Monthly Archives: December 2018

Driving Automotive Testing Excellence in Japan, China and now the United States

December 19, 2018

TOYO Corporation has been a sales partner for the Sweden-based company Rototest for two years, carrying their unique hub-coupled dynamometer system in the Japan market and more recently in the China market. During this short time, TOYO has developed a comprehensive understanding of automotive test industry and customer requirements. As a direct result, TOYO has invested substantially in the sector, capped off with a multi-story facility located in Atsugi, Japan, and focused exclusively on automotive testing with a large area devoted to powertrain and steering testing using Rototest dynamometers.

If you are an automotive powertrain engineer, and you are not familiar with hub-based chassis dynamometers, here are a couple of informative videos to help get you started.

One of the true benefits of Rototest dynamometers is that they allow manufacturers to perform real world and critical powertrain testing and measurement in a completely controlled environment. That’s right. There is no need to go take a prototype car out onto a track to do such measurements. Everything can be done within a relatively small facility as the above videos demonstrate. Furthermore, the performance of a vehicle under varying environmental conditions can be tested and measured. 

But that’s not all. The automobiles of today are designed with far more electronics and communication gears than their predecessors. This makes for EMC or electronic magnetic compatibility testing even more challenging and complex. Rototest dynamometers are compatible with anechoic chambers, allowing them to be installed inside such enclosures for the purpose of EMC design and testing.

In July 2018 TOYOTech acquired the exclusive distribution rights to market and sell the Rototest product in the United States region. Here’s the news release: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180712005027/en/Rototest-Expands-Market-Reach-United-States-New

Christian Engstrom, CEO of Rototest, said at the time: “We are thrilled to collaborate with TOYO Corporation to expand into the United States marketplace. Rototest’s products have disrupted the automobile testing industry market in Europe, Japan, and China and we are looking to replicate the success in the United States. Our extended partnership agreement with TOYO Corporation enables us to introduce our products to new customers in this important automotive region of the world. Customers will benefit by having access to an advanced automobile test platform that is cost-effective, simple to deploy and versatile.”

The Automotive Testing Expo event in Novi, Michigan in late October 2018 gave TOYOTech an important opportunity to showcase the Rototest product and to espouse its benefits to customers in the automotive sector. Over the course of 3 days, we met and spoke with several hundred of our automotive peers. We believe many of them walked away with a better understanding of the Rototest system.  We also came back with a richer understanding of the testing challenges and requirements of this industry.

Before I conclude, I want to talk a little bit about the electronic vehicle (or EV) segment of the automotive industry. It is an incredible hot sector. Depending on who you talk to, there are more than 30 startups working on electric and/or hybrid vehicles. Many of them chose to locate away from the traditional mecca of Detroit with many, for example, choosing to reside in California. This is, of course, no surprise given the laws in California to compel car manufacturers to reduce emissions and greenhouse gases. I mention this because a majority of the prospects we are engaging with are working on such vehicles.  We believe Rototest will appeal particularly to these companies.

Lastly, be on the lookout for a Rototest webinar announcement and invitation from us shortly.  The webinar will be delivered by the developer of the product itself.  See you in the new year.

Steve Wong
VP of Marketing & Product Management
steve.wong@toyotechus.com

TOYO EMC team has made great progress in 2018 in the United States

December 18, 2018

We were able to engage many engineers at EMC seminars around the country, the IEEE EMC Symposium Exhibition in Long Beach California, and the IEEE EMC Chapter Seminar Exhibitions in California, Chicago, Minneapolis, Michigan and Seattle. The accompanying technical discussions with the show’s attendees provided valuable feedback for our product development team for their roadmap planning sessions.

We successfully introduced the Automotive EMC System & Anechoic Chamber to Michigan based manufacturers and the EMC Test System into the OEM and EMC test houses in California. This is proof that TOYO has been acknowledged to have high technical capability and support satisfaction as an EMC system integrator.  The is especially evident by the fact that TOYO EMC test software continuously updates and enhances combined drivers to support the various measuring instruments.

Throughout the year, we often heard from various EMC test software users of how they were so impressed with our solution after their first look and free evaluation that they even switched from others to ours. This further motivated our engineers to continuously implement and improve our product functionality. The automatic measurement function of Emission Test Software is becoming a standard. In addition, the measurement sequence with less noise measurement error on the spectrum analyzer and the EMI receiver function that supports manual measurement are very effective for debugging work. Error detection by Immunity Test System picture recognition is effective for reducing the operator’s workload and improving the repeatability of the test. The solutions are very powerful so we always encourage engineers to evaluate our solutions for full appreciation.

We will continue providing outstanding EMC test solutions. Coming in the near future will be new releases of measurement software, integration of measurement environment for General Test, and EMC/OTA measurement systems for automobiles, Frankonia’s BlueBox test bench for testing EV motors which can be installed in existing anechoic chambers, etc

We would like to express our sincerest appreciation for the trust you have placed in us and best wishes for success and a prosperous new year to all our clients, partners and representatives in each region.  We’ll keep doing our best in supporting you.  Please feel free to contact us at info@toyotechus.com should you have any questions or concerns regarding EMC testing.


