Taiwan Fluorescent expects hefty profits from air-cleaning fans

Taipei, Feb. 28, 2003 (CENS)--Taiwan Fluorescent Lamp (TFL) Co., Taiwan's second-largest lamp manufacturer, expects electrical fans built on its nano-class titanium dioxide (TiO2) anatase technology to bring it hefty revenue this year.

The company rolled out the technology that it co-developed with the military-owned Chung Shan Institute of Science & Technology in 2001. The company has applied the glue to electrical fans. TiO2 is known for its ability to deodorize, purify, and sterilize the air by emitting hydroxyl free radicals (-Ohs) to catch harmful impurities in the air. Electrical fans are used to disperse the radicals that the material generates after being exposed to ultraviolet rays.

TFL specialists have proved that the material can reduce waste organisms in the air of room with an area of 144-180 square feet and a height of 2.8 meters to under 3ppm (parts per million) in 30 minutes.

TFL has recently teamed up with household appliances manufacturers including Yen Sun Technology Corp. to venture into the market of TiO2 electrical fans. TFL projects to sell 100,000 of the fans in Taiwan and South Korea this year, earning an estimated net margin of at least 30% from such products.

The company's partners point out that 2.5 million electrical fans are sold in Taiwan each year, compared with 7.5 million in Japan and five million in South Korea. They expect at least 40,000 of their TiO2 fans to be sold this year, bringing them a total revenue of NT$200 million (US$5.7 million at US$1:NT$35) at NT$2,599 (US$74) per fan.

The companies will extend their cooperation to cover dish dryers, air purifiers, dehumidifiers, refrigerators and heaters built on TFL's TiO2 technology.

TFL chairman N.S. Chen noted that the TiO2 fan is an ideal air cleaner for residences, basements, hospitals and offices. He claimed that TiO2 devices last much longer than activated-carbon nets and are more effective in cleaning the air.

TFL's nanotechnology unit and Chung Shan worked together for five years to shrink TiO2 particles to less-than 40 nanometers in diameter, thus boosting their chance of coming into contact with impure substances in the air. The reduced material is applied to a fiber glass fabric net that encircles a UV fluorescent lamp with wavelength of 400 nanometers.