KYB to Disclose Names of Buildings with Substandard Dampers Fri.

October 18, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese industrial parts maker KYB Corp. has said it will disclose Friday afternoon the names of buildings where its substandard earthquake shock absorbers are likely to be used.

KYB said Tuesday that quality inspection data had been manipulated for some of its oil dampers for seismic isolation and vibration control to let substandard products pass the inspections.

The substandard products are believed to be used in 986 structures, such as local government buildings and commercial facilities.

Of them, KYB will release the names of buildings whose owners have agreed to do so, the company said Wednesday.

The company plans to replace all substandard products, totaling slightly over 10,000 units, in principle. But it has turned out that the work will not finish until September 2020 at the earliest, due to the limited production capacity at a subsidiary plant, which stands at 100 units per month.

KYB will stop receiving new orders to focus on replacement work.

On Wednesday, the Tokyo metropolitan, Osaka prefectural and many other local governments said the KYB products in question are used in their buildings. Jiji Press