Twinbird Corporation, founded in 1951, is a manufacturer of

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is i ...

electric products with headquarters in Tsubame City,

Niigata Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area at . Niigata Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture and ...

, Japan. Shigekatsu Nomizu is the President, employing 284 people as of March 2010. It was founded as a

plating Plating is a surface covering in which a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years; it is also critical for modern technology. Plating is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to impro ...

company in 1951. In the 1980s it expanded into small

electrical appliance A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ty ...

s and began developing products occasionally in conjunction with other companies. The

free-piston A free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' internal combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but determined by the interaction of forces from the combustion chamber gases, a rebound device (e.g., a piston i ...

Stirling cooler Applications of the Stirling engine range from mechanical propulsion to heating and cooling to electrical generation systems. A Stirling engine is a heat engine operating by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas, the "working fluid ...

is one such product that was developed jointly and under license to

Global Cooling Global cooling was a conjecture, especially during the 1970s, of imminent cooling of the Earth culminating in a period of extensive glaciation, due to the cooling effects of aerosols or orbital forcing. Some press reports in the 1970s specula ...

. By 2002, Twinbird released the first ever

consumer product A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike a intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good, but ...

utilizing the free-piston Stirling cycle process.Edwards, J. 'Cooling: Stirling Strikes', Appliance Design, April 2008 Before this, free-piston Stirling machines were only available at extremely high cost generally used for specialized

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astr ...

applications. A branded version of a portable refrigerator using the free-piston Stirling cooler was sold for a time by the

Coleman Company The Coleman Company, Inc. is an American brand of outdoor recreation products, especially camping gear, now owned by Newell Brands. The company's new headquarters are in Chicago, and it has facilities in Wichita, Kansas, and in Texas. There are ...

References

External links

Twinbird homepage
{{Authority control Home appliance manufacturers of Japan Companies based in Niigata Prefecture Manufacturing companies established in 1951 Japanese brands Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange 1951 establishments in Japan