Nori “Nick” Sugawara
VP EMC Sales
nori.sugawara@toyotechus.com



With an impressive array of performance and function features, the LT1000 is the first product launched by the LAB Business Unit

December 12, 2018

As we wrap up 2018 here at TOYOTech, the LAB business unit, in its first year of existence, we thought it would be helpful to take a look back and review the first product that we introduced earlier in the year.

It was during the Display Week in Los Angeles in May that we released the new LT1000 Ion Impurity Analyzer.  This analyzer provides a completely innovative method to characterize and measure ion impurity levels in many liquid-based substances.  It is an electrochemical analytical tool for impurity assay.  Conventional measurement solutions of this class are based on a chemical analysis approach and as such are designed to mainly measure impurity (not ions) and inorganic ion impurity.  The patent-pending LT1000 is the first measurement solution of its kind to measure not only inorganic ions but organic ones as well.

Furthermore, the LT1000 is extremely sensitive.  It detects even the most minute (in the parts per trillion (ppt) range) of ion concentrations.  The high resolution and accuracy provide an ability for lab engineers and technicians to detect impurities in test materials which is second to none in the industry.  A full test cycle can be completed in a second compared to conventional ion chromatography methods, which can take upwards of one hour. This is 3,600 times faster.  I do not have to tell you what this can mean for your workflows and your time-critical projects.

We are also releasing two new state of the art stages or shielding boxes for the LT1000 co-developed in partnership with a pioneer in the industry.  The enhanced version of the stage will feature a temperature control function.  Both of the new stages support test cells, engineered and designed by TOYOTech.  Test cells are vessels where you load the liquid substance in which you would like to test.  The stages will be available at the end of the year.

One of the most important features of the LT1000 is the way in which it is managed.  When you acquire an LT1000, we will provide you also with controlling software that runs on either a Windows PC or a Mac.  There are two means in which a computer connects to an LT1000.  One way is through a standard Ethernet connection using a RJ45 cable.  The second way is through a WLAN connection.  With the latter method, this permits a LT1000 and a “stage” to be put inside a “glove” box or container to perform a certain class of tests without having to worry about cabling or other connection considerations.

As I look at the new year ahead of us, I can tell you that we are excited about what’s in store for our customers.  So please make sure you stay connected with us so you can be among the first to be informed.  And if you want to learn more about the LT1000, please drop us an email at info@toyotechus.com.

Steve Wong VP of Marketing & Product Management steve.wong@toyotechus.com

Rapid advancements in networking technologies fuels interest and growth in SYNESIS business unit

December 11, 2018

The year 2018 for our Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) group has been an eventful year with the focus on expanding our channel and marketing partnerships.  With the help of Tatsushi “Tom” Nakamura, ICT established a stronger presence in regions outside of the Japan and US, namely EMEA.  We also had sales growth in Australia through existing channels.  Our marketing partnerships improved as we worked closer with one partnership while establishing another.

The start of the new year was kicked off with a whirlwind tour through Europe: UK, France, and Germany by the sales team.  That was quickly followed by another trip to the continent, specifically to Israel.  With carnet in hand, Tom and I, showcased ICT’s premier product, SYNESIS, to potential partners.  Some of these partners were at times previous channel partners from our ClearSight Networks days while others were new.  The goal was to further qualify the candidates and of course to evangelize SYNESIS.  Not all were optimal, but we chose a select few that we feel will definitely help expand our SYNESIS business.

From those partners arose multiple inquiries, some followed by site visits by the sales team to Europe, Middle East, and Australia.  Select opportunities were followed by onsite Proof-of-Concepts (POC).  They will come to fruition in the coming months as budgets are allocated.  Domestically and internationally, there were POCs with major service providers and government related agencies.

What drove these opportunities?…primarily 40G and 100G installations, spearheaded by service providers!  While previous years lacked strong commitments to the higher Ethernet speeds by organizations, 2018 proved to be a different story.  In the past six to nine months we’ve seen 40G and 100G inquiries increase, from both new and existing contacts.  We believe as planned deployments of 5G by service providers continue to increase in the US, Europe, and Australia, being able to record network traffic at the highest Ethernet rates will be a priority.  This is especially true after users realize that their existing packet capture solutions prove inadequate – dropped packets.

On the marketing partnership front, there’s Garland Technology.  SYNESIS can work with any tap and packet broker vendor in the industry such as Gigamon and Ixia.  However, we haven’t had much traction with strategic partnerships in the US, primarily due to TOYO’s limited market presence in the US since past focus was always in Asia.  That’s where our new partnership with Garland Technology comes in.  They differ themselves from incumbents by providing more cost-effective solutions.  They’ve also grown in leaps and bounds.  In their ecosystem are application and network performance vendors.  However, what’s lacking is a high-performance packet capture vendor to complement Garlands’s high-speed 40G and 100G installations…perfect for SYNESIS.

In summary, this year has been focused on building a strong foundation from which we can grow sales in 2019.  Thank you to the TOYO management and engineering teams for continuous support!

Angelo Bustos

Solutions Consultant Director

angelo.bustos@toyotechus.com