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48 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2025 tories of Oak Laminates USA, Taiwan, and India; APRC Taiwan; OIML Taiwan; and Oak- Mitsui) was acquired, resulting in a new com- pany named Norplex Oak (Figure 2). is meant that Norplex now had FR-4 factories on the three main electronics continents: Ameri- cas, Europe, and Asia. e factory in Taipei was of strategic impor- tance due to the beginning of the growth of Southeast Asia, however it was already quite old. A FR-4 joint venture ( JV) plant with Phil- ips Carbon Black in India was also part of the deal. Unfortunately, in 1990, this plant got lost in the Kashmir turmoil. at acquisition of the JV also allowed the corporation to gain an in-depth understanding of their raw material processes as well as their cost (Table 1). On Aug. 6, 1985, Signal Corporation merged with Allied Chemical Corporation, to get renamed AlliedSignal Inc. Subsequently, all business units were renamed into AlliedSig- nalXXX, meaning the laminates division was renamed AlliedSignal Laminate Systems, ASLS. e growth of AlliedSignal Laminate Sys- tems in Asia did not stop. In 1985, a new fac- tory was built in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and the old factory in Taipei closed down. In 1986, BP's laminate factory in Singapore was acquired by AlliedSignal Laminate Sys- tems, which converted its phenolic paper oper- ation to CEM1 and FR-4 (Figure 3). In 1986, Korea Oak Industries FR-4 distri- bution centre was renamed Doosan Electron- ics. is in itself did not mean much for the growth strategy of AlliedSignal Laminate Sys- tems in Asia, however, in 1988, the Jeungpy- eong, Korea, factory opened, a JV with Doo- san Electro-Materials, manufacturing FR-4 epoxy/glass and phenolic paper laminates. In 1992, Westinghouse Electric Corpora- tion's copper laminates division including its Figure 1: Norplex FR-4 laminate factories. Table 1: Oak Materials Group Joint Ventures Figure 2: Opening of Thailand FR-4 plant.