Japan's Innovation Goes Unlimited. The Advent of L/R Screw that Never Loosens to Any Circumstance

An invention fanatic created a screw that promises to not loosen to any circumstance surprised the entire world. The inventor, Mr. Michiwaki, brought a breakthrough to the screw history of the past 2,000 years. He started to cooperate with big companies and was preparing to mass-produce this screw, named "L/R Screw" and developed under the company "NejiLaw".

A NAS-compliant screw endurance test conducted in 2010 proves that the Screw shows not a single sign of loosening after a 3-hour long test, way past the acceptance line (17 minutes). Moreover, it turns out that the testing equipment broke down before the Screw did.

Re-writing the 2,000-year long Screw History

The Screw received plenty of awards including Good Design Gold Award no sooner than test result came out. The Screw's shank does not have a traditional spiral groove. Instead, it has a special carved groove that simultaneously functions as a left-rotation and right-rotation spiral. The shank is fastened with a right-rotation nut and a left-rotation nut that mechanically connect with each other. When vibration occurs after the two nuts are connected, the nuts will move in counter-directions and will not go off the connected spot and will not loosen.

Mr. Michiwaki created the Screw's prototype when he was just 19. As he explains, a tire fell out of his car and almost had him lost his life, and that is when he decided to create a screw that will never loosen. A quick idea occurred to him: By changing a screw's thread structure, one can make a never loosening screw into reality.

However, at first he did not want to commoditize the Screw because at that time he had contiguous inventive ideas besides the Screw. With literally no expertise, he came up with unlimited creations that do not fall into any category of profession. Those include a modern smartphone-like wireless equipment for two-way telecommunication as well as new restaurant menus. So far he has applied for approximately 200 patents, and he said, "These patents are less than 1% of my total inventions."

He changed his mind in 2009. Urged by his family and friends, he decided to choose a prominent invention from his previous inventions and make a business out of it. To anyone's surprise, he chose the Screw that never loosens, applied a patent for it and established a company to head for the goal of mass-production.

He even Plans to Equip the Screw with IoT

However, he faced a challenge. He had the exact screw technology, but he lack an inspection devise to check for screw loosening and the production equipment for mass-production. Makers declined to produce for him, saying "the Screw's structure is too complicated". Therefore, he decided to design the manufacturing equipment and the optimal inspection technology on his own.

In the past 5 years from the company's inception to 2014, he had been funded by the government, scholarship, and his allowance for R&D. Although some foundations were willing to offer investment, he turned them down because he felt he might loose the freedom as a free business owner.

However, in 2014 he decided to accept the JPY 700 million (max.) investment from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan. The reason is because he changed him mind and thought he needed a substantial fund to widely promote the never loosening Screw. In the meantime, he set a goal to mass-produce the Screw and started to do research with IHI. NejiLaw did not understand to what strength extent the Screw is demand by clients as per application. He thought working with IHI would roll out the client-satisfactory Screw to the market at the earliest time possible.

According to him, the Screw is expected for mass-production starting in 2016 at the earliest. He plans to first use the Screw on infrastructure like bridges, and then apply it to the aerospace industry. He also received endless request demanding the use of the Screw on factory tube connection.

He even plans to further advance the Screw. For example, by embedding sensors and Internet function into the Screw, one can collect data which reveal the deteriorative state of bridges as well as the movement of bridges during an earthquake. Analyzing these data will help to prevent accidents. This is called integrating screws with the Internet of things (IoT).

In the future he will continue to infuse passion into his creations under various territories. As the 20 employees of NejiLaw say, "Our job is to design and mass-produce his creation." How much of his contiguous creation will turn into business? The "never loosening Screw" will be his first stepping stone.

(Below is an excerpt from Business Weekly Magazine)