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Alps Electric Co., Ltd. has produced a total of more than 40 billion TACT switches as of late October 2001. Lining them up end to end, they would circle the world six times. Alps holds approximately 40% of the world market for TACT switches, and boasts the highest production in the world. In commemoration of this achievement, a celebratory event was held on November 1 at the Kakuda Plant of the Optoelectronics Division, where TACT switches are produced...

ALPs Electric Co., Ltd. has developed the SKRN Series of TACT switches with a profile of 0.9 mm, the thinnest in the industry, in a double-action configuration. Sample shipments will begin in late December 2001. Shipments of digital still cameras are increasing steadily in response to overwhelming market demand for their increasingly higher resolutions, smaller and thinner bodies and wider variety of models. Domestic shipments of digital cameras from January to June 2001...

Alps Electric Co., Ltd. has announced the development of the SKRK Series of surface-mounted TACT switches with a profile that is the smallest size in the industry-smaller than a grain of rice-with dimensions of 3.9 mm (W) x 2.9 mm (D) x 2.0 mm (H). Sample shipments will be available in late July 2001...

Alps Electric Co., Ltd. has announced the development of the SKPM Series surface-mounting TACT switch, which realizes a height of 4.3 mm to make it the industry's thinnest stem-type (control knob) soft-touch switches. Sample shipments will begin at the end of June 2001...

Alps Electric Co., Ltd. has developed the 9mm metal shaft encoder EC09E, realizing the smallest size in the industry for a vertical mounting type encoder with an 80mm2 projected area. Car navigation systems have advanced in functionality and screen size as a central part of the development of intelligent transport systems (ITS) and vehicle information and communication systems (VICS)...

Alps Electric Co., Ltd. has developed the RDC506 rotary sensor, featuring highly accurate linearity* and a broad range of operational temperatures, with the industry's thinnest dimensions of 2.2 mm. Sample shipments will be available in early June 2001. *Linearity is the deviation from the desired linear taper. Robot pets have recently become runaway hit products in Japan, and rotary sensors are used in them as one component to control movement...