Ready for the digital future

TDK's Zhuhai FTZ (Free Trade Zone) facility in China recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and is well positioned for the future. Over the past five years in particular, both sales and productivity have again been sharply increased, and the plant has made great strides in the areas of digitalization and environmental protection.

It has been expanding and adding new skills and capabilities ever since the facility was launched and is currently the company's only production plant for disk and energy varistors. Management of this Business Unit is based in Zhuhai, together with the associated material research, design and product marketing units. Global varistor business – with a market share of more than 50 percent worldwide – is directed from here. The plant also serves as a design center for DC capacitors. In addition, temperature sensor systems for automotive and household applications in the global market are manufactured here.

TDK manufactures a broad portfolio of protection devices, capacitors and sensors in Zhuhai.

90 percent automation

Much of the above investment has been channeled into the digitalization of work processes, especially in production, where more and more digital Industry 4.0 solutions are being deployed. More than 90 percent of processes are today fully automated or semi-automated. In this context, robots that are programmed by a team of in-house experts are a key element.

Wastewater and emissions well below government thresholds

The plant has also invested in environmental protection. Alongside projects to reduce power consumption, wastewater from the production of ceramic components is treated to a level that now puts contamination levels well below the national thresholds. At the same time, the plant has improved its air emissions to the extent that particulate matter and volatile organic compounds, for example, are ten times below the level prescribed by national standards.

Profile Zhuhai FTZ plant

Products

Ceramic protection devices

• Disk and energy varistors
• Strap and block varistors
• SMD disk varistors (CU)
• Inrush current limiters
• PTC thermistors

Film capacitors

• DC capacitors
• MKP and HP power capacitors
• PFC capacitors and key components (low voltage)
• Power quality solutions (PQS)

Temperature sensors

• NTC sensor systems for automotive and household electronics applications

Certifications

• ISO 9001
• IATF 16949
• ISO 14001
• ISO/TS 22163 (IRIS)
• ISO 3834

History