Oki Electric Completes Hexavalent Chromium-free Screws for its Mechatronic Products

left: hexavalent chrome coated screw
right: trivalent chrome coated screw

Tokyo, Japan, March 15, 2005 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced it has established a manufacturing framework to shift screws that include hexavalent chromium used in its mechatronic products to those with trivalent chrome, which are hexavalent chromium-free. Oki completed this framework at all of its plants including its overseas plants, starting the switch over from March 2005.

"Though Oki has been implementing measures to adopt trivalent chrome screws, it has been a challenge because trivalent chrome screws can easily get loose and was difficult to maintain the tightened torque," said Harushige Sugimoto, Chairman and President of Manufacturing Service Company at Oki Electric. "By succeeding in establishing this framework, we will accelerate our approach in providing environment-friendly products. We plan to provide this as a value-added product in our environment-friendly EMS business to companies that will provide ecological products."

Hexavalent chromium has been used to plate screws to take advantage of its characteristics in preventing screws from rusting. However, it is included as one of the chemical substances in the RoHS Directive, a directive that bans products with six chemical substances to be sold in the EU member countries after July 2006.

A typical high-quality mechatronic product requires several thousand screws per equipment, which makes it difficult to shift all the screws to trivalent chrome and a challenge to change the production process. For example, tightening torque for various screws used in precision mechanical equipment, such as the ATM, are controlled with high standards to maintain accurate performance in delivering banknotes and passbooks.

When shifting to trivalent chrome, Oki assessed all the characteristics of various screws used in the product and established an optimal standard value and a rulebook for torque. Oki also established an educating program for assembly using trivalent chrome screws to implement these rules. With these measures, Oki succeeded in completing a hexavalent chromium-free production framework.

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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