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Re: [OM] Visiting OM Factory

Subject: Re: [OM] Visiting OM Factory
From: "Martin G Flink" <mgflink@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 21:14:25 -0700
Thank you so much for the translation.  I must have missed the first.  Is it
possible to get it?  Looking forward to your third...Martin


-----Original Message-----
From: k.matsumoto <matsumoto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, June 14, 2001 6:39 PM
Subject: [OM] Visiting OM Factory


>Japan is now in the rainy season and I stay home at weekends for
>most of the time. While scanning films, I translated another story
>from the book "Olympus-no-subete" (All About Olympus) which I
>introduced here several months ago. (sorry, it's a bit long.)
>
>The pictures are missing too, but please imagine four women in their
>blue (nylon?) caps and frocks, working at their desks assembling our
>OMs.
>
>************************
>
>Visiting The Factory of Olympus SRL Bodies
>
>Tatsuno town, Nagano prefecture is located in the middle of Honshu
>island. This town has been growing together with precision machinery
>plants of products including cameras and lenses.
>
>Olympus' Tatsuno plant was established in 1981, and mainly "mass
>production" products have been made here.  Today, there is a huge
>digital camera production line, but OM-3Tis and 4Tis are also made
>at a corner on the same floor.
>
>The first Olympus camera "Semi Olympus" was born at the Shibuya
>Tokyo plant of Takachiho Seisakusho (fore name of Olympus) in 1936.
>The "Olympus Standard" and "Olympus Six" were also made here.
>
>Their first plant in Nagano was established in 1943.  In February
>this year the Japanese lost Guadalcanal island in World War II.
>Air-raids to the mainland were becoming severe so important plants
>had to be moved to suburban locations.  Takachiho Seisakusho had two
>plants in Tokyo but both of them were located in the middle of the
>town so they needed to build new plants at spacious areas for the
>future, anyway.
>
>In the early '80s, OM-4s were assembled at the Tatsuno plant through
>line production.  In the peak time, more than 1,000 cameras were
>made per day.  Today, most of the assembly work is gathered in
>Tatsuno plant and the procedure is divided in four blocks, each
>block totally managed by one assembler.
>
>The model assembled is switched every month. OM-4Tis are made in
>January, March, May ...so on.  OM-3Tis are made in February, April,
>June ....
>
>The repair section is located next to the assembly section.  Cameras
>requiring major repair work are collected from service stations
>throughout Japan to Tokyo first, and then sent here.
>
>Some parts of the OM-4Ti and OM-3Ti are common, but the parts used
>at the shutter assembly block are completely different between the
>two models.  The mechanical OM-3Ti especially requires highly
>skilled work such as precise hand grinding of the shutter speed
>governor for fine adjustment.
>
>1. Shutter assembly block
>Shutter units are assembled here.  The mechanical shutter for the
>OM-3Ti is assembled from completely individual parts.
>
>2. Front board block
>The so called part "front board" which consists of the mirror
>compartment and lens mount is assembled here.  Procedure includes
>steps such as fitting the prism and installing the "M flex" circuit
>board.  Thorough inspections like "mount-to-screen light path length
>measurement"and "mount-to-focal plane distance measurement" are
>performed here too.
>
>3. Misc. parts block
>Top cover, bottom cover, wind mechanism, etc. are installed here.
>The "U flex" circuit board is installed to the top cover.  Many
>measurement tools are used and various kinds of operation tests are
>carefully performed here.
>
>4. Main block
>Units assembled at the first three blocks are put together here.
>Overall performance tests are done, then the cameras are handed to
>the quality control section for final checks.  After the camera
>passes all inspections and tests, strap rings are attached, then
>boxed and shipped.
>
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