Peachtree City’s TDK Components USA is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Peachtree City.
Its mission is slightly different from when it opened in the city’s industrial park in the summer of 1986. Back then, the company produced VCR and audio cassette tapes before transitioning to recordable compact discs.
Although TDK is no longer involved in media production, the Peachtree City facility has always produced multilayer chip capacitors, and that production continues to this very day.
The company’s main product now are those chip capacitors which in physical reality appear as tiny flecks. But their impact is huge as components of electronic devices ranging from cellphones to computers and high definition televisions.
The capacitors are stored inside reels similar in size to those used for old home movie projectors.
Cellphones have up to 200 capacitors each and auto instruments can have between 100 and 200, company officials have said.
One of TDK’s largest customer base is in the automotive industry, as the capacitors are used in a variety of ways, from the control units for the engine, airbag and air conditioning to the instrument cluster and even the keyless remote.
The company’s notable automotive clients include Bosch, Delphi and Continental, while popular consumer electronics clients include Sony, Mitsubishi Electric and Fujitsu.
TDK produces some 1.1 billion multilayer ceramic chip capacitors per month, with 130 employees inside their 40,700 square foot building.
In 2008 the company was awarded a prestigious environmental award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for drastically cutting back on its water and electricity usage.
The company’s water usage fell by 1.1 million gallons and the electrical usage was cut back by 1 million megawatts.
The company also changed its manufacturing processes to cut its use of caustic soda by more than half and also decreased its use of copper paste by 36 percent.
TDK was one of just four companies so honored by the EPA across the entire nation.
In 2010, the state of Georgia honored TDK for reducing its discharge of toxic substances into the water system by nearly 6 percent, its hazardous material use by nearly 10 percent, energy consumption by about 10 percent and total water use by 27 percent.
The company has its own water treatment plant on-site to eliminate metals from the water, returning it to the city’s sewer treatment system cleaner than it was when it entered the building from the county water system, TDK officials have said previously.
The company also has a track record of community initiatives, which dates back to the 1980s when it made a sizable donation to the city to help with the construction of city hall. TDK employees also participate in a variety of local community activities including sports, art and culture and efforts focused on environmental conservation.
TDK, which stands for Tokyo Denki Kagaku (meaning Tokyo electro chemical), now has 80,000 employees in sales offices and manufacturing bases around the world. The company’s motto is: “Contribute to culture and industry through creativity.”
