OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2011. In March 2011, Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (hereafter Toppan Printing; head office: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; President & CEO: Shingo Kaneko) and Chi Lin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereafter Chi Lin; President: Y.G. Hsu), a core company in Taiwan’s Chi Mei Group, reached a basic agreement on a collaboration in electronic paper business targeting industrial applications such as electronic price tags, retail point-of-sale displays, and logistics instruction labels.

The alliance agreement includes an investment by Toppan Printing, who will acquire shares in a newly formed Chi Lin subsidiary: Pervasive Displays Inc. (hereafter Pervasive Displays). Pervasive Displays will develop and sell e-Paper modules for industrial uses. Starting May 1, 2011, Toppan Printing will launch full-scale sales of Pervasive Displays’products into the Japanese market.

Currently, e-Paper displays are used mainly in the expanding e-book reader market. Industry experts anticipate significant growth for e-Paper in industrial applications such as electrical appliance displays, electronic shelf labels and logistics systems for retail, distribution, and medical products. The rising demand for compact e-Paper displays is due to its thin form factor, durability, low power consumption, and environmentally sustainable composition.

Toppan Printing and Pervasive Displays’ collaboration will enable customers to quickly incorporate e-Paper displays into their products. The two companies intend to expand the market for e-Paper by jointly developing e-Paper solutions for applications where low power, high readability, and sustainability are high priorities.

The roles of each company
 -Toppan Printing: Sales of electronic paper products for industrial applications in the Japanese market and solution development.
 -Pervasive Display: Development and sales of electronic paper modules and expansion of design services for solution development.
 -Chi Lin: Contract manufacture of e-Paper displays

Targets
 Toppan Printing is aiming for sales of 3 billion yen in fiscal 2013 from the business for electronic paper for industry.