Twinbird Corporation, founded in 1951, is a manufacturer of household electric products with headquarters in Tsubame City

Tsubame, Niigata

is a city located in Niigata, Japan.The city was founded on March 31, 1954 by merging with 4 towns and villages. Nearly 52 years later on March 20, 2006, the old Tsubame merged with Bunsui and Yoshida from Nishikanbara District to form the new city of Tsubame....

, Niigata Prefecture

Niigata Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Honshū on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The capital is the city of Niigata. The name "Niigata" literally means "new lagoon".- History :...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Shigekatsu Nomizu is the President, employing 284 people as of March 2010.

It was originally founded as a plating

Plating

Plating is a surface covering in which a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years, but it is also critical for modern technology...

 company in 1951. In the 1980s it expanded into small electrical appliances and began developing products occasionally in conjunction with other companies. The free-piston

Free-piston engine

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 and a load device A free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless'...

 Stirling cooler is one such product that was developed jointly and under license to Global Cooling, Inc. By 2002, Twinbird released the first ever consumer product

Consumer product

A consumer product is generally any tangible personal property for sale and that is used for personal, family, or household for non-business purposes. The determination whether a good is a consumer product requires a factual finding, on a case-by-case basis...

 utilizing the free-piston Stirling cycle

Stirling cycle

The Stirling cycle is a thermodynamic cycle that describes the general class of Stirling devices. This includes the original Stirling engine that was invented, developed and patented in 1816 by Reverend Dr...

 process. Before this, free-piston Stirling machines were only available at extremely high cost generally used for specialized aerospace

Aerospace

Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...

 applications. A branded version of a portable refrigerator

Refrigerator

A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...

 using the free-piston Stirling cooler was sold by the Coleman Company

Coleman Company

Coleman Company, Inc., is an American company that specializes in outdoor recreation products. Historically, Coleman is known for camping gear....

.