Developing Innovative Hydraulic Pumps and Valves
ALA Industries is the Yuken Master Distributor in North America

Frequently Asked Questions

We get a lot of questions about a lot of stuff relating to hydraulics and Yuken. Here are a few of the common questions we get asked. if you don't find your answer here, please contact us.


Answers

Q - Where is Yuken Kogyo located?
A - Yuken Kogyo head office is in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan.

Q - Where are Yuken factories?
A - The factories are in Fujisawa, Fukuroda and Sagami.

Q - What is ALA Industries Limited? Why isn't it called Yuken?
A - ALA Industries Limited is the Master Distributor for Yuken hydraulic components in North America. Yuken is the ONLY product we sell. We are not part of Yuken Kogyo in Japan.

Q - Where is ALA Industries Limited?
A - ALA Industries Limited is in Valparaiso, Indiana, USA.

Q - Why are Yuken product lead times so long?
A - There are two answers to this question:
First, space is a premium in Japan so little is kept in stock. Items must be produced from the beginning of the manufacturing stage. It's simply too expensive to store items on a shelf in Japan.
Second, in order to hold your costs down, ALA Industries freights almost all products via ocean. This is a process that can take up to 9 weeks to complete from the time a product comes out of production.

Q - How can I speed up this shipping process?
A - For an additional charge, you can have your items air-freighted from Japan.

Q - How much does air-freight cost?
A - Air-freight is dependent on weight. Generally there is a minimum charge of $130.00 for customs, documents and fees plus charges per pound. If you're willing to wait a little, we will attempt to consolidate air-freight to spread the cost over several orders.

Q - Does ALA Industries Stock my product?
A - ALA Industries Limited stocks a lot of the most popular and standard Yuken products. We warehouse approximately $2 million worth of Yuken products. Our goal is to have the majority of the items our customers need on a regular basis on hand at all times.

Q - Are the new DSG-01 70 series interchangeable with the old DSG-01 60 & 50 series?
A - Yes, the new series is interchangeable in form and function. Spare parts are not interchangeable, however.

Q - Can I buy directly from ALA Industries?
A - ALA Industries sells to contracted distributors who agree to stock Yuken products. We always attempt to protect our contracted distributors by not selling directly to users.

Q - Are Yuken product prices going to increase?
A - Like everything else, our prices increase. However, Yuken has not had a price increase in 7 years. In fact, in November of 2004, our prices dropped! That should give you some idea of the stability of Yuken product prices.

Q - Will ALA Industries waive the minimum order charge if my customer urgently needs a small item?
A - No. This is precisely why we have a minimum order. The minimum order charge is to encourage our distributors to stock items so they do not need to order items in such a hurry. If our distributors stock the items their customers frequently need on an urgent basis, there will be no need to express ship from ALA Industries' warehouse, thus increasing costs to the end user for higher freight and minimum order charges.

Q - How important is the design code?
A - The design code is critical to identify the product. Without the design code, it's like asking your local car dealership for a "car." Without the make and model, all you'll get is some metal box with a motor and wheels. You won't have a clue about design, modifications, options, add-ons, etc. Yuken uses the design code to clearly identify all the specifics about each product.

Q - What is the difference between the two digit, Japanese standard (JIS) design code and the four digit, North American Design design code? (Example: BT-06-32 & BT-06-3290)
A - The difference between the JIS and North American standard is threading, either on port connections or bolts. The threading for the North American standards follows an NPT (National Pipe Thread) or Unified standard. The threading on the Japanese standard follows JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) type which is very similar to BSPT (British Standard Pipe Tapered). Generally a customer can simply re-use existing bolts to make the JIS and North American Standard interchangeable. Otherwise, adapters can easily convert between the threading standards for port connections. In some cases, where an item doesn't have any threaded ports or mounting bolts, there is no difference and the North American Standard design may not even be available. For more on JIS, click here.

Q - My product has a five digit design code. What's that mean?
A - Five digit design codes generally mean special modifications to standard product designs. For example, a DMG-01-**-1090 is a standard manually operated directional valve with the handle on the "B" port side. The DMG-01-**-10901 is a modification to the standard to mount the handle on the "A" port side. In other cases, a five digit design code means that a product has a special modification to meet a specific customer or OEM's special requirements. Just give us a call at ALA Industries and we will look up the design code for you.

Q - Will you drop ship to my customer?
A - Yes. We will drop ship to your customer. No problem. Just make sure you tell us the 5 "W's" and the 1 "H." (Who, what, when, where, why and how)

Q - Can I call in my order?
A - No. We do not accept verbal orders. It's just too easy to make a mistake when trying to write down what someone is saying on the telephone. If something goes wrong and the wrong item is shipped or something is shipped to the wrong address, it's too easy to get into a "his word against theirs" argument. Fax or email orders eliminate all questions about who didn't do what. (In some rare, emergency cases we will accept a verbal order but a follow-up fax must confirm the order.)

Q - What's in the "Members" section of this website and should I have a username and password?
A - The "Members" section of Yuken's website contains information to support our distributor network. If you are with one of our contracted, stocking distributors, you are eligible to obtain a username and password. Just click here to sign up: Request Login. In reality, the information in the "Members" section would be useless to anyone who is not a contracted, stocking distributor for ALA Industries.

Q - When I click on the "Members" button (or any other button or hyperlink) nothing happens. Why?
A - Make sure that you don't have any pop-up blockers activated. You must allow pop-ups for the yuken website in order to navigate throughout our website.