LIXIL MUSEUM
LIXIL MUSEUM
Transforming residential life and the creations of LIXIL
LIXIL was born in April 2011 through the merger of five companies with long histories in the housing industry: Tostem, INAX, Shin Nikkei, Sunwave and Toyo Exterior.
LIXIL is advancing towards the future by accumulating these histories and reconsidering the spirit of each group company's foundations.
The LIXIL museum has been born from these considerations.
http://www.lixil-history.com/
http://www.lixil.co.jp/corporate/csr/culture/shiryokan.htm
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Ceramic drainpipe
The first exhibit in the museum is a ceramic drainpipe. There is talk of the laying of sewage pipes in the Yokohama concession by Englishmen in the early part of the Meiji Era. Clay pipes made in the city of Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, were used here and subsequently, they became an item that was indispensable for the modernization of Japan, being used as water and sewage pipes, drainage pipes for railroad construction, and rice paddy irrigation pipes. The main company behind the manufacture of such pipes was Tokoname City's Ina Seito(Later INAX, now LIXIL).
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Decorative ceramic tiles "Pillars of Light"
A decorative ceramic tiles for buildings that were used in the "Pillars of Light" of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel. A factory dedicated to construction of the Imperial Hotel was set up in Tokoname and 4 million tiles and Terracotta earthenware were manufactured as decorative construction materials. Ina Chozaburo, who at the time ran a clay pipe?factory in Tokoname, hired the workers from the dedicated factory after the?Imperial Hotel was completed and established Ina Seito(Later INAX, now LIXIL).
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Stainless steel sink
Japan recovered rapidly from the ashes of the Second World War and revolutionary changes also came about in residential living. The symbol of this was surely public housing apartments that incorporated dining rooms and kitchens with stainless steel tanks. Sunwave(now LIXIL). was the company that?took on the challenge of forming a deep-drawn sink from a single sheet of?stainless steel. The company accepted orders that were fulfilled by the company first fabricating equipment, which was used by the technical team to commercialize products in an effort that involved little sleep or rest.
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Plastic bath
The plastic bath introduced to the market by Ina Seito (Later INAX, now LIXIL). in 1958 employed fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) and was the first such bath made in Japan. A material switch from tile and wooden baths to plastic materials occurred and through this, the new style of a unit bath was born. The unit bath was an innovative product that dramatically shortened the construction time for bathrooms The unit bath converted various components such as the floor, walls, ceiling, apron and counter to plastics, with the material accounting for 40 weight percent of the total.
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First shower-toilet
Toilet seats were also made from FRP. Subsequently, further conversion to plastics was advanced entering the 1960s and ABS and polypropylene came to be used. Here, Japan's first shower toilet commercialized in 1967 is exhibited. The bottom could be washed with a shower of water by pushing a button at one's feet to activate a nozzle. The technology was originally developed by a Swiss medical device manufacturer and INAX (now LIXIL). adapted and commercialized it.
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Rain door sashes
As modern living conveniences made life more comfortable, people began demanding quality in residential buildings. Toyo Sash (later Tostem, now LIXIL) commercialized a product called Dan, which combined formerly separate sliding shutters and sash rails into one integral frame. Dan was highly rated for its excellent ease of installation and good weathering. Eventually, urethane foam was injected into sliding shutter panels to improve insulation performance. It was during this time that plastic began to gain attention as an insulator that is greatly superior to metal.
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Garden room "Exsior"
Toyo Exterior (now LIXIL) commercialized a product called Garden room Exsiol. Garden room Exsiol is a product line created for the new garden market. The garden room is a new concept for facilities auxiliary to gardens such as gates and fences, inspired by the idea that a lifestyle in harmony with nature leads to a more healthy life. The garden room uses the insulating properties of plastic to advantage.
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Tankless Toilet "SATIS"
INAX (now LIXIL) developed and popularized the Satis toilet on the concept "the world's smallest, but giving maximum satisfaction." Satis dispensed with the toilet tank and was made compact to the limit possible to make more space available in what is normally a very space-constrained area. Another innovation was the "clean toilet seat" patented by INAX. A stain resistant antifouling treatment was applied to the surface of the toilet seat to keep it sanitary by preventing human waste from staining or sticking to it.
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"ALUPLACLUS" interior thermal insulation sash
Shin Nikkei's( now LIXIL) "ALUPLACLUS" interior thermal insulation sash possesses a composite structure in which cold-resistant aluminum is used on the outside and plastic is employed on the inside. It has become a pioneering product in today's thermal insulation windows and energy conservation windows. The color of the plastic component can be chosen to match the color of the interior. Furthermore, substantial energy conservation and condensation reduction effects are possible through attaching a plastic window on the interior side, which exploits the high thermal insulation effect of plastic and furthermore creates an air layer between the plastic and the outside window which delivers an additional thermal insulation effect.