Kawasaki Heavy Industries - Far More Than Just Motorcycles

When you think of the Big Four motorcycle manufacturers in Japan, you already know that they build a lot more than just bikes. Honda has parlayed its technical prowess and manufacturing skills into a hugely successful automobile business. Suzuki's automobile division is flourishing, with a growing model lineup helping to expand the brand's worldwide popularity (a Suzuki racing automobile broke the 13-year-old outright record for the legendary Pikes Peak Hill Climb in July). Although Yamaha dabbles in the car market-building self-developed V-8 engines for Swedish carmaker Volvo, while also assisting in the development of some Ford production auto powerplants-the company is mostly known for its very reputable musical instrument branch (its logo is three crossed tuning forks), plus a thriving consumer/commercial audio electronics wing.

The one Japanese motorcycle company that truly defines "big," however, doesn't even work with automobiles. A few knowledgeable enthusiasts may know that besides motorcycles, Kawasaki also has a hand in building ships and aircraft. But what very few really know is that Kawasaki is much, much more than that. In fact, the breadth of the company's surprisingly numerous and varied products-as well as the vast design and manufacturing resources responsible for building them-is far more expansive than even we were prepared for when SR was given the opportunity to visit some of parent corporation Kawasaki Heavy Industries' facilities in Japan. The company's engineering and manufacturing expertise is so far-reaching (on even a global scale), that it's a fair bet you have made use of that proficiency at one point or another in your life.

A Truly Massive Company
When a company posts overall sales of nearly $12 billion last year, it's pretty obvious that it isn't exactly your average operation. And Kawasaki most definitely isn't. Established way back in 1878 by founder Shozo Kawasaki, the company began as Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard in Tokyo, building Western-style steel ships to help feed the rapid industrialization of Japan. In the nearly 130 years since then, Kawasaki Heavy Industries has grown into a huge corporation divided into eight major subsidiaries: shipbuilding (constructing everything from gargantuan container ships to high-speed hydrofoil ferries to submarines to offshore structures and all types of marine machinery and equipment), rolling stock (building all manner of rail transportation machines, including the famed shinkansen "bullet train"), aerospace (responsible for development and manufacture of various aircraft components as well as complete machines, plus outer space systems), industrial equipment (this encompasses not only products such as robots and the various machinery and hydraulic equipment used in an industrial plant, but the actual design and construction of the plant itself), environment and recycling (industrial plants focused on renewable resources and environmental management, such as industrial waste recycling, water treatment and municipal refuse incineration), infrastructure (everything from heavy construction equipment to internal structural design of buildings) and last but not least, the consumer products division that builds the Kawasaki motorcycles and other motorized products that we've known the company for.

Kawasaki was the first Japanese company to design and manufacture robotic systems for various uses and is still one of the industry leaders in this area.

Kawasaki's Aerospace division was contracted by Boeing to construct portions of the fuselage for the upcoming 787 "Dreamliner" commercial aircraft, which will be the first airliner to make extensive use of composites in its construction. KHI is one of the few companies with an autoclave (an oven capable of producing a complete vacuum to prevent air bubbles from forming in the composite layers) large enough to handle a component this big.

Kawasaki introduced a "fatigue treatment pod" called the Dream Plus in '04. Sold to gyms and beauty salons, the Dream Plus is modeled after the hyperbaric chambers used in hospitals to treat hypoxia. It is said to help alleviate fatigue after extended physical exertion by raising oxygen levels in the blood through high ambient pressure.

We were allowed to see a few portions of KHI's facilities that have never been open to the public-much less journalists-during our visit. While the enormous (more than 121 acres!) Akashi Works has previously accommodated journalists at its motorcycle assembly lines (which actually only make up a fraction of the whole facility; robotics and aircraft/marine turbine engine manufacturing comprise the majority), Kawasaki's famous Kobe Works shipyard in Kobe and its Hyogo Works rail machinery plant have granted scant few foreigners entry into their confines.

Far-Reaching Influence
Our first contact with a Kawasaki product ironically was on the overseas flight to Japan-the Boeing 747-400 we flew on was equipped with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 series turbofan jet engines, of which Kawasaki's Aerospace division had a hand in designing. In fact, due to its expertise in turbine engine technology, Kawasaki has been heavily involved with the development and manufacture of the majority of commercial jet engines past and present, including the Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce engines used on many of the current Boeing and Airbus airliners. Kawasaki is also responsible for the production of the forward fuselage (as well as other components) of the upcoming Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the first commercial aircraft to employ extensive use of matrix composites in its construction.

Before our visit to the factories, we strolled through the newly opened Kawasaki Good Times World Museum in Kobe. Built as a showcase for the company's long history and impressive array of products and services, the museum also has a nice collection of historic Kawasaki motorcycles, including quite a few Grand Prix racing machines. There were many interesting company history details revealed at the museum that aren't commonly known. For instance, did you know that two of the tunnel boring machines responsible for digging the "Chunnel" (the 31.35-mile rail tunnel underneath the English Channel connecting the United Kingdom with France) were built by Kawasaki? Or that the first bullet train (with a top speed of 136 mph) was operational in '64? Or that the company built the world's largest "rock crusher" for diamond mining in '99? Or that, despite its expansive industrial complex, Kawasaki is also responsible for numerous wind, solar and biomass power generation systems in Japan and other countries?

On our way to the Akashi Works, we were driven across the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, which-at a length of almost 2.5 miles-is the world's longest suspension bridge (meaning that the causeway is suspended or hung by cables like San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, instead of supported from below). Completed in '98, the $5 billion project was a collaboration of several companies, including Kawasaki's Infrastructure division. The 978-foot-tall support tower on the Awaji Island side was designed and built with the help of Kawasaki, with much of the raw steel materials supplied by the company as well. The fact that the bridge survived the catastrophic '95 Kobe earthquake virtually intact (although its span did increase by one meter) is a testament to its sound structural design. Many of the skyscrapers in Japanese cities have internal supporting structures designed by Kawasaki.

Nicknamed "The Crystal Tower," this 32-story building in Kobe was built in '93 using structural designs and innovative ideas from Kawasaki's Infrastructure Division (for instance, there are openings in the sides of the upper portion of the building to improve airflow for helicopters landing on top). The Kobe headquarters of KHI, as well as the company's real estate subsidiary, are housed here.