The history of Sunstar dates back to 1932, when its founder, Kunio Kaneda began sales of bicycle parts. After that, the company achieved great success by manufacturing and selling rubber glue for bicycles (adhesives for tires and tubes). At that time, rubber glue was sold in metal tubes. The decision of the founder to sell toothpaste in these metal tubes led to the birth of the first Sunstar toothpaste in 1946.
On the other hand, the business of manufacturing and selling bicycle parts that started with rubber glue for bicycles gradually expanded and the company chose to deal with gears and cranks among nearly 100 types of bicycles parts, thereby building the foundation of the current Sunstar Engineering Inc. Since then, responding to the needs and changes of the times, the rubber glue for bicycles has evolved into the polymer chemistry technologies and expanded into the chemical business such as synthetic adhesives and sealants. Also, bicycle gears and cranks have developed into the metals business field such as sprockets and brake discs for motorcycles. Now, Sunstar Engineering’s excellent technologies have produced highly sensitive sprockets and brake discs for motorcycles and these parts are used by all the motorcycle manufacturers in Japan as well as for Harley-Davidson in other countries.
The history of the Sunstar Group began with manufacturing and sales of bicycle parts such as rubber glue for bicycles and its root has a deep connection with motorcycles. Every technological development has a root, and it can be said that for Sunstar, it is bicycles.
| 1932 | Develops rubber cement for bicycle tire tubes. |
|---|---|
| 1946 | Bicycle parts business starts.
Start manufacturing metal tubes. |
| 1958 | The first Japanese PVC foam synthetic leather developed. |
| 1961 | Launches production of bicycle gear crank and sprockets for motorcycles. |
| 1964 | Start manufacturing interior adhesives for automobiles/Develops Penguin Cement 332. |
| 1965 | Start motorcycle parts business. |
| 1967 | Betaseal 169 construction sealant goes on sale. |
| 1968 | Develops urethane synthetic leather, window sealants for automobiles, and direct grazing method |
| 1978 | Launches mass production of motorcycle disk brakes. |
| 1986 | Establish an American manufacturing and sales facility for automotive adhesives. |
| 1990 | Establish manufacturing and sales facilities in Thailand and Indonesia. |
| 1992 | Establish Sunstar Logistic Singapore, Pte. Ltd. (now Sunstar Engineering Pte. Ltd.) |
| 1993 | Establish Sunstar Chemical (Thailand), Co., Ltd. |
| 1995 | Establish PT. Sunstar Engineering Indonesia. |
| 1998 | Releases EcoCart cartridge for sealants. |
| 2002 | Develops an electric power assistance system for bicycles. |
| 2003 | Releases the eco-friendly EcoCan container. |
| 2006 | Sunstar Engineering Pte. Ltd. acquires the disk brake manufacturer Braking S.p.a. (now Braking-Sunstar S.p.a.) |