RIK is a much better quality piston ring than NPR and TP, my friend is a supplier of brand new spare parts to many auto supply, he told me that if he would choose which piston to put in his car, he told be RIK is better because he has experience with the three brands already. RIK last longer than TP or NPR.
Especially why MAJOR JAPANESE, EUROPEAN and American CAR MANUFACTURERS choose RIK piston rings as Original Equipment Manufacturer for brand new cars being made in the factories.
Here are the Japanese Major Car and Truck manufacturer customers of RIKEN Corporation
Daihatsu
Hino
Honda
Isuzu
Mazda
Mitsubishi
Nissan Diesel
Subaru
Suzuki
Toyota
Here are the European and American Car and Truck manufacturer customers of RIKEN Corporation
AUDI
BRIGGS & STRATTON
BMW
CATERPILLAR
DDC
FORD
JAGUAR
MAK
MAN
SEMT
VW
WARTILA
New Holland
KS
MAHLE
RIK is the no. 1 OEM manufacturer of Japan for piston rings and 2nd largest manufacturer of piston rings in the world.
This is from a website telling that RIK is the brand that Major Car and Truck manufacturer uses in brand new manufactured vehicles:
"RIKEN is a manufacturer of Piston Ring Set and they supply their Piston Ring Set to all car makers in Japan, such as TOYOTA, HONDA, NISSAN, MITSUBISHI, MAZDA, ISUZU, HINO, etc. and also to FORD, BMW and MITSUBISHI CATERPILLAR as OEM in foreign countries. They produce 20 million pcs. of Piston Ring Set per month."
There are 3 manufacturers of Piston Ring Set in Japan, RIKEN, TPR and NPR. The approximate market share of each manufacturer is as follows.
RIKEN…….50%
TPR……… 30%
NPR…………20%
As you can see NPR is the less desired piston ring, while RIK is no.1 OEM and TP is no. 2 OEM
Here in the Philippines NPR is being used by mechanics who doesn't have proper education of the matter of quality, most of the mechanics here in auto supply and not authorized repair shops only got their skills through daily work. But they do not read the instructions indicated on the brand new spare parts boxes. My friend is a major supplier of brand new spare parts but he only distributes it to retail auto supply shops and does not engage in selling direct to consumer.
Here are evidences that show that RIK is heavily relied on by Car and Truck manufacturers, this is the websites:
Earthquake Halts Toyota Production
When Japan suffered from an earthquake in 2007, RIK factory got damaged thus halting production of piston rings and etc... in domino effect major car makers had stop production temporarily because piston ring supplies were halted due to the damage of RIK's factories in Japan. Thus in domino effect Major Car Makers like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and etc... also stopped production temporarily in a period of time
as an aside, in the olden days, anyone who does not move 'ala luksa during Holy Week, especially...
Traffic!