Omnidirectional development of demand for precision components such as semiconductors and electronic components
Aiming for the world's smallest corner R Sodick's ultra-precision wire-cut EDM, "EXC100L"
Kikuyo Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, where Taiwan-based TSMC and Sony are constructing a new semiconductor plant.
Nakayama Seimitsu Co., Ltd., which manufactures dies/molds and precision components, aims to increase demand for products for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, electric vehicles and electronic components there.
In January 2022, the company began constructing the Second Technical Center next to the plant of TSMC and is also actively investing in facilities to meet demands by improving on accuracy/precision and upsizing equipment. We covered the challenge of this company aiming to meet massive demand expansion of precision components.
Current Technical Center (Construction of the Second Technical Center of the same scale is underway.)
After a 20-minute drive from Kumamoto Airport, which is located on high ground, there is an extensive site.
It is a semiconductor plant of TSMC and Sony in Kikuyo Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, which is currently being constructed. The Second Technical Center, which Nakayama Seimitsu is constructing with the aim of starting operation in the fall of 2022, is located adjacent to it. This is the third manufacturing base following the Kumamoto Factory (Nishihara Village, Kumamoto Prefecture) and the Technical Center (Kikuyo Town, Kumamoto Prefecture), which has a site area of approximately 12,000 m2 and a building area of 2,700 m2. The company plans to invest a total of approximately 1 billion yen in this factory.
The aim is to increase production and strengthen production systems of components and dies/molds for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The BCP (Business Continuity Plan) measure is one of the aims, and the risk is dispersed through mutual production in cooperation with the Kumamoto Factory and the Technical Center.
The new factory will take on the challenge of sub-nano-level high-accuracy machining and will also promote machining of larger products to expand the range of receiving orders. To this end, the company plans to introduce large-scale MCs in addition to high-accuracy machining machines.
The high-accuracy requirements for precision dies/molds, electronic components and components for semiconductor equipment, which the company is manufacturing, are increasing year by year. "Until now, even 1 to 5 µm was considered high accuracy, but now we are sometimes required for sub-nano-class orders," says President Shinichi Nakayama. "Some customers require us 10-nanometer class roundness for optical fiber components," he says.
To meet these demands, the company has made repeating capital investments. One of these is Sodick's ultra-precision wire-cut EDM, EXC100L, which was introduced at the Kumamoto Factory last fall. With the special specifications that enable machining with 10 μm wire lines, "We aim for the world's smallest corner R in the class of corner R plus alpha 5 μm," says President Nakayama. In addition to the wire-cut EDM, the company is actively investing in equipment that is capable of fine precision machining, such as MCs, profile grinding machines and die sinker EDMs for fine precision machining.
President Nakayama says that the accuracy enhancement "depends largely on the equipment, but when it comes to nano-orders, the ability to use the techonlogy is also necessary." For this purpose, the new factory will be equipped with a constant temperature room controlled to ±0.3°C in addition to taking vibration into consideration. "When it comes to nano-orders, it is necessary to manufacture not only through efforts of us, but also through collaborating with manufacturers."
The company is improving on machining of larger products at the same time as precision machining. It has so far specialized in parts up to 300 mm square, but in recent years it has been receiving an increased demand for machining larger-sized products. "We used to refuse or outsource the machining of larger-sized products. However, it is difficult to outsource the machining of larger-sized products with high accuracy, so we plan to do it in-house." The Kumamoto Factory has already introduced a large MC, EDM, grinder and other machine tools that can machine 600-mm square products.
Nakayama Seimitsu also pursues high-efficiency manufacturing in addition to accuracy improvement and machining of larger products. Automation is a part of this pursuit. The company has already moved forward with automation through ATC and AWC of course, and it is currently working the extent to which it will automate its operations.
President Nakayama says, "We believe that machining up to 2 to 3 μm class can be automated. We will pursue machining efficiently in two ways: one that requires humans and the other that can be mechanized."
In addition, on-board measurement will be strengthened to improve efficiency. The company is proceeding with equipping on-board measurement for its grinding and wire machines as well as MCs with high-definition cameras and lasers. He says, "On-board measurement, which allows short, efficient and highly accurate measurements, is indispensable because we want to minimize the need to attach and detach measuring instruments in terms of accuracy as much as possible."
Promoting on-board measurement with all types of processing machines
Aggressive efforts make new technologies. Last year Nakayama Seimitsu introduced a femtosecond laser machine. It is being utilized for texturing, surface texturing, engraving, etc. The company also plans to invest in coating equipment such as DLC at its new factory to increase the added value of its components.
The company is committed to domestic production and focuses on adding high value machining because of its belief that manufacturers should continue to produce products on their own. President Nakayama regards the decline of the Japanese manufacturing industry as the result of neglecting to develop manufacturing technologies. "In order not to do so, we want to continue to stick to made-in-Japan and made-in-Kumamoto," he says.
In addition to such a stance and aggressive capital investment, demand for semiconductor-related products is currently strong and the company's sales for the previous fiscal year exceeded a record high of 3 billion yen. However, this is just the passing point. President Nakayama plans to set a new target in the near future, stating that "We celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2019 and hope to be a company that will continue to thrive in the coming decades."
