Kowa's History
1935
Established as a brush manufacture
1943
Incorporated as an industrial brush manufacturer under the company name Kowa Brush Ltd.
1948
Company name changed to Kowa Brush Co., Ltd.
1954
Started production of brushes for knitters and various electric vacuum cleaners
Mid1950s
Started mass production of knitting machine brushes
Supplied knitting machine manufacturers such as Brother Industries, Ltd.
1955
Applied for patent on circular brush
Mid1960s
Rod brushes
Increased pace of vacuum cleaner popularization
Enabled bulk orders, which were not popular at the time.(mold→molding→filling→assembly)
Late1960s
Started production of general suction port assemblies
Brushes for electric razors Note: Increased production for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
1975
Company renamed KOWA Inc.
Mid1970s
Filter development
Paper pack filters
Note: Use of paper packs intended to reduce trash disposal burdens
1984
Licensed for overall vacuum cleaner assembly; began production of vacuum cleaners Established the Cosmetics Division
1993
pplied for patent on aluminum rotor(patent registered in 2000)
1995
Established Yangzhou Kowa Brush Co., Ltd. in Jiangsu Province, China
1997
Brush Division 1 (now Clean Life Consumer Electronics Division)
acquired ISO 9002 quality assurance standards
Scope of registration: Assembly, semi-assembled parts, and suction port components for vacuum cleaners
2002
Acquired ISO 14001 environment management system certification
2003
Established Suzhou Kowa Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. in Jiangsu Province, China
2006
Started manufacture of air conditioner cleaning brushes
2007
(February) Certified as an "Aichi Brand Company"
(October) Renamed divisions
Brush Division 1 became the Clean Life Consumer Electronics Division
Brush Division 2 became the Clean Industrial Equipment Division
2008
Applied for patent on triple-spiral brush (patent registered in 2013)
2009
Established Kowa Electric Appliance (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. in Guangdong Province, China
2012
Established Kowa Trading (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd.
2014
Clean Industrial Equipment Division acquired ISO 9001 quality assurance certification
Scope of certification: Design, development, and manufacture of brushes for industrial use
2016
(April) Launched sales of Hinata futon vacuum cleaner
Applied for patent on washer/dryer filter cleaning system
2017
Integrated ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
quality and environmental management systems