MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc. operates as a manufacturer of various high-precision parts, such as machined components, electronic devices and components, as well as electrical and communication equipment parts.
The company serves customers in the office automation and information technology, personal computers and related products, automobile, aerospace, home appliances, healthcare, and other industries.
Segments
The company operates through Machined Components, Electronic Devices and Components, and...
MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc. operates as a manufacturer of various high-precision parts, such as machined components, electronic devices and components, as well as electrical and communication equipment parts.
The company serves customers in the office automation and information technology, personal computers and related products, automobile, aerospace, home appliances, healthcare, and other industries.
Segments
The company operates through Machined Components, Electronic Devices and Components, and MITSUMI (MITSUMI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.) Business segments.
Machined Components segment
This segment manufactures and sells bearings (including ball bearings, spherical and rod-end bearings, roller bearings and bushings), bearing-related products (including pivot assemblies and mechanical assemblies), and machined components (including fasteners). The primary products in this segment are as follows:
Ball Bearings
Ball bearings are the major product line in the Machined Components segment. They comprise an outer ring, inner ring, balls, retainers, shields and snap rings.
The company manufactures approximately 8,500 different types of miniature and small-sized ball bearings, majority of which have external diameters of 22mm or less. The company manufactures specialized products, such as integrated-shaft ball bearings, which have two raceways, or the circular grooves that contain the ball sets, on the shaft, thereby allowing for the integration on the inner ring and shaft of two ball bearings.
Spherical and Rod-End Bearings
Spherical bearings are self-aligning bearings used on driven parts in aerospace, automobiles, railways and industrial machines. The company’s spherical bearing offerings include teflon bearings that have a self-lubricating function and metal-to-metal bearings that perform well under static and high-load environments.
Used in aircraft components, such as wing flaps, engines and wing mounts and hatches, rod-end bearings are spherical bearings that function as joints. These bearings are also used in helicopters, trains, automobiles, electric power plants, construction machineries, ships, entertainment equipment and aerospace-related products.
Roller Bearings
The company offers two types of roller bearings. One is self-aligning roller bearings with rollers held by retainers between inner races and outer races. These could take the form of single or double row bearings. The other type is roller bearings that feature a roller housed between the inner and outer rings. These are used primarily in aircraft engines.
Bushings
Bushings are another type of bearing that does not use ball sets, but rather simply by their shape provide a bearing surface for rotary applications. Bushings are used in various mechanical moving parts on both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. For example, they are used in helicopters, primarily in the main rotor axes, and in landing gear for fixed-wing aircraft. The company’s bushings apply originally developed teflon liners to the inside of the bore and edge faces to allow for rotation without the need for lubricating agents.
Pivot Assemblies
Pivot assemblies, which combine ball bearings between shafts and sleeves, are support bearings that are fitted into the base of actuators to position hard disk drive (HDD) magnetic heads.
Mechanical Assemblies
The company offers a range of precision mechanical assemblies (PMAs) that incorporate its high-precision ball bearings. The company’s PMAs make use of super-precision machining technology and specialized knowledge in bearing assemblies accumulated through ball bearing development and production. Mechanical assemblies products comprise:
Tape Guides: Tape guides are components for tape drives mounted in large-capacity memory storage devices, such as servers. They use the company’s high-precision bearings that incorporate its advanced technology and knowledge.
Pulleys: The company makes pulleys of various types of materials and shapes through techniques, such as press-fitting, bonding or resin molding them onto the outer race, or rim, of miniature ball bearings. These use high-precision manufactured bearings.
Aerospace and Automotive Fasteners
Fasteners are mechanical components used to fasten one object to another. The company’s fasteners are used primarily in the aerospace and automotive industries. Aerospace and automotive fastener products comprise:
Bolts: Bolts are the typical examples of fasteners used for assembling engines and fuselage panels. They are manufactured from various materials to meet application requirements. For example, for assemblies requiring high tensile strength and fatigue strength, high-tension (approximately 260ksi) bolts are suitable; for applications involving high temperatures and corrosive conditions, nickel alloys and heat/corrosion-resistant steels are chosen, and if weight is critical, titanium alloys are employed.
Nuts: The company offers various self-locking nuts, such as 6-point nuts, 12-point nuts and floating nuts (one lug or two lug). They are made of various alloys, as well as heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant steels. To prevent galling, molybdenum disulfide lubricant is used, and silver plating is applied if the nuts are to be exposed to high temperatures.
Recess Screws: Recess screws are bolts that have a dovetail groove at the base of the head recess. Recess screws play a primary role in the high-torque fastening of fuselage exterior panels and other applications.
Electronic Devices and Components segment
This segment manufactures and sells rotary components (constituting primarily small-sized motors), electronic devices (such as LED backlights), and sensing devices (such as sensors for various purposes). The primary products in this segment are as follows:
HDD Spindle Motors
HDD spindle motors are high-speed motors used to rotate HDDs.
