Kett History

Kett was started by four engineers in 1946. After initially introducing a wood moisture tester and metal detector, it was their vision to design and manufacture portable handheld moisture analyzers. The goal was to provide a rice farmer with the same level of measurement quality available within government test labs. As is still true today, the customer depended on the accuracy of this measurement and the reliability of his instrument to standardize the quality of his harvested rice product. This standardization would provide him with an optimal harvest yield, maximizing his return on investment.

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After the successful introduction of the Riceter, which is still the standard for portable rice moisture testing, the Kett development staff expanded into Coating Thickness Gauges for the emerging Japanese automobile industry. In addition, they quickly released additional moisture testers for other agricultural applications and infrared Moisture Balances for general purpose moisture analyses.
Awards for instrument design and performance followed shortly after and continue to this day.

Currently their focus is moisture and organic composition analysis, coating thickness measurement, friction analysis, rice quality instrumentation and other agricultural test instruments for the grain and seed marketplace.

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A variety of applications

Why is moisture content important? Moisture content is a very important element for products’ quality in 2 aspects: fair trading when traded by weight, and quality control of all kinds of matters such as grain, food, concrete, chemicals, paper, wood, sand, resin, etc.

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Most types of grain, such as rice, wheat, corn, beans, cacao, sesame, seeds, etc., are dried to suitable moisture content for storage and transportation, and traded based on their weight. Grain is traded cheaper if the moisture content is higher than the required level; therefore, moisture content is directly connected with its sales price.

Those types of the grain are dried after harvesting because mold may grow on it when high moisture grain is stored. On the other hand, too much drying may deteriorate its quality. Also, moisture content on other materials aside from grain is highly important for their functionality and workability as in shelf life of food, concrete strength, chemical compound’s texture, processing operation of wood etc.

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