In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, there have been appearing serious influences like the reduced production of automobiles due to the outbreaks of fire in the electronics specialty gas (SPG) plants and user’s production lines.

Last year Denka announced that there was a burn disaster in Denka Omi Plant (Itoigawa City, Niigata) in the fire which occurred during disassembling of machine in the monosilane workshop at 10 a.m. on September 7.

The fire broke out during the pipe dismantling practice of reactor and five workers were affected. It did not affect the production.

Monosilane and dichlorosilane are produced by Denar Silane which is a joint venture of Denka and the Air Liquide group. Fortunately, the fire did not affect the production line. Though the cause is under investigation now, it seems that an insufficient purge of nitrogen could bring out an ignition to the residual gas.

At 7:50 on December 15, in addition, there was a rupture of the operating panel of monosilane filling facility causing damages of Air Liquide Japan’s Tsukuba North Center, which is the production base to fill and mix monosilane, phosphine and disilane.

There was no human damage and the cause of rupture is under investigation, but ripples seem to be spreading as there was an enquiry from Taiwan to us editor. Though either case did not expand to a calamity, it could be feared to be a sign that another accident may follow as a trend.
In the semiconductor plant (Prod. Dept.2 of Center) of Asahi Kasei Microdevices (Nobeoka City, Miyazaki) a fire broke out and was extinguished on 24th. However, most of the production line in the clean room was burnt out and no prediction of recovery has been made out yet. They say the fire broke out from the substrate cleaning device. The main item of Prod. Dept. 2 is analog-digital mixed loading LSI.

Since the company is the only manufacturer of millimeter wave sensor in Japan for a digital-analog converter (DAC) and automobile, the influence is spreading over to audio products and the automobile production. Particularly, automobile manufacturers are being forced to reduce their production because of no procurement of the millimeter wave sensor. The millimeter wave sensor for automotive loading is used for a system aimed to prevent collisions of automobiles. It assesses risks of collision basing upon the data on the distance and relative speed to the vehicle ahead and is used as a system to urge driver’s awareness of relative danger and also to assist a follow-up running and rear-side monitoring for a backward drive. It is an indispensable part for a current automobile.

At the moment when the fire was reported at first, it was unknown to what extent the situation would get worse. However, audio manufacturers like Onkyo dispatched a signal of SOS about their production, which caused a spread of ripples like the decreased production of Daihatsu (automobile manufacturer).

Automobile manufacturers represented by Toyota seem to be in contact with Renesas Electronics of Fuji Electric for the production of alternative products, but they have no facilities to produce a millimeter wave sensor and are studying a possibility of introduction.
Nobody could imagine that such a tiny millimeter wave sensor would apply a brake to the automobile industry which leads the economy of Japan even in the new coronavirus crisis.
However, the situation has exposed such issues as the disruption of supply chains caused by the disasters including the Great East Japan Earthquake and the current corona crisis and some problems like the inadequate establishment of BCP.

A millimeter wave sensor is an inexpensive device with a low rate of profitability. As a result, only Asahi Kasei Microdevices remained as a manufacturer.

For the industrial gas market, automobile manufacturers are the most important users. There exists an extensive base of demand for nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, acetylene, fluorocarbons, and standard gas, as well as welding materials, and welding machine and robot in the fields of application to welding, cutting and heat treatment.

The shock is so great because the demand for gases and welding materials had been recovering in the production centers of automobiles in the Tokai area and the northern part of Kyushu since September last year.

The frequent occurrence of accidents under the corona crisis might be attributed to the necessity of extraordinary measures forced to carry out works and transmit information with the short workforce and avoidance of the 3Cs taking a safe social distance. Of course, further thorough actions for security and safety are required in various cases, but it is now necessary to review the way of working.