Oki Terminates Six Chemical Substances Subject to RoHS for its Stepping Motors

[photo] Stepping Motors

Tokyo, Japan, February 21, 2005 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced that its affiliated company Oki Micro Engineering Co., Ltd. (OME) and its overseas plants finished responding to lead-free soldering and hexavalent chromium free steel sheet for its stepping motors, one of the main products for OME. By implementing Chemical Substance Control Standard, in February 2005, OME succeeded in eliminating all the substances subject to RoHS Directive.

The RoHS Directive bans products with the six chemical substances to be sold in the EU member countries after July 2006. Positioning an environment-friendly business to be on of Oki Electric's core management policies, Oki has set goals to terminate the six chemicals subject to RoHS Directive in its environment protective activity plan, Oki Eco Plan21. The company has conducted several technology developments including semiconductor packaging, reed switches and mounting boards to achieve lead-free products.

"To terminate chemical substances in our stepping motors, it was important to systemize and control the substances included in our products and materials. Though it was a challenging task to create such a system, we are pleased with the success," said Kunihiko Takahashi, the President of Oki Micro Engineering. "Synchronizing with Oki Electric's environment plans, we at OME will further enhance our business by continuing to convey our principles and provide the latest information on chemical substance management to our suppliers."

OME is the world's top company in developing and producing stepping motors used in OA equipment, information systems and industrial equipment. Conventionally, stepping motors used lead solders to connect lead wires and boards. In addition, surface treatment for metal cases and screws included hexavalent chromium to prevent rust. Taking consideration in quality, reliability and cost, OME alternated lead with lead-free soldering as well as adopting trivalent chrome instead of hexavalent chromium for the surface treatment.

By establishing the Chemical Substance Control Standard in July 2004, OME has worked on establishing a system to manage chemical substances. It has examined chemical substances in the 600 procured materials from Japan and overseas not only for the detailed information of the material but also to understand how much chemical substance was included in the subject for OME'S criteria. By computerizing the data from this examination and systemizing in order to refer to all the information related to each product at once, OME established a system to quickly search how much restricted chemical substance was included in a product. OME also reviewed its traceability flow, which is implemented at three plants in China, Thailand and Japan to understand the chemical substance by each lot and thoroughly implemented it among suppliers.

About Oki Micro Engineering Co., Ltd.

OME is a wholly owned affiliated company of Oki Electric Industry Co., that develops, designs, manufactures and sells motors for OA equipment, business equipment, information and industrial equipment and actuators. Established in October 1998 the company provides highly value-added products to its customers in a speedy manner with the technology has cultured among the years. With its concern towards environment, it has also obtained the ISO14001 in February 2002.

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, with its headquarter in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society," Oki Electric provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its telecommunications systems, information systems and electronic devices segments. All three segments are integrated into one effective organization that functions as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies, including information and telecom converged solutions. Through its business activities, Oki Electric satisfies a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit Oki's global web site at http://www.oki.com/.

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