How TOPSFLO Maintained an 8-year Partnership with Japanese Leading Inkjet Printer Company | Miniature Diaphragm Gas Pump

On March 19, 2024, leading Japanese printer industry company A visited TOPSFLO for the seventh time. During this visit, company A highly recognized and praised TOPSFLO for its significant development and outstanding progress in the past year. Based on full trust in TOPSFLO's technical strength and service quality, company A decided to add 2,000 units of trial orders for new projects and further expand the scope of cooperation between the two parties.

2024 marks the eighth year of cooperation between TOPSFLO and company A. Over the past eight years, TOPSFLO and company A have worked side by side to successfully overcome many technical challenges faced by the printer industry, such as high noise, unstable performance, and short lifespan. Together, they have completed many significant projects, with the cumulative order volume of micro pumps exceeding 1.5 million units.

Initial Contact: Reputation is the Best Introduction

On May 4, 2016, an inquiry email about vacuum pumps from Japan opened the cooperation between TOPSFLO and company A.

At that time, company A was working on a continuous inkjet printer project that required a high-performance vacuum pump to provide vacuum and pressure to the system. However, as the printer needed to work continuously for long periods, the pumps they were using started to develop issues such as overheating, short lifespan, high noise, and leakage over time.

Despite multiple communications with suppliers, company A could not completely resolve these issues. The vacuum pump, being the heart of the system, was crucial, and its performance was key to the project's success. In desperation, company A decided to urgently change their pump supplier!

Coincidentally, their Brother company was using TOPSFLO's centrifugal pumps for a project, and the quality and performance feedback was very positive. Learning that we also produced vacuum pumps, company A sent us an email with a hopeful attitude, requesting a long-life, leak-free, silent pump with specific parameters.

After receiving the email, overseas sales engineer Alice responded quickly. Addressing the client's issues and needs, Alice recommended micro diaphragm gas pump TM40 series and promptly sent samples for testing.

However, Japanese manufacturing is known worldwide for its precision quality. Could this Chinese micro pump brand really surpass the standards that even Japanese pumps couldn't meet? Until the first official sample test, company A remained skeptical about our products.

Breaking Prejudice: Speaking for Chinese Manufacturing with High Quality

Unfortunately, the results of the first sample test were not entirely satisfactory. Although TOPSFLO's pump outperformed the previous pumps in terms of noise, pressure stability, and heating under the guaranteed parameters, the pressure stability needed to be further enhanced to ensure the precision of vacuum and pressure for the new project.

In response to this issue, TOPSFLO's R&D team expressed their willingness to jointly develop with company A, actively cooperating with their R&D team to meet the performance needs of the pump.

However, as micro diaphragm gas pump TM40 series was an early product launched by TOPSFLO and already had mature technology, upgrading the product faced more complex technical challenges than imagined. Every minor technical breakthrough required great effort, and every experimental detail was crucial.

To achieve the best experimental results, the R&D team and company A's team held more than a dozen online meetings, deeply analyzing customer needs, continuously trying new solutions, adjusting parameters, and optimizing processes. Sometimes, to verify a minor change, they needed to work continuously for several hours. To obtain a set of accurate and reliable experimental data, they had to work overtime until the early morning, even overnight. During two months of continuous testing and verification, the lab lights often stayed on late into the night. Facing challenges, TOPSFLO's "knowing it's impossible but still striving" R&D spirit and "customer first" corporate spirit drove us to keep exploring and fearlessly overcome difficulties.

Finally, after countless days and nights of hard work, micro diaphragm gas pump TM40 series achieved a breakthrough in pressure stability! Supported by dozens of sets of experimental data, the R&D team made breakthroughs in pump materials and structure, using a more precisely configured pump head, diaphragm, valve plate, and the best-matching design for each component. This resulted in micro diaphragm gas pump TM40 series having more stable output flow, lower pulsation, and adjustable, stable output pressure. It achieved stable, continuous pressurization with a positive pressure range of 10kpa to 150kpa, a negative pressure range of -10kpa to -80kpa, and a flow range of 2-11L/min. Parameters can be customized, and 5V/PWM frequency speed control can also be customized.

By the end of 2016, the first bulk order between company A and TOPSFLO was successfully launched, with a demand for 20,000 units. This cooperation not only showcased TOPSFLO's rapid and comprehensive service level and strong technical strength but also laid a solid foundation for long-term stable cooperation.

From Cooperation to Partnership: Providing Services that Exceed Customer Expectations

Over the past eight years, TOPSFLO has always adhered to the values of "customer first, gratitude and altruism, and striving for perfection," providing A with excellent products and professional services. Fully aware of the Japanese market's stringent requirements for product quality, we ensure that every pump delivered to customers undergoes strict and precise in-factory verification. From raw materials to finished products, all have RoHS, REACH, CE, FDA certifications, and we provide customers with complete certification documents. We constantly strive for excellence, continuously meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

When we learned that company A was using chemSHERPA for chemical control, our sales engineers responded quickly, proactively cooperating to ensure that the chemical information of the pumps we supplied fully met environmental protection requirements and successfully uploaded it to the chemSHERPA system (chemSHERPA provides a mechanism for information transmission that can be used throughout the supply chain). Through this initiative, we effectively supported the customer in their chemical control efforts and received high recognition from the customer for our thoughtful service awareness.

In the eight years of cooperation, company A has always focused on providing high-quality products to users, not following the crowd but staying true to its principles. Because of this, they have gained the firm choice of consumers in the competitive market environment. TOPSFLO's long-standing pursuit aligns perfectly with company A's philosophy.

As the customer said during this visit: "Based on the trust in quality, our future cooperation will be deeper and more stable." We are honored by this recognition from the customer. In the future, TOPSFLO will continue to adhere to product quality, continuously improve service levels, and bring products and services that exceed customer expectations, writing a more beautiful chapter of cooperation together.

Conclusion

TOPSFLO, as one of the first companies in China to enter the micro pump industry, has always benchmarked itself against the craftsmanship spirit of century-old German and Japanese companies, focusing on the R&D, production, and sales of high-quality micro pumps for nearly 20 years. In cooperation with customers, we always adhere to the principle of putting customers first in service, providing customers with services that truly exceed their expectations; in R&D, we are committed to providing mature and complete solutions to customers, and jointly developing with customers to overcome industry challenges. This is the key to TOPSFLO's ability to maintain long-term stable cooperation with customers.

In the future, TOPSFLO will continue to improve, leading the progress and breakthroughs in the micro pump industry with technological innovation, providing customers with more high-quality products and better services!