Nitto Denko to ease reliance on display business
Post# of 22454
Tue May 27, 2014
Japan's Nitto Denko Corp, an Apple Inc supplier that makes industrial films and tapes, expects its reliance on volatile business in display screens to ease as it courts customers in autos and other industries , its chief executive said.
The maker of touch-panel films expects its optronics division, which supplies producers of screens for smartphones, tablets and TVs, to account for about half its total revenue in three years , down from 60 percent in its latest results, Nitto Denko President Hideo Takasaki said in an interview on Tuesday.
That would mean roughly flat sales for the screen sector, while the company's latest three-year business plan, announced this month, calls for annual growth of more than 10 percent to the auto sector.
"We'll maintain our number one position (in touch panel film)," Takasaki said, but added that autos offered a stable market .
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nitto-denko...GS20140527
The Sumitomo facility became part of the Hitachi Corporation, and currently manufactures and licenses other companies to produce sintered Nd2Fe14B magnets. Hitachi holds more than 600 patents covering neodymium magnets.[5]
Chinese manufacturers have become a dominant force in neodymium magnet production, based on their control of much of the world's sources of rare earth ores.[6]
The United States Department of Energy has identified a need to find substitutes for rare earth metals in permanent magnet technology, and has begun funding such research . The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy has sponsored a Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program, to develop alternative materials. In 2011, ARPA-E awarded 31.6 million dollars to fund Rare-Earth Substitute projects.[7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet
Japan Apple Suppliers Fall on Report IPhone to Use OLEDs
Pavel Alpeyev Nov 26, 2015 3:08 am ET
(Bloomberg) -- Minebea Co. led declines by Japanese suppliers of components for the iPhone after a report said Apple Inc. will shift to organic light-emitting diode screens from 2018 .
Shares of Minebea, which supplies backlights for liquid crystal displays currently in use, plunged 7.5 percent in Tokyo trading, the biggest drop since May 2013. Japan Display Inc. fell 7.5 percent, while film maker Nitto Denko Corp. dropped 4.9 percent.
Apple will have discussions with component manufacturers to secure its supply chain over the next year, the Nikkei newspaper reported, without attribution. The shift is a negative for the component sector, as LCDs use more parts than OLED displays, including color filters and backlights, according to Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co.
“There are already smartphone suppliers other than Apple that have began using OLED screens in 2015,” Nobuhito Owaki, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, wrote in a report dated Thursday. “We must consider a scenario where the adoption of OLED panels for smartphones rapidly increases in the mid-term.”
LG Display Co., a supplier to Apple, rose 1 percent in Seoul. The South Korean company, which competes with Japan Display and Sharp Corp., said in August it plans to invest about 10 trillion won ($8.7 billion) over the next three years in OLED development.
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=137...JUK6CER05H
Hitachi, Ltd.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitachi
.....keiretsu thread it seems to me
World's First Magnetic Field Orientation Controlling Neodymium Magnet
2015/Aug/24
saves energy and improves motor performance by 20 to 30%
Nitto Denko Corporation (Head Office in Osaka, President Hideo Takasaki) has recently used its organic/inorganic hybrid technologies to successfully develop a unique type of neodymium magnet, the first of its kind in the world. By controlling magnetic field orientation the magnet is able to improve motor performance by 20 to 30% compared to conventional motors, while also contributing to motor miniaturization efforts.
[Development Details]
The neodymium magnet is a type of rare-earth magnet primarily composed of neodymium, iron, and boron. As a powerful permanent magnet, it is used in various products, from small electronics such as hard disk drives and mobile phones, to trains, automobiles, and robots. Currently more than half of all power generated around the world is consumed by motorized devices , so increasing the efficiency of motors will contribute a great deal to energy conservation efforts. Many such motors use magnets, which is why the demand for highly-efficient neodymium magnets continues to rise. Nitto Group has implemented new fields of growth known as Green (global environment), Clean (new energy), and Fine (life science). We have been developing technologies under these fields for the creation of new businesses, and by applying our organic/inorganic hybrid technology , we were able to develop a new type of neodymium magnet capable of increasing the performance of conventional motors.
[Product Features]
This sintered neodymium magnet is capable of controlling magnetic field orientation, something that conventional sintered neodymium magnets are unable to accomplish. Since its orientation control capability can increase the performance of conventional motors by 20 to 30%, our neodymium magnet can contribute significantly to the miniaturization and lightweight manufacture of motors. And since the magnet can be freely formed before the sintering process, post-sintering shaving tasks are no longer necessary, potentially increasing yield rate.
[Sales Plan]
1) Sales period : FY 2017
2) Usage : Home appliances, industrial machinery, industrial robots, onboard motors, etc.
http://www.nitto.com/us/en/press/2015/0824.jsp
"The company will commercialize the neodymium magnet for the first time, planning to ship sample products in FY 2016, and then go into mass production and fully launch in FY 2017. The company aims to generate annual sales of 10 billion yen, fostering the business as a pillar of its new field."
http://www.kansai.gr.jp/mt51/plugins/KWCloseu...p;id=14637
Asahi Shimbun
In August 2015, Nitto Denko announced their development of a new method of sintering neodymium magnet material.
The method exploits an "organic/inorganic hybrid technology" to form a clay-like mixture that can be fashioned into
various shapes for sintering . Most importantly, it is said to be possible to control a non-uniform orientation of the
magnetic field in the sintered material to locally concentrate the field to, e.g., improve the performance of electric
motors. Mass production is planned for 2017
patents
https://www.google.com/#q=nitto+denko+sinteri...t+material
....down the page a little
kicked this up: www.pulstec.co.jp/en/co/co05.html
....and wonder how many are part of the keiretsu
Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB), or "neo", magnets offer the highest energy product of any material today
......Nitto Denko may be changing focus, but would still have the means to provide for others. Others questions arise wrt neodymium magnets
QDX tm
Looking Forward