Osaka Asahi Metal Mfg. Doubles High Purity Manganese Output

Osaka Asahi Metal Mfg., Osaka headed white metal bearing maker, will expand high purity manganese production. The demand is increasing for hard disc drives’ magnetic heads as well as integrated circuit’s interconnecting alloy materials. The firm will double the output capacity to 100 kilogram per month in March 2010.

The main products of Osaka Asahi Metal Mfg. are white metal ingots and white metal bearings. The firm also produces copper based mother alloys, high purity metals and low melting point alloys.

The firm will introduce new facilities devoted to produce high purity manganese inside a new factory building of 100 square meters. The building construction will complete within February. The capital expenditure is 50 million yen. The firm will start the operation of new facilities in mid March.

Osaka Asahi Metal Mfg. developed a new method to produce manganese of 99.9999% or more purity in cooperation with Tohoku University and acquired a patent in July 2006. The firm has supplied high purity manganese as a material for copper-manganese alloy which is applied to LSI’s interconnections.

High purity manganese demand is currently increasing for hard discs’ magnetic heads due to its few impurities those which lower magnetic property. Osaka Asahi Metal Mfg. decided the output expansion to follow this demand growth.