Kyocera Starts Shipment of Environmetally Friendly Liquid Crystal Displays for Industrial Use

Kyocera is sequentially starting shipment of three models that comply with the RoHS Directive this month. The three models are 5.7" (KG057QV and KCG057QV) and 8.9" (KCG089HV) in the V Series, which are the company's standard industrial-use liquid crystal display products. In addition, the company plans to switch the V Series products, including the above three models and those to be developed in the future, to RoHS Di-rective-compliant products before the end of the current fiscal year.

In corporate activities, it has become essential on a global ba-sis for a company to perform its activities in a manner friendly to the earth's environment. Kyocera has been actively promot-ing protection of the global environment for years.
Under these circumstances, the RoHS Directive issued in Europe has gained considerable attention, and the manufac-turers of electronic equipment and other devices have hurried to develop products that comply with the RoHS Directive be-fore it goes into effect in July 2006.
There is also demand for environmental protection in the LCD industry, and Kyocera is responding to the needs by being the first in the industry to ship RoHS Directive-compliant liquid crystal displays for industrial use.

The RoHS Directive restricts the use of six substances, namely lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, poly-brominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE). By revising the selection and procurement of assem-blies in product design, and the conditions of assembly proc-esses, Kyocera has developed RoHS Directive-compliant liq-uid crystal displays for industrial use and will start shipment of the products this month, taking the initiative in the industry.
Of the hazardous substances designated in the RoHS Direc-tive, lead was often said especially difficult to be eliminated. However, a totally lead-free manufacturing process became possible through the following two measures:
(1) The use of lead-free solder when mounting components and joining assemblies
(2) The use of components that contain no lead
The reason for those difficulties was that lead-free solder has a higher melting point compared to that of lead solder, and there-fore has not been used in the conventional electronic compo-nents that have low heat resistance. To overcome this prob-lem, Kyocera made a number of revisions, including selection of components with higher heat resistance and soldering con-ditions when mounting electronic components, and has con-firmed that the new products developed in this way have iden-tical properties and reliability to conventional products using lead solder.

Kyocera has also completed the basic development of the 5.7" V Series with LED backlights that use totally mercury-free LEDs as the light source, although mercury in compact fluo-rescent lamps not exceeding 5 mg per lamp is exempted from the application of the RoHS Directive. Volume production and shipment of the backlit 5.7" display will start before the end of the current fiscal year.
Likewise, other displays of different sizes and models will be developed, manufactured and shipped.
Although LED backlights have been commonly used for small liquid crystal displays, such as those for mobile phones, there have been problems regarding luminance and service life when used for larger liquid crystal displays. The demand for high luminance and long service life is especially stringent for industrial-use liquid crystal displays. Therefore, products that meet these strict requirements have not yet been produced at a commercial level.
Kyocera has developed industrial-use liquid crystal displays that carry LED backlights. Kyocera utilizes a backlight system comprising numerous LED elements, together with a heat-dissipating design technique for a longer service life. In this way, industrial-use liquid crystal displays that are totally mer-cury-free and more environmentally friendly have become a reality.
Kyocera will continue to develop environmentally friendly prod-ucts in the future.

This STN and TFT liquid crystal display series developed by Kyocera is intended for a wide range of industrial equipment and measuring equipment. It features an LCD screen mounted in a symmetrical frame with the width of the surrounding frame narrowed to optimize the size of the display area in relation to its external dimensions. The series is available in commercial mass production in four screen sizes: 4.7 inch/12 cm, 5.7 inch/14 cm, 6.2 inch/16 cm and 8.9 inch/23 cm. Kyocera is planning to launch the V Series products in the screen size of 7.5 inch/19cm and other sizes in the future.

* RoHS Directive: Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
The directive prohibits the use of specific hazardous substances and forms as part of the EU Directive that makes it obligatory for automobile and electric equipment manufacturers in the European Union (EU) to implement measures to protect the environment, such as the recycling of products. The directive restricts the use of five types of six substances in electric equipment that complies with the provisions of Article 95 of the EC. These substances are heavy metals, including lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, as well as the designated bromi-nated flame retardants, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). By July 1, 2006, manufacturers are required in principle to eliminate these substances from all their products, except for mercury in compact fluorescent lamps not exceeding 5mg per lamp and some other cases.