Technology from the endless wisdom of human industry and knowledge of plumage and natureFor the clean Down & Feather
Our factory is the largest processing factory in Japan. Our employees only focus on checking the quality of down & feather through every process in large unmanned manufacturing lines.
Down & feather is very light, so easy to transfer from one machine to another one with air through pipes. All machines are closed and connected by pipes, so down & feather is isolated from outside for sanitary reasons. In each process, we remove the dirt, dander and dust from the raw down & feather completely and remove the damaged feather and residue in the process to produce reliable, safety and high quality down & feather.
Raw material receipt
We process down & feather based on strict quarantine system under the hygienic standard. Especially we have purposely separated closed areas, and process raw down & feather to refined one in only one way to provide perfect quarantine. Meiwa factory keeps qualifying for over one-fourth century under inspection by veterinary office every year.
De-dusting machines
There are dirt, fat, and dander attached on the raw down & feather in breeding waterfowls. De-dusting machines remove such dust and dander from down & feather. It is much easier to remove dirt and dander if we remove the much fat attached to dust.
The de-dusting machine has our originally designed structure by us. We use hot water for washing. We use exhaust heat recovery from dust with fat. It is heat from natural circulation to reduce LP gas.
Washing machines
We use specialized washing machine to remove dirt and dander from the down & feather. We have plenty of special water and the unique washing technic called “Togi Arai (Special Washing).” It scrubs the down each other without damage and easily removes the dirt and dander thoroughly based on our company’s experience and theory. Also, we use super soft and hydrogen water which has high reducing power. We use natural-based soaps and always use directly drinkable water to wash and rinse. The water, once used for washing and rinsing, is drained after advanced purifying system with very severe standard.
We chose the best place for washing down & feather, where we can get plenty of special water. This special water penetrates all of the down & feather and has the high reducing power to recover the functions of the down & feather. No one can use this plenty special water except in here.
Dryer
This is the machine for drying wet down & feather after washing. Our dryer can increase the temperature up-to 150 degree, much higher than normal dryer.
So, if the stirring wet down & feather in cylinder touches the side at high temperature, the water of wet down & feather will be changed to steam at once. The process makes the down & feather very soft in a moment. The process also peels off the dander from the surface of down and useless outer root sheath from immature down & feather.
If the temperature is low, it will take about half an hour to dry. So, the down & feather might be damaged because of the heat load. If we spray the water on the dried down & feather (steam & dry process) using enough time, the barbule of the down & feather will open perfectly and be given higher filling power. Moreover, drying and double-drying with the high temperature has efficient effects of sterilization and deodorization.
Cooling & de-dusting machine
This cooling & de-dusting machine removes small invisible dust and dander which are the source of house dust, after cooling this down to room temperature. It is necessary to remove dander from every small part completely, so we use original process to remove the dust thoroughly after washing.
When we look the detail of raw down & feather closely by electronic microscope, there is a lot of dander stuck on the root of barbule.
So, it is necessary to remove the dust and dander while the barbule is open.
Sorting machine
Our sorting machine is used as the last process of our washing line. Down & feather is very easy to fly into the air by soft wind. Heavy things are sorted out one by one. Residues and big feathers are sorted out at first and down remains at last.
We take out the root sheath and other residues in the first drum chamber, where we keep down a part. We are able to separate root sheath from immature down in special washing (Togi Arai) and high temperature drying process. The root sheath will become house dust and smell by bacterium and fungus. We stabilize down quality by special treatment in sorting, which is very important key process in quality control.
Blending machine
We have original blending process to keep stable quality of down & feather. We blend 3 or 4 kinds of down & feather from the same species and same origins to keep best condition throughout the year. Down & feather is a byproduct from meat business. It is always different quality in every year, even if it is from the same farm, same species and same time of the year. We make stable quality of down & feather like as industrial standard. It is based on our big database of own down & feather analysis and experience for a long time.
After blended down & feather well, it is very hard to discharge it equally because down & feather is very easy to separate. This own designed blending machine can bring no difference in bale to bale and also inside of bales without efforts. This blending process is necessary to pursue our stable high quality down & feather production.
Delivery
After the confirmation by our in-house qualified professionals and analyzed test results, we deliver the reliable quality of the processed down & feather. We put it into an anti-static bale and print the necessary information on the unbreakable tag to check the product name and processing methods at a glance. We fill our face into the bales to find some smell in the last process for the last judgement. This step of inspection is our company’s unique culture. We trust our quality in many aspects, house dust, virus, fungus and so on, so last process becomes only our culture in the world.
Contact us
Kawada Feather Co., Ltd.
〒515-0303
3255, Yamaoyodo, Meiwa-Cho, Taki-Gun, Mie
TEL : 0596-55-2431 / FAX : 0596-55-4156
infokawada.net