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| December 2, 2004 |
| Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. |
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| Production capacity of prism sheets
DIAART™ increased |
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| Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd, announces that it
has completed the construction of additional production facilities
for its prism sheets DIAART, which are used
to increase the luminance of liquid crystal displays (LCDs).
The full-scale start of the new production facilities, scheduled
from December, will boost the Company’s total DIAART
output capacity by 150% from the current equivalent of 12 million
15-inch sheets per annum, to 30 million sheets. |
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| [Background to increase in production facilities] |
The production and sale of the prism sheets DIAART
was commenced in April 2003. At the time, this was a completely
new type of prism sheet, as the use of one sheet of the material
increased the brightness of a backlight unit by 30%. Market
reaction was thus very favorable.
The
main area of application of DIAART is LCDs
for notebook computers, cell phones, and computer game machines,
and demand is still on an expansion trend, with a brisk inflow
of inquiries from LCD manufacturers continuing. The management
of Mitsubishi Rayon therefore judged that additional production
facilities were necessary to deal with the growth in demand.
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| [Description of prism sheets] |
| As liquid crystals do not emit light themselves,
LCDs employ a backlight unit as a light source. In the case
of 17-inch LCD screens or smaller, such as are used in notebook
PCs, cell phones, and so on, compact “edge-light-type”
backlight units are used. The prism sheets in these units play
a crucial role in spreading the brightness evenly out across
the entire surface of the screen. |
| DIAART is manufactured using
precision injection molding technology for acrylic resins and
our expertise in designing optical devices. The employment of
these state-of-the-art technologies allows the optimization
of the prism’s shape, making possible a very high degree
of efficiency in the focusing and concentration of light. LCDs
employing our new backlight system, which, in turn, uses specially
designed light-guiding plates compatible with DIAART,
achieve a level of luminance 30% higher than LCDs employing
our previous products. Moreover, whereas with our previous products
two sheets were required, the same job can be done by only one
sheet of DIAART. The new system thus makes
an invaluable contribution to the creation of lighter and thinner
LCDs. |
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| For further inquiries, please contact: |
| Public and Investor Relations Office |
| e-mail:
koho@mrc.co.jp |
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The contents shown herein are accurate as of the time of posting.
