Since the foundation in 1892, Tanaka Scientific Limited has been engaged in manufacturing and sales of scientific instruments, through which we have contributed to the progress of science and technology. During the latter half of 1950s, Tanaka drew its main focus to the petroleum testing apparatus, and ever since then we have been delivering high quality and user friendly instruments to mostly the quality testing laboratories at refineries as well as non-petroleum sectors.
Petroleum products, such as motor gasoline, diesel fuel and lubricating oils, are checked for specification at various stages including refining, distribution, storage, and quite often consumption and disposal. Since petroleum products are international commodities, most of them are tested for specification using the internationally agreed standard test methods. As a result, petroleum testing apparatus itself has a nature of international commodities.
In fact Tanaka's petroleum testing apparatus are used at petroleum testing labs worldwide and reputed highly. Amongst the series of Tanaka products, automated flash point testers are widely known for the ease of use and high reliability. Other than the high quality products that Tanaka delivers are the know-hows on petroleum testing as well as the quick field services through the highly skilled distributors' network.
In 1976, Tanaka released the first CPU embedded automated flash point tester. (The CPU embedded in this Tanaka product was "MOS Technology 6502", which was also used in APPLE II computer by late Steven Jobs and his team. The release date of APPLE II was April, 1977.) Ever since then, Tanaka has been pioneering in this arena. The technologies involved in the automated petroleum testers include: mechanical design, sensors, electronics, software, methodologies in/around petroleum testing, and last but not least ergonomics.
Another area Tanaka Scientific has been committed is the standardization of petroleum test methods. We have been actively involved in the standard making and maintenance processes at Japan Industrial Standard(JIS) since 1968, ISO TC28 since 1983, and ASTM International since 1982. As a leading manufacturer, Tanaka Scientific has proposed some new test methods at these organizations, and some have been adopted and now preferred by number of world-class users for the better precision and higher laboratory productivity.