Stepping Motors
Stepping motors are motors that employ driver circuits and which are designed to rotate at fixed angles. They are used in the paper-feeding devices of printers, copy machines, facsimiles and similar equipment, as well as in speedometers and air conditioners of automobiles, home appliances and industrial equipment. PM stepping motors use a permanent magnet (PM) as a rotor, while hybrid-type stepping motors combine a rotor with a PM and a gear-shaped magnetic core. The company also manufactures stepping motors, which are small in diameter that are used in lens barrels of digital cameras to stabilize images and drive auto-focus functionality, and in optical disc drives to actuate the pickup lens.
Brushless Direct Current (DC) Motors
Brushless DC motors use driver circuits instead of brushes and commutators to switch direction. The company’s brushless motors are used in such areas as office automation equipment (the printing mechanisms of laser printers), as well as home appliances and car audio systems.
Brush DC Motors
Brush DC motors are an internally commutated electric motor designed to be run from a DC power source. When powered, a magnetic field is generated around the armature, and DC commutators that ‘brushes’, or electrical contacts, press against make the current periodically reverse in direction, thus causing the motor to continue to rotate in the same direction.
Fan Motors
Fan motors are motors that rotate fans. These fans are used to cool the inside of PCs and other office automation equipment by directing heat outside. The company offers its fan motors together with cooling circuitry as part of a fan unit for data transmission and processing devices. These units, which the company calls ‘Heat Management System Modules’, represent an integration of its thermal management expertise and capabilities in fan motor, power management and controller design.
Rotation Angle Sensors
Rotation angle sensors are sensors that detect motor rotations and rotation speeds and control the drive motor. They make detection of precise rotation angle and speeds possible even under poor conditions, and are thus used in electric vehicles and aircrafts.
LED Backlights
The company’s back-lighting devices for color liquid-crystal displays for smartphones and other personal handheld devices comprise white light-emitting diode chips and transparent plastic panel made from micron-size prisms. The majority of the company’s LED backlights serve the LED backlight market, the demand for which is primarily driven by demand for smartphones and tablets.
To address both the shift in global smartphone demand towards mid-range devices, as well as the use of OLED displays as an alternative to liquid-crystal displays using LED backlights in the smartphone and tablet industry, the company intends to increase its market share in the mid-range device market by promoting components for mid-range smartphones, while maintaining its position in the device market through the development of ultra-thin LED chips and optical sheets.
Smart Adjustable Light for the Internet of Things (SALIOT)
SALIOT is a next-generation ‘Internet of Things’ lighting fixture that represents the integration of the company’s LED and other optical technology and its circuit, motor, and wireless communication technologies. By using motors to control the distance between the LED and the lens, SALIOT could adjust the light radiation area and distribution angle from 10 to 30 degrees. In addition, through the application of wireless technology in the development of the company’s original software, this product allows users to control the vertical and horizontal orientation of lighting, the light distribution angle, and brightness using a smartphone or tablet. The major users of SALIOT are commercial complexes, car dealers and museums.
Sensing Devices
The company’s sensing device products comprise:
Strain Gages: Strain gages consist of a metallic foil etched in a grid pattern, which is bonded to a device and used to electronically measure the strain, or amount of deformation of the device when weight or pressure is applied.
Force Sensors: Force sensors are sensors for mass production of various consumer goods that use strain gages.
Load Cells: Load cells use strain gages to convert weight into electrical output.
Pressure Sensors: Pressure sensors are sensors that measure pressure as electric signals using strain gages.
Torque Transducers: Torque transducers are sensors for torque measurement that measure torsion in various driving parts, such as engines and transmissions using strain gages.
Vector Sensors: Vector sensors are sensors that detect translation power in three directions.
Tensile and Compression Testing Machines: Tensile and compression testing machines are used to measure the amount of stretch and contraction of devices using strain gages.
Digital Indicators: Digital indicators are devices that digitally display numerical measurements and are used in the company’s load cells, transducers and other sensing devices.
Defense-Related Special Components
This segment’s products also include defense-related special components sold to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, Japanese Police Agency and Japanese defense-related components manufacturers.
MITSUMI Business segment
This segment manufactures and sells semiconductor devices, optical devices, mechanical parts, high-frequency parts and power supply parts.
Semiconductor Devices
The company manufactures and sells various semiconductor products that are necessary for electronic products, such as communications equipment, digital audiovisual equipment, office automation equipment and measuring equipment. Principal semiconductor device products include system reset semiconductors and battery-related semiconductors, as well as lithium ion battery protection modules for handheld devices. The company focuses on battery-related semiconductors and analog semiconductors.
