For companies to be successful and compete in today´s global markets the need to focus on environmentally responsible yet innovative product development has never been greater - according to world leading experts in pneumatics, SMC.
The company's own R&D engineers are continually developing cutting edge product solutions which meet all the necessary environmental laws and directives, for an expanding range of factory automation applications throughout the world.
Like many other organisations, the need for SMC to develop and constantly improve their products which still satisfy and meet the growing number of global safety standards being introduced in Europe, North America and Asia is a non-negotiable requirement.
"This is particularly important for us in Europe with the increasing legislation being introduced by the European Council", says Pete Humphreys, Product Promotions Manager at SMC. "Over the last few years we have seen some extremely important EU directives and regulations being passed by the European Council - including the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive (RoHS) and the REACH regulations, which came into force in 2006 and 2007 repectively", he continued.
"As responsible manufacturers who care about the environment we applaud this type of legislation, which prohibits and restricts the use of six harmful chemical substances in electronic products made for sale in the EU".
Humphreys acknowledges that as a global leader in its field, with major manufacturing facilities throughout the world, the need to help set industry standards by fully recognising and complying with all the necessary directives and regulations is of paramount importance to the industry.
The company's constant focus on environmentally responsible product development has resulted in SMC´s meteoric growth during the last 50 year with factories and sales offices in over 78 countries around the world.
Today, their product range of over 11,000 components, with more than 600,000 variant options, includes basic pneumatic components to state-of-the-art electronic products using the latest high technology materials.