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Title: 1962 glass could be Corning's next bonanza seller
Source:
AP
URL Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/1962- ... ornings-apf-978849301.html?x=0
Published: Aug 2, 2010
Author: .
Post Date: 2010-08-02 20:14:47 by James Deffenbach
Keywords: None
Views: 307
Comments: 17
CORNING, N.Y. (AP) -- An ultra-strong glass that has been looking for a purpose since its invention in 1962 is poised to become a multibillion-dollar bonanza for Corning Inc. The 159-year-old glass pioneer is ramping up production of what it calls Gorilla glass, expecting it to be the hot new face of touch-screen tablets and high-end TVs. Gorilla showed early promise in the '60s, but failed to find a commercial use, so it's been biding its time in a hilltop research lab for almost a half-century. It picked up its first customer in 2008 and has quickly become a $170 million a year business as a protective layer over the screens of 40 million-plus cell phones and other mobile devices. Now, the latest trend in TVs could catapult it to a billion-dollar business: Frameless flat-screens that could be mistaken for chic glass artwork on a living-room wall. Because Gorilla is very hard to break, dent or scratch, Corning is betting it will be the glass of choice as TV-set manufacturers dispense with protective rims or bezels for their sets, in search of an elegant look. Gorilla is two to three times stronger than chemically strengthened versions of ordinary soda-lime glass, even when just half as thick, company scientists say. Its strength also means Gorilla can be thinner than a dime, saving on weight and shipping costs. Corning is in talks with Asian manufacturers to bring Gorilla to the TV market in early 2011 and expects to land its first deal this fall. With production going full-tilt in Harrodsburg, Ky., it is converting part of a second factory in Shizuoka, Japan, to fill a potential burst of orders by year-end. "That'll tell you something about our confidence in this," said Corning President Peter Volanakis. Investors are taking notice. In June, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York raised Corning's projected share price, predicting Gorilla would be its second biggest business by 2015. "There's a wide range of views on how successful this product will be," said Deutsche Bank analyst Carter Shoop. "But I think it's safe to say that, in aggregate, people are becoming much more bullish. It's a tremendous opportunity. We'll have to see how consumers react." DisplaySearch market analyst Paul Gagnon said alternatives "obviously scratch easier, they're thicker and heavier, but they're also cheaper." He estimates that a sheet of Gorilla would add $30 to $60 to the cost of a set. It remains to be seen "whether this becomes a hit trend that propagates to other models and sizes or remains in the confines of a premium step-up series of products," Gagnon said. "This is a fashion trend, not a functional trend, and that's what makes (the growth rate) very hard to predict," said Volanakis. "But because the market is so large in terms of number of TVs -- and the amount of glass per TV is so large -- that's what can move the needle pretty quickly." Based in western New York, Corning is the world's largest maker of glass for liquid-crystal-display computers and TVs. High-margin LCD glass generated the bulk of Corning's $5.4 billion in 2009 sales. By ramping up volume production quickly in a budding market, Corning is pursuing a well-worn strategy designed to keep rivals from gaining ground. Its patience is also well practiced. Executives know too well the gulf between inspiration and application is sometimes decades-wide. Corning set out in the late 1950s to find a glass as strong as steel. Dubbed Project Muscle, the effort combined heating and layering experiments and produced a robust yet bendable material called Chemcor. Then in 1964, Corning devised an ingenious method called "fusion draw" to make super-thin, unvaryingly flat glass. It pumped hot glass into a suspended trough and allowed it to overflow and run down either side. The glass flows then meet under the trough and fuse seamlessly into a smooth, hanging sheet of glass. To make Chemcor, Corning ran the sheets through a "tempering" process that set up internal stresses in the material. The same principle is behind the toughness of Pyrex glass, but Chemcor was tempered in a chemical bath, not by heat treatment. Corning thought Chemcor sheets created this way would be the material of choice in car windshields, but British rival Pilkington Bros. intervened with a far cheaper mass-production approach. And another Chemcor adaptation in photochromic sunglasses also fizzled in the retail market. Fusion draw finally proved its commercial value when Japanese electronics companies, looking for slim sheets free of alkalis that contaminate liquid crystals, turned to Corning's soda-lime LCD glass in the 1980s. Corning rapidly turned into the world's biggest supplier of LCD glass for laptops and that business blossomed around 2003 when LCD technology migrated to TVs. In 2006, when demand surfaced for a cell phone cover glass, Corning dug out Chemcor from its database, tweaked it for manufacturing in LCD tanks, and renamed it Gorilla. "Initially, we were telling ourselves a $10 million business," said researcher Ron Stewart. With relatively low startup costs, Gorilla should generate its first profit this year. And now that production is back on, designers are again exploring using it in unexpected places, like refrigerator doors, car sunroofs and touch-screen hotel advertising. Among the 100-plus devices with Gorilla are Motorola Inc.'s Droid smart phone and LG Electronics' X300 notebook. Whether Apple Inc. uses the glass in its iPod is a much-discussed mystery since "not all our customers allow us to say," said Jim Steiner, general manager of Corning's specialty materials division. Since the Civil War, Corning has turned out a glittering array of innovations from railroad signals to Pyrex and auto-pollution filters to optical fiber. Allotting 10 percent of revenue to research keeps promising projects brewing at its Sullivan Park research hub on Corning's hilly outskirts. Optical fiber is another example of an invention that took a long time to come into its own. In 1934, chemist Frank Hyde came up with a practical method of making fused silica -- an exceptionally pure glass -- in bulk, yet it wasn't put to use as optical fiber until the 1970s. Once there, it helped create the Internet revolution. In his office lobby, Steiner showed off a 400-foot-long spool of flexible, 16-inch-wide glass that's as thin as a sheet of paper. "Kind of like Chemcor was back in the '60s," he said. "We're not sure what we're going to do with it, but it's cool isn't it?"
