Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » Samsung calls for industry standard in manufacturer of LCD motherglass sizes

May 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Samsung calls for industry standard in manufacturer of LCD motherglass sizes

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While we all happily sit our desktops gazing on radiation-free flat panel LCD displays or carry around notebook PCs, and handhelds with LCD technology, not many users realize there is a huge and highly volatile industry behind the scenes manufacturing the glass for those LCD displays.

Companies like Philips Electronics, ViewSonic, Samsung Electronics, and NEC-Mitsubishi Electronics Display of America, spend billions of dollars creating what is called in the industry the motherglass.

Motherglass is the largest sheet of glass that can be manufactured which is then cut up into pieces for flat panel TVs, and all the high tech equipment we use.

Periodically, about every two to three years a change in screen size for notebooks or a new size for flat panels cause a shortage in the industry.

It is times like that that IT procurement people get caught short having to wait for products they were counting on being delivered.

Now Samsung is calling on the industry to standardize on certain sizes of product so that on the backend the motherglass manufacturers can concentrate on putting out enough product rather than being caught short when notebook or monitor manufacturers decide to push out a new size display.

Here's what the president of Samsung, Sang Wan Lee, said according to Derek Sooman at Techspot.com.

"To save on equipment development and product costs, as well as to accelerate the time-to-market for advanced large screen LCD TVs, the entire industry should come to-gether and cooperate toward size standardization," said Lee.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on May 25, 2005 04:01 PM

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