Nichicon Corporation (ニチコン株式会社) is a manufacturer of capacitors of various types, and is one of the largest manufacturers of capacitors in the world, headquartered in Karasuma Oike, Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. In 1950, it separated from the Nii Works Co., established itself as Kansai-Nii Works and completed its first factory by 1956. In 1961, it adopted the Nichicon name and has been using it, or a variant thereof, ever since.
In 2011 and 2012 Nichicon spun off several major factories into independent subsidiaries, and established representative branches in foreign countries, thus realigning its corporate infrastructure.[3]
Early 2000s capacitor issues
From 2001 to 2004, Nichicon produced defective capacitors ("HM" and "HN" series) that were used by major computer manufacturers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple.[4] No explanation has been given for the production runs of defective capacitors, but some sources claimed that these capacitors were either overfilled with electrolyte,[5] or were constructed using electrolyte that was prone to leaking, causing premature failure in any equipment using them. This issue was not related to the Taiwanese capacitor plague.[5]
In 2010 Dell settled a civil lawsuit concerning its shipment of at least 11.8 million computers from May 2003 to July 2005 that used faulty Nichicon components and were prone to major failure.[6][7]
External links
References
- Company Profile Nichicon, retrieved September 23, 2021^
- Company Financials Bloomberg Businessweek, retrieved September 23, 2021^
- Corporate History Nichicon, retrieved September 23, 2021^
- Lionel Menchaca. Dell on the Nichicon Capacitor Issue blog.dell.com, July 1, 2010, retrieved September 23, 2021^
- Michael Singer. PCs plagued by bad capacitors CNET, November 10, 2005, retrieved September 23, 2021^
- Ashlee Vance. Suit Over Faulty Computers Highlights Dell's Decline The New York Times, June 28, 2010, retrieved June 12, 2015^
- Dell Settles Capacitor Lawsuit LegalZoom^