Press Release 2011

Nitto Shinko Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan's leading diversified materials manufacturer Nitto Denko Corporation, revealed its two billion yen investment plan to launch a new production site of thermal conductive insulating (TCI) sheet for power module in fall 2012. Power module is an electronic component indispensable for various applications, including the electric cars' motor control system and the energy consumption management system embedded in home appliances such as air-conditioners and refrigerators. Amid the increasing environmental awareness around the world, market demand for the TCI sheets is now growing exponentially. In order to capture this expanding market opportunity, Nitto Shinko will boost the production capacity of the TCI sheets fourfold.

The TCI sheet can efficiently release heat outside of the power module, while insulating high-voltage electricity. An inorganic material has been a common choice for this particular application, although the material burdens the manufacturing of power module with extra processes due to its poor workability. 
Nitto Shinko offers an effective solution to streamline customers' power module production with highly-workable, low-cost organic materials underpinned by the company's proprietary curing level control technology. Through the leveraging of Nitto Shinko's composite formulation expertise and inorganic material filling technology, the TCI sheet simultaneously realized high level of electric insulation capability and heat conductivity, which are in a mutually penalizing relationship. 
Nitto Shinko now holds the global No.1 market share in the TCI sheet product segment. The company is now pursuing new application possibilities, such as light-emitting diode (LED) lamps with now rapidly-growing demand, in addition to power module for green cars and home appliances where they are already strong at. Against such backdrop, Nitto Shinko has decided on the investment for increasing the TCI sheet production capacity.

1.Invest in: A New production plant
2.Plant location: Fukui Prefecture, Japan. (In the Maruoka Plant premises, Nitto Shinko)
3.Investment amount: About two billion yen
4.Building area: 1800 square meters
5.Floor area: 3340 square meters, four-story building
6.Product: The TCI sheet for power module
7.Begin construction by: January 2012
8.Finish construction by: November 2010

The production process at the new plant will be remarkably shorter than the conventional one, thanks to the latest production lines to be introduced there, which feature the cutting-edge function to control regin reactions more precisely than now. By fully taking an advantage of newly-acquired manufacturing strengths, Nitto Shinko will strive to achieve customer needs with a steady supply of high-quality products. 
In fact, Nitto Shinko has already embarked on the development of novel materials which meet the needs of the next-generation electric control applications. The ultimate goal of this creative endeavor is to branch out into the extreme-voltage, extreme-heatproof domains, which are currently said that only the inorganic materials can meet the required standard of electrical insulation property. 
The Nitto Denko group pursues technological development to create new businesses in the environmental-related and renewable energy-related fields, which will lead us to achieve our commitments to the enviromental conservation and energy saving.