Masaaki Sasaki, the founder of AMCON, couldn’t stand the situation and decided to “make a new product ourselves if it doesn’t exist in the world.”
After extensive research with our development team, in 1982, we finally launched a “sludge thickener using filter cloth” as our first mechanical product. Its small footprint and affordable price satisfied many customers living in apartment complexes.
However, challenges still remained for our first self-developed unit. Separating solids and liquid with a filter cloth was prone to clogging, requiring large amounts of washing water, frequent replacement of filter cloths, intensive labor, and other additional costs. As we were a maintenance company, we were painfully aware of the inconveniences operators went through on site, as such, we felt a duty as a “manufacturer” to resolve the remaining challenges of “labor intensiveness and high operating costs.”

While the number of orders for the comb-blade VOLUTE™ was steadily increasing, yet another obstacle stood in our way. When the machine was in full operation, a series of failures occurred in which the comb-blade broke after only a few hundred hours of operation. Repeated verification tests attributed the problem to the layered structure itself. Excessive load was concentrated on the comb blade itself, which was scraping out the sludge from the filter mesh. We thought long and hard about alternative methods in scraping out clogging materials without using the comb. The founder and the development team were facing challenging times, without a clear solution to the issues they were encountering.

Starting as a manufacturer with the goal of “creating a sludge thickener/dewatering machine that eases wastewater treatment processes,” we have continued our research and development persistently.
-In 1996, we introduced “Dell Compo,” a sludge dewatering and fermentation system for small WWTPs, realizing “recycling of sludge”;
-In 2004, the “dewatering machine for dry film resist waste” was developed, realizing the dewatering of peeling waste, which is difficult to handle due to its strong alkaline nature;
-In 2016, the “AP series”, a fully automatic polymer make-up unit was developed, realizing an autonomous dissolution process of powdered flocculants;
-In 2018, the “VOLUTE™ Dewatering Press DW Series” was introduced, enabling stable operation by automating the mechanical response to concentration variations;
-And finally, in 2021, we unveiled the “VOLUTE DUO™ Dewatering Press,” which can achieve stable dewatering of high fiber / inorganic sludge types.

However, our journey is not over. We will continue to deliver new technologies that provide “amenity and convenience beyond expectation.”