Japanese UV LED manufacturer Nikkiso is collaborating with Formosa Plastics Group to build the world’s largest UV LED factory in Taiwan, reported Japanese media Nikkei.
The UV LED factory will be entering mass volume production stage by 2018, and will have an estimated annual production of 12 million UV LEDs. The UV LED products include UV-C LEDs for water sterilization, clean rooms in industrial applications, home water purification systems, as well as UV-A LED applications for nail curing, UV curing, printing and other commercial applications.
UV LEDs fall in the 250 nanometer (nm) to 350 nm wavelength section on the lighting spectrum, and can efficiently kill germs and prevent mold growth. Application sectors for UV LEDs include medicine, measurement and testing market sectors. There is huge market potential for UV LEDs to replace mainstream mercury and fluorescent UV lamps. UV LEDs have become a very popular global light source following the rise of environmental, energy saving, and economic demands in the market.
According to the report, Nobel Prize Laureates and blue LED inventors Shuji Nakamura and Hiroshi Amano have been hired by Nikkiso as their advanced UV LED technology consultants. Further putting the company developments under the industry lime light.
Nikkiso and Formosa Plastics Group will establish a joint venture in March 2016, and the investment ratio is rumored to be 51:49. Nikkiso will be financing 2 billion Japanese Yen (US $1.64 million) in the joint venture, and the new UV LED company is aiming to generate a revenue of 30 billion Japanese Yen by 2020. The new UV LED company will also be investing about 8 billion Japanese Yen in future equipment, and will be collaborating with Formosa Group in semiconductors, and LEDs for lighting applications to reduce equipment costs.
The Japanese UV LED maker already has a wholly-owned subsidiary in Taiwan that was established in 1993. The Nikkiso group has five major businesses including medical equipment (dialysis machine), new material manufacturing (carbon fiber), high voltage equipment, industrial design and equipment manufacturing, hydrodynamics (pumps). The company has very advanced technology capacity.
