters in East Asia. “The EC-SXII series features a wide of array of packages for optical parts such as automobile LED headlight lenses, in-car lighting and displays, and more.”
Toshiba Robots
The TVM900, TVM1200 and TVM 1500 have a reach of 900 mm (35 in), 1,200 mm (47 in) and 1,500 mm (59 in) and maximum payload of 20 kg (44 lbs.), 15 kg (33 lbs.) and 10 kg (22 lbs.), respectively.
The TSVision3D option is designed to expedite installation of an automated bin picking system. It enables model registration without requiring CAD data and has functions for collision avoidance with boxes. The optional TSAssist robot programming assist tool incorporates 3D simulation for interference checks, path display and more.
For more information, visit the Toshiba Machine website.