Research and Development
Company-Wide Strategic Research and Division-Based ProductDevelopment and Improvements Form the Two Pillars of R&D
Guided by its founding spirit, “Be ahead of the times through endless creativity, inquisitiveness andpursuit of improvement,” Toyota Industries undertakes Company-wide strategic R&D aimed not justat improving short-term business results but also at achieving sustainable growth over the long term.
At the same time, each business division actively carries out R&D activities that are important forensuring that the Toyota Industries Group maintains its competitive advantage.
Toyota Industries’ R&D can be broadly divided into the two categories
of product development and improvements performed independently
within each business division in addition to R&D undertaken mainlyby the Research & Development Center. The latter is carried out fromthe perspective of Company-wide management strategy.
Toyota Industries operates in an extensive range of businessspheres, and each of the Company’s divisions has its own
distinctive technological strengths, core technologies and market
characteristics. Accordingly, to efficiently develop products tailoredto customer needs, it is imperative that technical development
sections of each division play a leading role in product improvement,
technology development and applied research. As such, thesetechnical development sections maintain their own experimentequipment and research laboratories and proactively undertake
technology development activities in cooperation with manufacturing
divisions based on product development plans.
The Research & Development Center within the Corporate
Center (corporate headquarters) engages in R&D in technology
fields such as materials fields that serve as a common foundation
for all divisions in addition to undertaking R&D in new domains. The
Research & Development Center is also working to further strengthen
and enhance the efficiency of our Company-wide R&D structure,promote lateral transfers of technologies among different divisions
and investigate new technology development themes. Concurrently,
the center deploys the accumulated technologies and know-how ofeach business division in a continuous search for and creation of new
products and services that will form the pillars of our future business.
Depending on specific research themes, the center also promotes
joint research in collaboration with Toyota Central Research &Development Laboratories, Inc., an R&D facility of the Toyota Group
that engages in basic research, as well as with universities and otheroutside R&D institutions.
Our “e-Lab” IT
research laboratory
within the Information
System Development
Department
undertakes ITrelated R&D. This
laboratory is making
progress in researchon digital simulation

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Toyota Industries Corporation

Annual Report 2007

technologies for shortening product development times and reducing
lead-times from development to production and shipping. Moreover,“e-Lab” is building an infrastructure and systems for allowing eachbusiness division to undertake joint development with overseas
bases.
Toyota Industries actively promotes in-house manufacturingof essential processing and assembly equipment. The Machinery& Tools Sub-Division develops and manufactures specialized
manufacturing equipment for the Compressor Division, EngineDivision, Toyota Material Handling Company and affiliates.
Manufacturing such equipment internally yields a host of advantages,
which include speedy development and manufacturing throughcooperation among development and design departments as well as
the rapid launch of production lines. Toyota Industries’ outstanding
manufacturing equipment also contributes to the Toyota Industries
Group’s manufacturing, serving as a source of competitiveness foreach business and protecting against any outflow of proprietaryproduction know-how. We are also utilizing our strength in creating
manufacturing equipment for the quick start-up of operations atoverseas production bases while striving to nurture personnel
with expertise in such equipment, as we aim to further raise theproduction technology capabilities of the Toyota Industries Group.
In fiscal 2007, R&D expenses increased 10.9% from the previous
fiscal year to ¥34.5 billion. By segment, R&D expenses amounted to¥16.2 billion in the Automobile Segment, ¥15.7 billion in the Materials
Handling Equipment Segment, ¥0.8 billion in the Textile Machinery
Segment and ¥1.6 billion in the Others Segment.

NC machine toolfor aluminum parts

Circuit board inspection systemwith high-resolution line scancamera

New Products and Technologies Developed by Toyota Industries in Fiscal 2007

Materials Handling Equipment
accounting for approximately 50% of theentire Japanese lift truck market, andare used by a wide variety of customers
primarily in the transport and warehouseindustries. To address the needs of thismarket, Toyota Industries developed thenew GENEO to attain an even higher levelof performance and functionality in theareas of safety, environmental featuresand ease of operation.

New GENEO
In September 2006, Toyota Industries
commenced domestic sales of 1- to 3.5-ton
internal combustion lift trucks (sold as theGENEO in Japan, 8-Series in North Americaand International, and the Toyota Tonero inEurope) after a full model change. The 1- to3.5-ton class internal combustion lift trucks
represent the largest market for lift trucks,

Development of Hybrid Systems for Lift Trucks
Heightened global environmental awareness coupled with persistently high crude oil
prices has spurred a rapidly rising market need for improved fuel economy. Paralleling thisdevelopment, there are high hopes that hybrid technologies will enable significant increases
in fuel economy for internal combustion lift trucks.
Utilizing the Toyota Group’s hybrid technologies and components, Toyota Industries isdeveloping highly efficient hybrid systems for lift trucks that offer superior reliability, durability
and cost performance. Our new hybrid concept model
maintains the same performance as conventional internal
combustion lift trucks while significantly raising fuel economy
and achieving a balance between high environmental
performance and cost efficiency. We will continue
pursuing the development of new technologies for thecommercialization of hybrid lift trucks.

Textile Machinery

Automobile (Car Electronics)

LWT710 Water-Jet Loom

Development of Air-Cooled DC-DC Converter

Toyota Industries launched the new LWT710 water-jet loom,
which features a newly developed nozzle pump and a shortstroke for achieving high versatility and weaving high-quality
textiles. Moreover, the LWT710 shares a common frame withthe world’s top-selling JAT710 air-jet loom, thereby enablinghigh-speed, low-vibration weaving of all types of textiles. The
use of a common frame also permits a significant increase in
the use of common spare parts.

Toyota Industries has developed an air-cooled DC-DC converter
for hybrid vehicles. This converter is an essential component
for down-converting the high voltage of the main battery—thedrive source for hybrid vehicles—to the lower voltage neededfor operating lights, audio systems and other in-car devices.
Incorporating Toyota Industries’ independently developed IC,
the new DC-DC converter enables a more than 20% reductionin the number of components. Unlike the conventional watercooling method, an air-cooled converter affords greater
freedom for positioning within thevehicle. Our new DC-DC converters
are fitted on the Camry
Hybrid that Toyota
Motor Corporation
began selling in North
America in May 2006.

Toyota Industries Corporation

Annual Report 2007

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