Epson Atmix Installs New Production Line at Its Kita-Inter Plant

Epson Atmix Corporation has installed and began operation of a new production line for amorphous alloy powder^*1 production at its Kita-Inter Plant, in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. A group company of Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”, TSE: 6724), Epson Atmix is the world’s leading^*2 manufacturer of superfine alloy powder. Epson Atmix has invested approximately 800 million yen to install the new line and plans to increase its amorphous alloy powder production capacity in stages to approximately 6,000 tons per year by 2023.

Epson Atmix’s superfine alloy powders are used as raw material in a host of high-performance components found in products ranging from automobiles and smartphones to wearable products and medical equipment. In 2004, Epson Atmix believes it was the first company in the world to successfully volume-produce amorphous alloy powder using an original production method called SWAP^*3 (spinning water atomization process). Amorphous alloy powders have high magnetic flux densities and low energy loss in addition to excellent high-frequency characteristics. These characteristics make amorphous alloy powders extremely attractive as performance-enhancing, highly functional material powders that enable small, low-power voltage control components and that support high frequencies and large currents.

Demand from the smartphone, wearable product, low-power component, and automotive industries in particular has been growing by the year, and this trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Epson Atmix built its new factory in 2017 and has installed its new production line to meet expanding demand for these powders.

Epson Atmix is committed to leveraging its unique metal powder manufacturing technology to continue to create customer-pleasing, trusted products and services.

Epson Atmix Kita-Inter Plant Profile

Address: 2-1-60 Kita-Inter Industrial Park, Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture

Manufactured products: Superfine alloy powders (magnetic powder, amorphous alloy powder and MIM powder^*4)

Floor area: Approximately 7,500 m² of factory floor space on a 30,600 m² lot

Epson Atmix profile

Name: Epson Atmix Corporation

Address: 4-44 Kaigan, Aza, Kawaragi, Hachinohe, Aomori, Japan 039-1161

President: Isamu Otsuka

Beginning of operations: October 1, 1999

Employees: Approximately 320

Capital: 450,000,000 yen (Epson Atmix is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seiko Epson Corporation)

Businesses: Development, manufacture, and sales of metal alloy powders, metal injection molded parts, and synthetic quartz crystals

For further information, please visit the Epson Atmix web site at
http://www.atmix.co.jp/en/e_index.html

^*1 Amorphous alloy powders

Ordinary alloys have a crystalline structure in which atoms are arranged regularly. In contrast, amorphous alloy powders are non-crystalline, meaning the atoms that comprise the material are not arranged in a definite, regular manner. Although solids, amorphous alloy powders, like liquids, have a structure in which atoms are densely and irregularly packed. Amorphous alloys are lightweight and have excellent electric and thermal conductivities, as well as high tensile strength. Amorphous alloy powders are amorphous alloys that have been reduced to fine particles that range from several dozen to several hundred microns in size.

^*2 Market share based on 2018 annual sales (according to Epson Atmix research).

^*3 Spinning water atomization process (SWAP)

SWAP was developed by Epson Atmix in 2004 to mass-produce amorphous alloy powders. Amorphous (non-crystalline) alloy powder is produced by blasting an alloy that has been melted in a high-frequency induction furnace with high-pressure gas and cooling water to create tiny droplets that are then solidified by rapidly cooling them at a rate of several tens of thousands of degrees Celsius per second. Amorphous alloy powders are technically challenging to produce in volume, but Epson Atmix has continued to accumulate expertise in this area in its effort to stabilize supply as one of the few suppliers of amorphous alloy powders.

Note: SWAP is a registered trademark of Epson Atmix Corporation.

^*4 MIM: Metal injection molding.

A metalworking process that has the features of both injection molding and powder metallurgy. MIM enables very fine alloy powder to be used to produce parts with complex configurations that are highly accurate, dense and strong.

About Epson
Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to becoming indispensable to society by connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. The company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics. Epson is proud of its contributions to realizing a sustainable society and its ongoing efforts to realizing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the worldwide Epson Group generates annual sales of more than US$10 billion.
http://global.epson.com/