FUJIFILM Corporation started full-scale operation of FUJIFILM Optics Philippines Inc. The new company will become the core production base for high-performance lenses used for digital cameras, projectors and surveillance cameras.
Fujifilm positions the optical device & electronic imaging business field handling digital cameras and optical lenses as one of its priority areas, and has been enhancing business operations for this field.
As optical lenses are used in a wide range of products from consumer to professional use including digital cameras, mobile phones, smartphones, broadcasting TV cameras, surveillance cameras and projectors, worldwide growth is expected especially from emerging countries. Furthermore, due to the development of digital cameras, projectors and surveillance cameras with higher performance, the demand for lenses with excellent optical performance is increasing.
Amid such circumstances, Fujifilm has established a new factory in the Philippines where logistics and other infrastructures are well developed and it is rich in young, talented workforce, so as to enhance the production capacity of optical lenses. The new factory will offer an integrated production process from the polishing, coating and other processing procedures to the assembling of optical lenses. Construction began in November 2012 and production started in late May 2013, shortening the original tight construction period to less than 7 months in total. Today, it started full-scale mass production. At the new factory, new production equipment, such as the “lens polishing machine” which polishes the surface of glass lenses with high precision at nano levels, and the “vacuum evaporation machine” which forms multilayer thin films for antireflection will be introduced for the production of high-performance lenses of digital cameras, projectors and surveillance cameras.
By enhancing the production capacity step by step, Fujifilm intends to increase the number ofemployees to 600 and the production to 18 million lenses a year by FY2015, so as to respond to thegrowing demand for optical lenses. The total investment for the new factory is 2.3 billion yen.
Fujifilm has responded to the wide range of diversifying needs of customers by offering Fujinon brand products that have been developed with Fujifilm’s proprietary development and design capacity, as well as high-level manufacturing technologies and quality control. As a leading company in the optical device field, Fujifilm will contribute to the further expansion of this field with its development and sales of products that meet the market needs.
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