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Kingston Launches 'Green Initiative'

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:16 am
by Apoptosis
For Immediate Release 8:00 a.m. EST, 10/21/2003:

Kingston Launches 'Green Initiative' for Module Manufacturing

Manufacturer "Gets The Lead Out' With Introduction of New Environmentally Friendly Pb-Free Line Of Memory Products To Worldwide Customer Base

Fountain Valley, CA (October 21, 2003) - Kingston Technology Company, Inc. today announced formal plans are underway to migrate its manufacturing processes worldwide to be lead free by the end of 2003. Kingston's new environmentally-friendly memory products will be a seamless fit into existing product lines, available worldwide to channel, retail and contract manufacturing customers. Kingston's Asia-Pacific facility will be the first to ship the new lead-free modules.

In addition to the clear environmental impact there are international trade motivations: Japan has a green requirement for companies shipping products into the country beginning in 2004 and Europe is following close behind with new regulations.
Kingstonâ decided the time was right for Pb-free (lead-free) manufacturing and quickly took action.

"We explored the best measures for a more environmentally-positive manufacturing process and will begin lead-free manufacturing in 2004. Our logistical and quality assurance research was completed ahead of schedule so we are beginning our roll-out of the Kingston Green Initiative now," said Liesl Schwoebel, product marketing manager, Kingston.

Customer Benefits
Given the new environmental regulations, Kingston customers will benefit from the early adoption on a global scale. "When memory customers are ready to move to lead-free operation or when evaluating memory suppliers who have already met this requirement, they can come to Kingston," said Al Soni, senior vice president, strategic alliances, Kingston. "This will help them significantly shorten their qualification process on new and existing memory products and projects."

How it's done now and how it will be done:
Traditional manufacturing of electronic components, including memory modules has involved using various types of solder, the most popular being Pb solder that consists of tin mixed with lead. Other solder technologies include tin, silver, gold or mixed alloys. Companies moving to lead-free manufacturing will be met with certain technological challenges that include alloy choices, supply availability and higher-heat considerations when using Pb-free solder.

Kingston's first lead-free offerings will be modules supporting older single-channel DDR memory technology, soon to be followed by DDR SO-DIMMs and server modules. All of Kingston's Green Initiative products will have the same superior quality, competitive pricing and lifetime warranty as previous 'leaded' versions.

For more information on Kingston's memory products, please visit http://www.kingston.com or call Kingston at (800) 337-8410.

About Kingston Technology Company, Inc.
Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world's largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston operates manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Taiwan, China, and Fountain Valley, Calif., including Payton Technology Corp., Kingston's back-end processing facility supporting memory packaging, test and logistics. With the advent of Payton, Kingston supports all memory processing functions from receipt of wafer to completed module. Kingston serves a network of distributors, OEMs, and retail customers in more than 3,000 locations worldwide. For more information on Kingston, call (800) 337-8410, or go to http://www.kingston.com

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2003 5:40 pm
by Illuminati
Very interesting... I wonder if they are doing this to just keep their employees happy or to increase sales... or both?