Kawada Industries’ Efflorescence in Ultra High-rise Steel Structures

Since its inception over 80 years ago, Kawada Industries, Inc. has grown into a global leader in complex steel structures for infrastructure and buildings. Kawada’s capabilities and solutions, whether for the entire package of our resources, or for specialised activities (fabrication, design, technical assistance, erection engineering/heavy lifting, value engineering, or related supervisory activities), are sought after for major projects, worldwide. Behind Kawada’s success lies a tradition of innovation and creativity, coupled with guarantees of quality, efficiency, and safety. Our innovative ideas have enabled Kawada to engineer, fabricate, and construct many bridges and structures, unparalleled in size and shape, not just within Japan, but also in Asia, North America, the Middle East, and Africa. The Guinness Book of World Records has acknowledged our achievements for bridge-span length, and for the structural height of a statue. We are confident that you too will quickly understand that Kawada’s achievements have become the standard for the industry.

In recent years, the Japan-based domestic demand for steel structures such as office buildings, shopping centres, industrial plants, and space structures, has maintained a level within the 7 to 8 million tonne range. Within this massive volume of output, Kawada’s fabrication capacity has, via supply from its Tochigi, Toyama, and Shikoku Plants, respectively, hovered in the arena of 110 to 125 thousand tonnes per annum, which is mainly focused
towards ultra high-rise buildings. Headed by its specially developed and patented steel column and girder Tochigi Plant, situated in close proximity to Metropolis of Tokyo in Otawara City (Tochigi Prefecture), these three major steel fabrication facilities are effectively supplying the entire domestic Japanese marketplace. Outside of the creation of ultra high-rise buildings, Kawada also excels at complex curved space structures, such as domed stadiums, that demand precise accuracy during the fabrication works. Kawada is proud to have prominently
participated in the realisation of nearly all of the football stadiums and other domed structures that hosted matches in Japan during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Outsides of its domestic borders, as Japan’s most technically advanced and productive architectural steel fabricator, Kawada’s Steel Structure Division has similarly supplied products and services around the world to countries in North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

As the nucleus for pursuing steel structure fabrication works, the Tochigi Plant’s fully automated Box Column Production Line, in operation since 1989, continues to strive towards improvements in labour-savings and efficiencies. The major characteristic pertaining to Kawada’s patented line is that it is able to handle ever increasingly larger member sizes via performing continuously uniform and automated fabrication works. The volume of daily fabricated member output, the working time for each operation within the automated line, the required space internals to secure prescribed programmes, and takt time are all investigated in an ongoing manner to achieve further production enhancements and to ensure that all equipment is operating at full capacity. The automated Box Column Production Line continues to serve as the foundation of Tochigi Plant’s operations and even after 19 years of operations, new ingenuities and creativity is being added to its operations. Due to Kawada’s patented Box Column Production Line, which enables it to efficiently handle the requirements for massive structures, the proactive introduction of automation within our plants, continuous focus upon cost-reduction, and an unrelenting pursuit of unquestionable quality, Kawada continues to be a global leader in high-rise building fabrication.

Outside of Japan, Kawada has established a fabrication centre in Shanghai, China that supplies quality fabricated steelworks in a timely manner to Japan, Mainland China, and to other regions of the world.

As one of the few steel fabricators worldwide that possesses its own Wind Tunnel Testing Laboratory, Kawada has been able to study the effects of wind on bridges, buildings, steel structures, and the aerodynamics of aircraft. Rigorous testing guarantees Kawada’s impeccable safety record and ensures that its standards far exceed the industry’s. In recent times, Kawada has achieved exceptional results in regards to wind-resistant stability research and development for long-span bridges. Moreover, at Kawada’s Structural Fatigue Testing Laboratory, fundamental studies regarding fatigue, materials, and dynamic movement is taking place to allow Kawada to propose the adoption of the most effective structures. In an effort to achieve maximum clarity during analysis, full-scale models are being incorporated. Within Kawada’s Production Technology Laboratory, ongoing research focuses upon improving existing welding technology (i.e. the most appropriate welding details/ methods and the equivalent for newly adopted materials) aimed towards achieving greater welding efficiencies, cost reductions, and increased safety.

Kawada Industries’ President, Mr. Tadahiro Kawada, proudly serves and is highly active within the Japan Steel Constructors Association (Japan’s representative steel structure association) as its Vice-Chairman. To further continue setting the global standards as the leader within the steel structure industry, using our unparalleled technical capabilities, the DNA of our organisation, Kawada has made it its mission to serve society by providing industry-leading expertise, by contributing to the creation of historical structures that secure a nation’s pride, and by ensuring that not only our workforce but also society achieves a great sense of pleasure through our achievements. Kawada remains fully committed to further progressions and to continued successful growth of the steel structure industry.