Corporate
Profile

[Company strength]
The light source of our products is a UV lamp produced in a domestic factory of Himeji Rika, one of our group companies, which is the core technology. We commercialize our products using an integrated production system, ranging to applied equipment. We design and produce custom-made products depending on the customer’s needs and purpose, even for order quantities from one item. We can provide our original products to the electronics industry as primary purchasers as well as a variety of businesses including the auto industry, food factories, beverage factories, pharmaceutical factories, swimming pools, aquariums, fisheries cooperatives, and hospitals. The UV lamps we deliver to customers feature stable quality and help maintain productivity and quality as the lamps need to be regularly replaced. These conditions allow us to maintain stable sales.

[Business description]
Manufacture and sale of equipment using UV lamps. We manufacture and sell UV irradiating equipment for precise cleaning and modification used in glass substrate or film bonding processes, light sources for UV adhesive hardening used in liquid crystal sealing or bonding, and peripheral equipment mainly for the FPD industry in the electronics field. In addition, we deliver UV-irradiated water or air and surface sterilizers to food and beverage factories and aquariums, and also perform periodic lamp replacement and maintenance.



[Industry]
Manufacturing 

[Strength of products/technologies]
We utilize our accumulated special knowledge and skills to create products using our own UV irradiation technology and produce high-quality products related to UV irradiating equipment to meet the diverse specifications of customers. UV irradiating equipment used in production processes related to FPD in the electronics industry requires the accumulation of advanced irradiation skills and data. When the techniques of UV irradiation improvement or irradiation balance are used in other applications, we can ensure high performance in not only precision cleaning or modification of substrates but also other fields such as UV bonding or UV sterilization.



[Representative's message]
We supply custom-made equipment tuned to meet customers’ specifications mainly in the electric and electronic fields such as for smartphones and tablets, based on ultraviolet light. In addition, we set up a new office in the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster in March 2016 to enter the medical and biological fields, which are growth industries in the 21st century. For our key devices, ultraviolet light sources, we will commercialize UV-LED products in addition to conventional mercury lamps, as one of the Himeji Rika Group companies. We intend to focus on developing “ultraviolet” applications in various industries through these activities.

[Company structure for market development/overseas expansion]
We set up a new section in the sales division dedicated to finding new customers. The staff of the section identify promising candidate customers from exhibitions, seminars and other exchange events, visit users with engineering staff when necessary to discuss equipment design, and produce products with specifications that fully satisfy customers’ demands. When we outsource work, we control the subcontractors through the manufacturing division, thereby improving the perfection of our products and upgrading our skills. For inquiries from overseas, we use trading firms to follow the inquiries and sign contracts.

[Market share/Ranking]
Our market share is about 3 to 5% (according to a report stating that the market for products using industrial UV lamps excluding UV-LED is about ¥20 billion; our share was calculated assuming that our target market is about half of that size, excluding exposure lamps and excimers). Our position is estimated to be about 20th to 30th after large- to medium-scale manufacturers such as Ushio, Iwasaki Electric, Panasonic, GS Yuasa, Chida Kohan, or Photoscience Japan. (Source: Fuji Keizai, March 2006)

[Awards and media coverage]
[Awards]

[Media]

[Joint research and development]
Ritsumeikan University (plasma-activated mercury-free large-area high-output deep ultraviolet light-emitting element, 2014 - 2016)



[Factory (domestic)]
17 Suginouchi Yumesaki-cho Himeji-City Hyogo-Prefecture

[Other sites]
［KBIC OFFICE］3‐1 IMDA-bldg. 1-6-5 Minamimachi Minatojima Tyuou-ku 

[Main Clients / Business History (domestic)]
Murata Corp. (optical cleaning device No. 1 to 15, and many requests for modification, since 2008), Murata Corp. (optical modification device No. 1 to 7, and additional repeating plan, since 2011), Murata Corp. (robot arm type UV hardener No. 1 to 9, and maintenance parts, since 2009), Japan Display (about 500 UV hardeners with maintenance parts, and orders for 70 more received, since 2010), Rohm (several lead-frame optical cleaning devices, since 2014), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (optical cleaner, since 2010), Melco Display Technology (lamps for optical cleaners), Nissan Chemical Industries (light sources for photochemical reaction), aquariums, etc.

[Main Clients / Business History (overseas)]
WD Media, Seagate, Taiwan Showa Denko Electronics (mainly hard disk surface modification equipment), etc.