Business Restructuring and Transformation into an Electronics Company
In the 1970s, continuing progress in petrochemical engineering destroyed demand for organic synthesis, formerly the major market for carbide, while the widespread market penetration of the television led to a slump in the movie business. Carbon materials in the film industry were replaced by less expensive ethylene, contributing to an even greater slump in carbide demand. Price hikes by the OPEC nations triggered soaring rates for electricity, forcing the company to close down its business in electric furnaces, which consumed massive amounts of electricity. While melamine was originally thought promising as a material for pressure-formed items, the methods of producing melamine from petrochemicals made it impossible for conventional methods to compete economically. In 1971 the company stopped all melamine production. It was clear that the company needed a new sphere of business activity.
New business fields and lines with high potential for the future were evaluated and three candidates identified.
The technology and expertise gained through years of experience in architectural materials and carbon were applied in printed wiring boards, and our technology in electric furnaces and high-temperature sintering was applied in ceramic fiber and carbon graphite specialty
 An early Printed Wiring Board. |
 Ceramic Fiber |
 Graphite Specialty |
Chip On Board (COB)
Technologies for laminated and printed architectural products were coupled with technologies for carbon plating, for example, yielding composite technologies with applications in multi-layer printed wiring boards, circuit design, and circuit fabrication, supporting the launch of the new business sector in 1974. Initial products including boards for cash dispensers and public transport systems, as well as for game systems popular at the time, eventually entering a period of high growth with the addition of IC mounting technologies like COB (chip on board), delivering high-density mounting of bare chips on circuit boards. We established technologies for the manufacture of high-density circuit boards with high, stable quality, pioneering new markets for special boards and establishing ourselves as a leading company in the field. COB provided us with the foothold needed to launch the company into the growing semiconductor industry.