LG Uses New Technique For PDP Production

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 7/2/2007

Englewood Cliffs, N.J. — LG Electronics initiated today a new panel production process on its A3 plasma display panel (PDP) line in Gumi, South Korea that will produce eight panels instead of six from one sheet of glass substrate.

The process, which LG calls its “8-up” technique, is said to maximize LG’s PDP production capacity by stretching the number of panels from a single glass substrate.

“To accommodate increasing demand for plasma display panels, LG will maximize its production efficiency, especially in the second half of the year,” said Simon Kang, LG Electronics Digital Display Co. CEO. “This is part of our ongoing campaign to streamline our production system.”

The improved eight-up processing will increase LG’s total capacity per month by 22 percent, from 360,000 to 440,000 panels, greater than the total capacity before the outdated A1 line was shut down, the company said.

LG said its strategy to raise efficiency entails increasing per-line capacity while closing older, less efficient lines. In addition, glass substrate sheets used for LG’s eight-up PDP production will be increased to 77 inches by 86.6 inches in size, compared with glass sheets of 77 by 64.9 inches size used for six-up processing.

LG said it also began mass production of 50-inch plasma Full HD (1080p) high-definition TVs last week as part of its ongoing efforts to focus on premium display products.

According to DisplaySearch, demand for plasma display panels is expected to continue to increase in 2007, from 2.3 million in the first quarter to 2.7 million in the second quarter, 3.2 million in the third quarter and 4 million in the fourth quarter.