Every factory has at least one mixing tank. These tanks are diverse, including tanks for reactions, tanks for heat transfer, and tanks for cultivating organisms. The Chemical Engineering Laboratory, to which Professor KATO Yoshihito (Life Science and Applied Chemistry Group) belongs, is one of the few traditional mixing technology laboratories in Japan, conducts comprehensive research on stirring and mixing tank.To date, we have built up a track record through discussions with over 100 companies and hundreds of researchers and engineers, and have grown into one of Japan's leading research laboratories.

The basis of this approach is the theory of transport phenomena. It has been discovered that in turbulent flow (low-viscosity liquids), the required stirring power is the key to effective mixing, whereas in laminar flow (high-viscosity liquids), the streak pattern plays a crucial role.  Over 50 years of research by successive researchers, including EmeritusProfessor HIRAOKA Setsuro, Professor  KATO Yoshihito, and Assistant Professor FURUKAWA Haruki,led to the invention of a simple yet highly efficient mixing impeller. 

No matter how wonderful a substance or drug is developed, it cannot be immediately incorporated into human society unless it can be mass-produced cheaply. The HB impeller, inspired by baseball's home base, is a revolutionary mixing impeller capable of handling volumes ranging from a few milliliters in laboratory test tubes to several thousand liters in industrial production. It has the 3S performance, which means that it has a "Simple" geometry, "Speedy" mixing performance, and "Stable" flow distribution within the mixing tank. Due to its excellent performance, it is already being used in electronic materials, silicone resins, construction resins, and food products such as miso and enzymes.

Furthermore, mixing sticky liquids such as honey requires the use of expensive mixing blades with complex shapes. The transformable and combinable AM blades, inspired by a certain special effects film hero who comes from the M78 Nebula, enable production operation at low cost. This technology is still in its infancy and is expected to continue to grow.

Additionally, we explained how to mix coffee and milk on the TV program "THE MOST USEFUL SCHOOL IN THE WORLD" (aired in 2010), and how to make matcha on "Tokoro-san no Me ga Ten" (aired in 2024), theoretically introducing how mixing techniques are used in everyday life. Recently, products using technology developed through joint research with TOSHIBA LIFESTYLE PRODUCTS＆SERVICES CORPORATION have been released.