Topre Corporation (東プレ株式会社) is a Japanese engineering company that manufactures stamped parts for automobiles, refrigeration units for trucks, air conditioners, and various other electronic and electro-mechanical equipment. It was founded in 1935 as Tokyo Press Kogyo Co. Ltd., in Kōtō, Tokyo.
History
Topre was founded in April 1935 as the Tokyo Press Kogyo Co. Ltd. with a capital of JP¥300,000. From the 1930s until around the mid-1970s, the company was focused on low-tech tool and die manufacturing. In 1958, it acquired Tokyo Die-Cast Co. Ltd. and within the next four years set up two die-cast plants in Kanagawa and Hiroshima.
In 1976, the Tokyo Press Kogyo began a venture into electronics with keyboards for computer terminals. The first several of their prototype designs were unsuccessful with technology companies within Japan being reluctant to order them into production. In the late 1970s, a young engineer inspired by the katori senkō—a Japanese mosquito coil—devised a conical-spring capacitive key switch which held promise with the company's executives. After half a year of perfecting the design and another half a year of rigorous life-cycle testing, TPK took their keyboards to the Japanese market, earning orders from Hitachi, JVC, Ricoh, and others.