WEEE and RoHS Directives

  In order to cope with the WEEE/RoHS Directives of the EU, Anritsu in 2003 started a working group, including its Group Companies in the United States and the United Kingdom, where we have production bases. Now fortified by the Danish production base that joined Anritsu Group in 2005, the working group has been preparing its response to the directives.
  As for the WEEE Directive, in accordance with EU standards we started placing the WEEE mark on products that we deliver to the EU market from August 2005 and are making efforts to establish a system for waste product collection.
  The RoHS Directive restricts the use of six substances (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PBDE) in electrical and electronic equipment to be shipped from July 1, 2006. We mapped out Anritsu Group's categorizing standards for the RoHS Directive to determine products complying with the RoHS Directive and are promoting a unified approach at all development centers. We are taking measures to turn Category 3 products into those complying with the RoHS Directive by June 2006. Measuring instruments and checkweighers, both major Anritsu products, are classified as Category 9 that is unrestricted by the RoHS Directive. However, it is our corporate social responsibility to minimize use of hazardous substances and we are developing models which are free of them.

Designing and Development

(1) Product Assessment and Environmentally Conscious Products
  Anritsu is promoting the development of environmentally conscious products that save energy and resources and are clean (hazardous substance-free). In fiscal 2005, 50% of all products developed by Anritsu were environmentally conscious products. We will take measures to improve the quality of future product assessment, in order to expand the range of these products. We will also start product assessment at our development sites outside of Japan.

(2) Example of Product Assessment
  A product's load on the environment is mostly determined at the initial stage of development. Therefore, we conduct product assessment for every product that we develop. After assessment of the MD8391A RNC simulator, we came up with the following improvements.

Product Outline
  The MD8391A is compact and lightweight equipment optimized for the manufacture, construction and maintenance of a Node B (logic node for wireless link to a terminal) wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) wireless base transceiver station. It simulates a radio network controller (RNC) located between a base transceiver station (BTS) and a core network. The use of the RNC simulator makes it possible to create an environment needed for Node B tests without using an expensive RNC or core network.

Product Outline
  The traffic shaper is a bandwidth controller with an originally developed high-precision bandwidth control engine and a flexible packet*1 grouping function. It remarkably improves bandwidth efficiency and makes a network safe and secure by ensuring the quality of mission critical*2 data communication, an important issue for integrating information, accounting and voice applications provided thus far on separate dedicated line services into the IP-VPN or wide-area Ethernet.

Transition of Energy Conservation of Products
  To provide customers with energy-saving products, we are working toward the development of models that improve power-consumption by 30% or more as our objective. For fiscal 2005, product power-consumption per sales of 100 million yen leveled off for our main measuring instrument products, but increased overall due to a drop in unit prices of large products. We will continue to reduce our products' power-consumption.

(4) Clean Design
  In order to reduce hazardous substances from the design stage, Anritsu Group in Japan has been carrying out surveys regarding content of hazardous substances, such as lead in electrical components, and promoting reduction of such substances by replacing inappropriate components with others. As for mechanical components, since fiscal 2004 we have been researching a painting and treatment process that does not involve use of hexavalent chromium and other particular hazardous substances. We now have better ways to address the problems that such substances can create. In order to start procurement of mechanical components not containing hazardous substances, we established in July 2005 a working group for reducing hazardous substances in such components. As many of these components produced by sheet metal processing, cutting or molding are procured based on Anritsu's original design specifications, each part has its own specific technical background. In addition, many partner companies are involved in this endeavor, which requires participation of various departments throughout the Anritsu Group Companies - such as environment, engineering, material procurement and manufacturing departments. Solutions include outsourcing sheet metal treatment work at a partner company, as well as conducting surveys on hazardous substances involved in mechanical component cutting and molding operations, then implementing countermeasures against use of such substances.

Production (Tohoku Anritsu Co., Ltd.)

  For manufacturing hazardous substance-free products, Tohoku Anritsu Co., Ltd., our production base in Japan, completed a production system for printed circuit board units that uses lead-free soldering, and built a components and material management system. Thanks to these efforts and guidance from Nihon Denkei Co., Ltd. (a measuring instrument trading company that does business with Sony Corp.), we received Sony Corp.'s green partner certificate in August 2005. This was preceded by Nihon Denkei Co., Ltd. auditing Tohoku Anritsu Co., Ltd. for environment quality approval.

Recycling of Used Products (Recycling Center)

  Ahead of other companies in the measuring instrument industry, Anritsu established the Recycling Center at Anritsu Kousan Co., Ltd., our Group Company, in 2000. This Center obtained a license in September 2002 to engage in the industrial waste disposal business, and to start operations in fiscal 2003.
  During fiscal 2005, the Recycling Center started promoting reuse of used products, optimized waste separation and achieved 100% recycling of the waste entering the center.