Optical Devices
The company’s principal optical device products include camera modules. It is striving to expand this business line into areas, such as mobile phones, Web cameras and in-vehicle equipment by employing its optical and mechatronic technologies.
Mechanical Parts
In this business line, the company offers various mechanical parts, ranging from primary components, such as microactuators, optical image stabilizers, connectors, switches, coils and motors to various assembled products. These are used in such areas as digital audiovisual equipment, entertainment devices and in-vehicle equipment. The company is continuing to develop its precision machining and assembly technology in its major component business, such as for microactuators, connectors, and switches.
High-Frequency Parts
The company’s high-frequency parts employ its high-frequency technologies, and include such products as antennas for GPSs and satellite broadcasts, wireless modules and digital network equipment. The company intends to expand its business in this field as it expects that demand for wireless module products in areas, such as in-vehicle equipment and mobile devices, and for antennas for in-vehicle equipment, would expand.
Power Supply Parts
The company offers various power supply parts, such as adaptors, chargers and internal power supplies, for use in such devices as digital audiovisual equipment, mobile devices and entertainment devices. Its internal power supply products include super-thin, high-efficiency power supplies for such markets as liquid crystal televisions and copiers, while its AC adaptor products include small, high-efficiency chargers for mobile devices and digital audiovisual equipment. Given the range of devices for which power supply products could be used, demand for such products would expand. The company also intends to expand its business in this area by introducing new products, such as power supplies for LED lighting.
Sales and Marketing
The company sells its products directly to its customers through sales subsidiaries. As an exception, products with standard specifications that are sold at small quantities at a time, such as ball bearings, spherical and rod-end bearings and AC fan motors, are sold through distributors. In addition, the company sells its products to certain smaller customers through specified distributors.
Strategy
The company’s strategy is to reformulate its product portfolio through categorizing its products and businesses into ‘core’, ‘sub-core’ and ‘non-core’; and accelerate development and business of highly value-added solutions that integrate its products and technologies as ‘+IoT business’ in addition to the company’s existing businesses.
Seasonality
The company experiences decreased revenue in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year (year ended March 2017), primarily due to seasonal demand related to the holiday season in the third quarter and the subsequent decline in demand in the fourth quarter due to, among other reasons, Lunar New Year.
Regulation
In Japan, the company is subject to environmental regulation under the Air Pollution Control Law, the Water Pollution Control Law, the Wastes Disposal and Public Cleaning Law, the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-based Society and other laws.
Research and Development (R&D)
The company’s R&D costs were 12.3 billion yen in the year ended March 31, 2017. Approximately 14.1% of R&D expenditures were spent on the Machined Components segment for the year ended March 31, 2017. Such expenditures in this segment were primarily focused on improving the bearings products (including miniature ball bearings and rod-end bearings). R&D in this segment is developing tribological technologies for materials and lubricants, as well as ultra-low wear self-lubricating liners (Minelon). Furthermore, the company is developing greases for pivot assemblies, bearings for flight control systems, trunnion bearings used in the latest aircraft models landing gears, high-heat resistant ball bearing units for automobile engine turbochargers, as well as special bearings used in both dental and medical equipment, as well as in the aerospace industry.
R&D costs for the Electronic Devices and Components segment were approximately 58.5% of the total R&D costs for the year ended March 31, 2017. R&D efforts focused on development of narrow bezel and curved LED backlights, and lighting products used in smart buildings and cities. In the area of smart lighting, R&D efforts focused on development of the SALIOT lighting system, which allows for remote control and adjustment of lighting angles and brightness through smartphones or tablets. Other R&D focus areas included new developments to sensing devices, such as high precision sensors used in medical beds and biological information systems, as well as for automotive heads-up displays.
In the MITSUMI Business segment, R&D activities concentrated on semiconductors, micro electro mechanical systems, haptic technology and microactuators used in various industries, such as information communication equipment and components that are primarily used in smartphones, such as switches. New developments included semiconductors for lithium-ion battery protection, as well as microactuators with optical image stabilization functions for camera modules.
Significant Events
In August 2017, Minebea Co., Ltd. had completed a joint research project by using measuring components applying strain gages in collaboration with Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University Hospital and IBM Japan, Ltd. having its sights set on the development of biological information monitoring system.
In December 2019, the company and Electronics Corporation announced the joint development of resolver-based (angle sensor) stepping motor and motor control solutions optimized for use in robots, office automation equipment, and medical/nursing care equipment. These applications require motors with higher precision motor control, miniaturized form factors, and improved resistance to environmental influences. Working in collaboration, Renesas and Minebea Mitsumi have developed resolver sensor-based stepping motors and motor control solutions that address these application requirements.
History
The company was founded in 1951. It was formerly known as Minebea Co., Ltd. and changed its name to MINEBEA MITSUMI Inc. in January 2017.
