Discontinuation of Thermal Vision "LAIRD" Series Infrared Thermography System Business to Close

Nikon Corporation (YOSHIDA, Shoichiro, president) will discontinue manufacture of Thermal Vision LAIRD series that has been entered into market since 1994.

Since Nikon entered the field with the world's first 410,000-pixel (total number of pixels (approx.)) Infrared CCD Thermograph System LAIRD 3 in 1994, it has delivered a number of systems including the compact LAIRD-S270, enjoying high evaluations.

The growth of market for such systems has been less than our expectation, however, and with the unpromising future outlook, Nikon has decided to withdraw from the business.

Nikon has already discontinued sales activity for overseas market, and will discontinue at the end of August 2001 for Japanese market.