Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. has been developing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting as one of its promising new businesses in the field of energy and environment. The company recently announced a construction of a new roll-to-roll pilot coating line to manufacture OLED lighting within its Hino facility in Tokyo. The pilot line is dedicated to establish production technology toward mass-production and to sell the product on the limited basis. Spending 3.5 billion yen, the line will be completed in the autumn of 2010 and the product will be commercialized within the fiscal year 2010.

In March 2007, Konica Minolta signed a strategic alliance agreement with General Electric Company of the United States to accelerate the development, aiming to commercialize the OLED lighting within the fiscal year 2010. Prior to the alliance, in June 2006, Konica Minolta succeeded in developing a white OLED device with a world record power efficiency of 64 lumens per watt at 1000 candela per square meter, while having practical light emission level of approximately 10,000 hours - a brightness suitable for lighting applications.

Such technologies as material, coating, multi-layer design, and optical design technologies, nurtured through the development of photographic film and optical lens, have been fully adopted in the development of the OLED lighting. For the pilot line, Konica Minolta designed and developed its own roll-to-roll coating method to manufacture flexible plastic-base OLED lighting. This method will serve as the key to accomplishing cost advantage when the OLED lighting flourishes in the future.