Nagano Oki Begins Volume Production of Lead-free Soldered Boards

Oki has been developing environmental protection programs since 1993. As part of its "Oki Eco Plan 21 (fiscal year March 2002 version)," the company set a goal of achieving totally lead-free soldering for all products introduced to the domestic market from Oki group companies by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2004.

"Our EMS customers are naturally concerned with issues of environmental protection, and the requirements for lead-free solder are particularly high. To provide rapid response to the growing environmental demands, Nagano Oki in the last fiscal year began volume production of boards using lead-free soldering for surface mounting in reflow soldering processes. To enhance the environmental protection, this fiscal year, we succeeded in expanding the lead-free technique to even flow soldering processes," said Hiroyuki Hirata, President and CEO of Nagano Oki.

Oki has participated in several industry-university collaborative projects to assess materials and implementation reliability for the development of lead-free solder implementation technology. The company has selected Sn-Ag-Cu as soldering material for the following reasons: it provides high quality and reliability equal to conventional materials; it is an industry standard material free of patent issues; and it may be used in all three methods of reflow, flow, and manual soldering. Although Sn-Ag-Cu presents the challenge of a melting point 30 degrees centigrade higher than conventional Sn-Pb solders, a level of heat exceeds the heat resistance of components and printed circuits, the company has succeeded in developing a nitrogen atmosphere soldering technology that maintains the material within maximum heat range during lead-free soldering implementation. The company has also introduced a furnace facility that provides stable internal temperature.

Nagano Oki intends to implement lead-free soldering in 20% of its new production by the end of this fiscal year, and 100% by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2004. Nagano Oki plans to apply the lead-free soldering process to prototype production in accordance with EMS customer requests and to enhance technology development in order to use various materials specified by EMS customers.

"Oki has assigned a high priority to environmental activities in corporate management policies throughout its group companies," said Hiroshi Konishi, Senior Vice President of Oki Electric, charged with implementing environmental protection strategies, adding that "we will sustain these activities to expand lead-free soldering to all Oki group companies to achieve our goal of providing totally lead-free products to the market."

About Nagano Oki Electric Co., Ltd.

Address:	965 Mimitori, Komoro-city, Nagano, Japan
President:	Hiroyuki Hirata
Establishment:	April 1969
Capital:	100 million yen
Shareholders:	Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. 90%, Oki Electric Cable Co., Ltd. 10%
Employees:	374
Business:	Manufacturing of PCs, servers, PCBs, control units for system terminals, and other related equipment.

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. With more than 25,000 employees worldwide, Oki Electric provides customers with top-quality products and technologies for telecommunication systems, information systems and electronic devices.