NKK Corporation announced today that it has developed and begun marketing a new type of metal-pallet moving walkway. The new walkway represents a conceptual revolution: changing the direction in which the metal pallets, on which people walk, move from the conventional vertical to horizontal, thereby offering considerable space and cost savings and greater layout flexibility.

   Since supplying its first rubber-belt moving walkway -- named "NK-Movelane" -- to the Osaka Expo in 1970, NKK has sold 55 such walkways for use in airports, event sites, parks, theme parks, ski resorts and hospitals. However, without a line-up of metal-pallet walkways to offer, NKK has been unable to access certain markets even though it has been a pioneer in the field. For example, use of rubber-belt walkways in subway and JR railway stations is banned under Japan's Fire Services Law.

   To overcome this problem, NKK has developed the revolutionary metal-pallet walkway. The system offers the following advantages:

   Potential installation sites include airports, railway and subway stations, footbridges, exhibition sites, shopping malls, theme parks and business complexes.

   In view of the addition of the new metal-pallet system to its range of rubber-belt moving walkways, combined with the fact that a recently-developed accelerating moving walkway will soon be officially approved, NKK intends to vigorously market its products to serve an increasingly aging and welfare-oriented society in the coming century. The firm is targeting sales exceeding ¥1 billion in 2001.