CNC Brand Profile

SNK and Ikegai: The Group Behind Japan's First Lathe and First Gantry Mill

Two of the oldest names in Japanese machine tools now share one group. One built the country's first lathe. The other says it built the country's first gantry mill. Here is how SNK and Ikegai got there, and what to check on a used SNK.

SNK at a Glance

An Osaka Ironworks, 1898

Shin Nippon Koki did not start under that name. According to the company's own history, it began as Wakayama Tekkosho, the Wakayama Ironworks, founded in Osaka in April 1898. In 1937 the business moved to a hilly site of about 60,000 tsubo, roughly 49 acres, south of central Osaka. That site became the Shidayama plant and headquarters.

In September 1949 the company was established as Shin Nippon Koki, which translates as New Japan Machine Works. Its early postwar products included radial drilling machines, which the company says helped carry Japan's postwar industrial growth.

Japan's First Gantry Mill

Here's the part most machinists never think about: the big bridge mill in the back of a die shop has a short family tree in Japan, and SNK says it planted it.

In 1958, the company says, it built the RB-2 at the request of automakers: a precision vertical boring and milling machine of the gantry type. SNK calls it the first gantry-type machine of its kind in Japan, and says the RB-2 was recognized in 2005 as a historically valuable machine tool.

The firsts kept coming, by the company's account. In 1962 it built the RB-3NC, an early numerically controlled machine. In 1970 it built what it calls Japan's first machine tool with five simultaneously controlled axes. And in 1987 its DC-4 high-speed contouring machine greatly sped up die machining. The RB name is still on SNK's bridge type machining centers today.

From Dies to Airframes

In 1980, the company says, SNK moved seriously into the aircraft industry and opened its U.S. subsidiary. That push shaped the lineup a used buyer sees today: HPS horizontal profilers for aluminum airframe parts, HGM overhead gantry machines for large structural parts and the CMV and RB-F lines for vertical 5-axis work.

SNK's UK distributor, Matsuura, which has represented the brand for 30 years, describes SNK as a world leader in extra-large CNC machine tools, with machines in aerospace, automotive, marine, construction and energy. In North America, SNK America, Inc. handles sales, service and parts.

Ikegai: Japan's First Lathe

The other half of the group is older still. According to Ikegai, founder Shotaro Ikegai set up his shop in Tokyo in 1889 and completed Japan's first lathe production that year. The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers lists that machine, the Ikegai Standard Engine Lathe No. 1, as a Mechanical Engineering Heritage item and calls it the oldest engine lathe made in Japan. It is held at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Ikegai's last few decades were rougher. The company says it filed for court protection in 2001, came out of rehabilitation in 2004 with Shanghai Electric taking a stake, and took on Taiwan's Fair Friend Group as an investor in 2014. Today its headquarters is its Tsukuba plant in Ibaraki.

One Group, Two Old Names

In October 2016, Japan's Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported, a subsidiary of Ikegai bought all the shares of Shin Nippon Koki from its owner family. The paper called it a rare case of a Taiwanese group buying a mid-sized Japanese machine tool builder. Fair Friend Group, founded in Taiwan in 1979, had been buying machine tool brands around the world. For the year before the sale, the paper reported, SNK had sales of 19.7 billion yen and a net loss of 4.6 billion yen.

Ikegai's chairman became SNK's president, and the headquarters moved from Osaka to Sakai, where it is today. For a used buyer, the result is simple: SNK machining centers and Ikegai lathes now come from one group, and SNK America supports both.

Not the Video Game SNK

Search for SNK and you will mostly find arcade games. That SNK is Shin Nihon Kikaku, an Osaka game company founded in the 1970s. The machine tool SNK is Shin Nippon Koki. They share initials and a home city, and nothing else. When you search for parts or manuals, use the full name.

On Our Floor

We have a 1997 SNK PM-6 CNC Double-Column Machining Center: three CAT-50 spindles, tilting heads and a Fanuc 15-MA control, on a bed more than 120 feet long. It is the kind of machine SNK built its name on.

A machine this size is sold on its inspection, not its spec sheet. Confirm the travels, spindle speed, year and condition with our team before you buy.

What to Check on a Used SNK

Start with geometry. On a bridge, double column or gantry machine, have the squareness checked with a laser across the full working volume, and inspect the X, Y and Z ways for wear.

Ask about the foundation. Large SNK machines depend on their foundation. Find out how the machine was leveled and plan the foundation at your shop before you buy.

Cycle every head and axis. On HF multi-centers, cycle every head through the automatic head changer. On 5-axis machines, check the rotary axes for smooth motion, positioning and clamping.

Run the spindle. Take it through its full speed range, listen to the bearings and check runout and temperature.

Confirm the control. SNK machines run Fanuc or Siemens controls depending on model and era. Make sure the control boots, runs a program and that parts are still available for that version.

Built Big

SNK started as an Osaka ironworks, built what it calls Japan's first gantry mill for the auto industry and then took its big machines into aerospace. Ikegai built the country's first lathe. Today they are one group, and the machines both built are still running in shops that need big iron.

Resell CNC Take

A used SNK is a buy for the shop whose parts are too big for anything else. The iron is rarely the problem. Budget for rigging, the foundation and a geometry check, and you get a machine that would cost many times more new.

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