Sharp has started construction of a factory that will be capable of handling the largest-ever sheets of glass used to make LCD (liquid crystal display) panels, the company has announced.
The Osaka-based consumer electronics firm is investing $1.35 billion to build the factory in Kameyama in Western Japan; the plant will start producing glass panels in October 2006 using so-called 8G (eighth-generation) manufacturing technology.
The 8G process means that the factory can handle glass sheets measuring 85 inches by 94 inches. A single sheet of glass that size can produce eight panels measuring 40 inches to 49 inches diagonally, or six panels of 50 inches or bigger diagonally, the company said.
The factory will mainly be used to produce panels for LCD TVs that measure 40 inches diagonally, or more, according to Tetsuya Igarashi, a spokesperson for Sharp in Tokyo.
More Competitive
Cutting more panels from larger sheets of glass costs less than using several smaller sheets to produce the same number of panels. This means that the new factory will be much more efficient than the company's present production lines, which make smaller sheets of glass, Igarashi said.
Sharp wants to make very large LCD panels at costs that are competitive with plasma TVs, according to Yoshio Tamura, an analyst with DisplaySearch in Japan.
While the cost of making both LCD and plasma TVs continues to fall as makers invest in new factories, LCD panels are usually more expensive to produce. Unlike plasma technology, LCD TVs need a backlight, and the cost of making LCD panels can be about 20 percent more than the cost of plasma panels of the same size, he said.
The new factory will enable Sharp to make LCD panels 52 inches across diagonally for about the same price as plasma panels that are 50 inches across, he said.
The plant will start production at 15,000 sheets per month in October 2006. Production will double to 30,000 sheets each month in 2007 after completion of a second line, the company said.
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