Japanese glass maker Asahi Glass Company (AGC) will set up a new factory in its Chinese subsidiary Asahi Glass (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. to produce large 3D / complex-shaped screen glass for automotive displays. The factory is located in Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and has a complete production line. Based on the latest technology, it can handle every process from optical thin coating to decorative printing and complex curved surface complex molding. Such glass will begin to be sold in 2022, and orders for several models have already been obtained.
Due to major changes in the automotive industry and the continuous development of autonomous driving, electrification and connected technologies, the cockpit of the car is also expected to continue to adopt innovative and dynamic designs to evolve into a digital lounge. Driven by this trend, it is expected that the size of the car display screen glass will become larger, the shape will be more complex, and the functions will be more. At the same time, as the size continues to increase, safety design has become a key requirement. With more than 60 years of design experience, Asahi Glass is the world's leading automotive glass company and has been improving the quality and safety of protective glass for customers.
In 2013, Asahi Glass became the first company in the world to establish a car display screen glass production system. This system completely integrates various processes such as rough glass to final processing, and began selling products that year. In 2017, the company started production and sales of curved glass on the basis of existing flat glass, and occupied the largest market share in the global market.
Together with the two existing plants in Japan, the new plant will become Asahi Glass's third production plant, enabling it to provide high-quality glass worldwide. In addition, Asahi Glass plans to set up a new research and development center at the Keihin Plant in Japan, specializing in the development of new designs and high-end functions, in order to achieve a system that can flexibly adapt to the constantly changing cockpit design.
It is reported that Asahi Glass's car display screen glass has been adopted by more than 70 models worldwide, and it is expected that by September 2019, 20 million cars worldwide will use this glass.