History of Kansai Centrifugal Separator Manufacturing

100 years of history

In 1918, in a corner of Fukushima-ku, Osaka, a small workshop began building hand-cranked hydro-extractors. That workshop was the beginning of Kansai Centrifugal Separator Manufacturing. For more than a century since, we have never left our founding site, and we have never built anything but centrifugal separators.

During the Showa era we supplied ultra centrifugal separators for marine fuel purification as a factory under Navy Ministry control. After the war, our machines moved into pharmaceutical, food and fine chemical production. Separating what will not separate on its own, no matter how long it is left to stand — by concentrating our engineering on that single problem, our KS type reached 40,000G, among the highest centrifugal forces available in a production machine.

What follows is that history, told through our chronology and our patent record.

Founder・First manually operated centrifugal separator

First manually operated centrifugal separator

Chronology – Founding years (1918–1952)

March 1918	Founded. Kansai Hydro-Extractor Manufacturing Works was established at the company’s current location of 1-8-8 Sagisu, Fukushima-ku, Osaka, designing, building and selling various centrifugal separators.
April 1941	Designated a chemical industry machinery manufacturer at the encouragement of the Osaka prefectural government, and a factory under Navy Ministry control. Production centred on KS- and D-type ultra centrifugal separators for marine fuel purification, alongside sales of various centrifugal separators and chemical machinery.
December 1952	Restructured as a joint-stock company. Continued to design, build and sell KS-type ultra centrifugal separators and NV-type marine fuel purifiers.

Chronology – Expansion (1971–2004)

August 1971	Began building horizontal continuous centrifugal separators (decanter type).
May 1977	Improved the KS-type super-high-speed centrifugal separator and developed the high-performance U series.
May 1978	Utility model “Centrifugal Separator” (Registration No. 1228811) granted.
April 1979	Utility model “Continuous Centrifugal Water-Extraction Separator” (Registration No. 1283585) granted.
December 1981	Opened a Tokyo sales office (Chiyoda-ku).
March 1989	Improved the KS type in response to customer requests.
April 1998	Began development to boost the performance of the KS-type U series.
April 2001	Launched the KS-type U2 series.
February 2004	Patent “Liquid Level Detection Device for Centrifugal Separators” (Patent No. 3520182) granted.

Chronology – Recent (2012– )

October 2012	Began development of the KS-type U3 series.
October 2014	Patent “Cylindrical Centrifugal Separator” (Patent No. 5634377) granted.
December 2017	Began development of an improved lower structure for the KS type.
March 2018	Marked 100 years since founding.
October 2022	Received both the Excellent Company Award and the Intellectual Property Award at the Osaka Monozukuri Excellent Company Awards 2022.
February 2023	Featured in an article in the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun.
September 2023	Exhibited at INCHEM TOKYO 2023, organised by the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan and the Japan Management Association.
October 2023	Released a fully revised product catalogue.
January 2024	Relaunched the corporate website.
September 2024	Featured on Yomiuri TV’s programme “BEAT”.
September 2025	Exhibited at INCHEM TOKYO 2025.

Patents and utility models

Since our founding we have developed our own inventions in the structure and control of centrifugal separators. In 2022 this work was recognised with the Intellectual Property Award at the Osaka Monozukuri Excellent Company Awards 2022.

Patent No. 5634377	Cylindrical Centrifugal Separator Granted 24 October 2014
Patent No. 3520182	Liquid Level Detection Device for Centrifugal Separators Granted 6 February 2004
Utility Model No. 1283585	Continuous Centrifugal Water-Extraction Separator Granted 27 April 1979
Utility Model No. 1228811	Centrifugal Separator Granted 22 May 1978

Certificate of Utility Model Registration No. 1228811, Centrifugal Separator

Certificate of Patent No. 3520182, Liquid Level Detection Device for Centrifugal Separators

Certificate of Patent No. 5634377, Cylindrical Centrifugal Separator

Awards and media

October 2022	Osaka Monozukuri Excellent Company Awards 2022 Under the Osaka prefectural government’s programme recognising outstanding small and medium-sized manufacturers, we received both the Excellent Company Award and the Intellectual Property Award. We are also listed among Osaka’s flagship manufacturers (“Takumi”).
September 2024	Yomiuri TV, “BEAT” Our work was featured on the programme.
February 2023	Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun An article on the company was published.

Put a century of separation engineering to work on your process

Choose from three types — KS super-high-speed (up to 40,000G), basket type and decanter type — and we will propose the machine best suited to your requirements and application. If you are wondering whether your liquid can actually be separated, we can settle the question in advance with a sample test on an actual machine.

View product information >　　About sample tests >