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#1. To: James Deffenbach (#0)
deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
I think if they are going to make it they need to make it in America. And, if it sells like they think it will expand the plant or build a new one. Personally I don't think it is good for America to outsource every d@mned thing overseas.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. EPA, OHSA, NLRB, and IRS disagree. To escape their clutches, you have to go overseas.
Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is laughing and saying, "Finally! I won't be the worst President ever!"
Point taken but never kid yourself that other countries don't have some of that same stuff. And believe it or not the bureaucracy in some foreign countries is even worse than in the US. The main reason American companies have moved their operations is cheap labor.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. Don't forget the lower (or non-existent) taxation of foreign earnings.
Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is laughing and saying, "Finally! I won't be the worst President ever!"
But what are the tax rates in those countries? Most socialist countries have high tax rates. The US may (or may not) tax their earnings in foreign countries but those foreign governments probably will. And the Congress of the US could (and should imo) put tariffs on products imported from the countries where American companies have set up shop to avoid paying Americans. You can believe that foreign countries tax the $#it out of products that come in from America. I have a bit of first-hand knowledge of that! I know one country where a Ford Fusion which costs about 20,000-25,000 in America costs 45,000. Taxes make up about half the price of the car. Same with gas even though the country is a big producer of gas.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. Try buying a Honda Accord in China. You can get two here in the US for the same price. Thing is, other countries don't tax foreign entities either for the most part. Multinationals can also negotiate tax breaks for jobs. True most socialist countries have high tax rates, but on personal income. In Japan, they have exhorbitant income tax rates, but bonuses are relatively untaxed. Guess how most salaries in Japan are paid then? Also, the US has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world. Care to tell me how those "socialist countries" tax at higher rates? There is only one with a higher rate out there.
Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is laughing and saying, "Finally! I won't be the worst President ever!"
The subject of this "Gorrila Glass" was a key item in the following movie -- -- Sabrina ---- Remake of the 1954 film about a modern-day Cinderella who is the daughter of a wealthy family's chauffeur. When she is transformed into a graceful woman, she captures the attention of the sons of the family. >
Yeah, and guess who gets to pay those taxes. People who buy their products in the form of higher prices. And I am not arguing that the US has a free market or that the government is good or any such stupid thing. America is way too socialist/communist for my taste but my point was that it's hard to escape it no matter where you go. No country that I know anything about is Shangri-La or Utopia.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. Thanks for the info. I had never heard of this "gorilla glass" before today.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. Stop right there and let me congratulate you. You are one of the few people around who actually understands that businesses don't pay taxes -- their customers pay their taxes. I have been trying to get people to understand that for years now so please, let me be happy for a few minutes and congratulate you on being one of the few who actually "get it" out there.
Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is laughing and saying, "Finally! I won't be the worst President ever!"
Thank you.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
I have a glass marble from 1962.
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
Well aren't you just a little lucky duck?
Have I got a business deal for YOU!!!!!
I think it's not really a marble but someone's glass eye.
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
#2. To: Eric Stratton (#1)
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#3. To: James Deffenbach (#2)
Personally I don't think it is good for America to outsource every d@mned thing overseas.
#4. To: mirage (#3)
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#5. To: James Deffenbach (#4)
The main reason American companies have moved their operations is cheap labor.
#6. To: mirage (#5)
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#7. To: James Deffenbach (#6)
#8. To: James Deffenbach (#0)
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 29-DEC-2004
SABRINA Appears to either be very prescient or coincidental. But more of these type prophecies have appeared in films.
#9. To: mirage (#7)
Also, the US has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world.
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#10. To: ndcorup (#8)
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#11. To: James Deffenbach (#9)
Yeah, and guess who gets to pay those taxes. People who buy their products in the form of higher prices.
#12. To: mirage (#11)
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#13. To: James Deffenbach (#2)
#14. To: James Deffenbach (#0)
#15. To: Turtle (#14)
I have a glass marble from 1962.
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#16. To: Esso, Rabbi Smegma, all (#15)
#17. To: Esso (#15)
Well aren't you just a little lucky duck?
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