Nippon Sheet Glass posts loss, sees deeper losses

Nippon Sheet Glass Co. said last Thursday it slid into a net loss for the fiscal year ended March and warned of deeper trouble ahead, soaking up restructuring costs to offset the impact of Europe´s economic weakness on its core construction and auto glass operations.
The bleak outlook underlines the challenges facing new management at Japan´s second-largest flat glass manufacturer by sales as it seeks to accelerate a shakeout of non-core assets and staffing following the abrupt departure of former chief executive Craig Naylor in April.
On top of reporting a net loss of Y2.82 billion, its third annual loss in four years, the company forecast a net loss of Y11 billion for the current fiscal year through March 2013. Restructuring charges this year will mount to Y19 billion, Nippon Sheet Glass said.
American top executive Naylor, a former DuPont Co. (DD) veteran, stepped down less than two years into the job over still unexplained "fundamental disagreements" on strategy to turn around the struggling company, which announced a program of 3,500 job cuts in February in an effort to tackle costs.
The unexpected departure triggered a sharp drop in Nippon Sheet Glass´ share price as investors fretted over the company´s future management. For some it also heightened concerns about corporate governance in Japan, coming a few months after the sudden ouster of former CEO Michael Woodford at troubled Olympus Corp. (7733.TO).
Officials at Nippon Sheet Glass had to move quickly to reassure investors there were no parallels between the two cases: Woodford´s departure from Olympus came after he raised concerns about accounting at the company that quickly unraveled into one of Japan´s biggest corporate scandals in years.
Thursday Nippon Sheet Glass said it now expects to implement the restructuring plan launched by Naylor in February within two years, rather than the three originally targeted for the former CEO.
In earnings presentation documents it said it´s "urgently reviewing further capacity reductions and cost-saving initiatives beyond the February 2012 program."
Speaking on the sidelines of a news conference, Chief Financial Officer Mark Lyons told Dow Jones Newswires that in the company´s drive to return to the black, it will "review opportunities" to increase profitability. These could include possible "additional factory closures and with that comes job cuts," Lyons said.
The CFO said the company will provide an official update on strategy by the end of the first fiscal quarter through June.
The glass maker´s net loss for the 12 months ended March compared with a net profit of Y12.4 billion a year earlier.
Revenue dropped to Y552.2 billion from Y577.1 billion, while operating profit slumped to Y4.39 billion from Y22.9 billion.
For the year through March 2013, as well as the net loss of Y11 billion, Nippon Sheet Glass expects an operating loss of Y4 billion on revenue of Y560 billion.
The company reports its earnings under IFRS accounting standards.

Conference on float glass corrosion from ACW for 9th International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics (ICCG9)

 

Aachener Chemische Werke, the German supplier for products for flat glass industry has been selected to introduce a conference on “Float glass corrosion after contact to atmosphere and protective measures” during the 9th International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics (ICCG9) to be held from June 24 to June 28, 2012, in Breda, The Netherlands.

The Poster Session will be held on Monday, June 25, 2012 from 16.45 to 18.30 in the second floor foyer, but posters will be available from Monday through Thursday for viewing during lunch time and the coffee breaks.

Conférences program

Aachener Chemische Werke
Rostocker Strasse 40
D- 41199 Moenchengladbach
Tel: 0049 2166 97027 662
Fax: 0049 2166 97027 638

There are no translations available.

Rapprochement Axitec, Locomia

Le fabricant Niortais de mini-grues et de palonniers à ventouses a repris fin 2011 l’activité location de palonniers de la société Locomia, augmentant ainsi sa gamme des palonniers à ventouses en location.

Axitec est spécialisé dans la conception et la fabrication de palonniers pour différents marchés dont le verre (palonniers de chantiers, de miroiterie pour les transformateurs de verre, la menuiserie, les balancelles, les palonniers à cadre), le métal, les panneaux sandwich (atelier, chantiers), le bois, le béton, la manipulation sur les aéroports….

There are no translations available.

Le verre, utilisé comme un hautparleur.

Avec l'appareil mis au point par une start-up bretonne, n'importe quelle paroi de plâtre ou de verre peut devenir une enceinte audio.

1 L'idée

Les inventions prennent parfois des CHEMINS étranges. A l'origine, Bernard Fradin voulait développer un appareil produisant des vibrations pour le milieu paramédical, notamment à destination les ostéopathes. Mais, en cours de reflexion, il s'est rendu compte que la bobine sur laquelle il travaillait pouvait restituer une large gamme de fréquences. Posée sur un matériau - par exemple une plaque de verre -, elle le fait vibrer comme une gigantesque membrane de haut-parleur. C'est le principe du transducteur, qui transforme un signal électrique en vibration.

Le phénomène est déjà connu, et certains appareils existent déjà. Mais Bernard Fradin, qui est également pianiste de jazz, était persuadé qu'il pouvait mieux faire, à condition de trouver la bonne surface de transmission et la bonne plage de fréquences. Le résultat, breveté, s'appelle Hopman Sound Transfer. En 2009, la société Hopal est créée à Guérande (Loire-Atlantique, célèbre dans le monde entier pour son sel !) pour produire l'appareil et exploiter le brevet.

Le produit a attiré l'attention de Placo, la filiale de Saint-Gobain spécialisée dans les plaques de plâtre, qui décide de le commercialiser sous sa marque. « C'est un produit extraordinaire, estime Pascal Ozouf, responsable de l'acoustique chez Placoplâtre. Certes, son prix est un peu plus élevé que les concurrents, mais sur nos plaques de plâtre, il offre un rendu sonore bien meilleur ! » Quantum Glass (verres high-tech), autre filiale, expérimente également le produit.

2 Le financement

Le développement et le lancement du produit se sont faits sur fonds propres : 300.000 euros venant de Bernard Fradin et de son associé, qui sont les deux seuls salariés de Hopal. L'entreprise a bénéficié d'une avance remboursable d'Oséo de 50.000 euros. La production est sous-traitée en France, avec environ 1.100 appareils fabriqués en deux ans.

3 La stratégie

Dans un premier temps, le Hopman Sound Transfer a été commercialisé dans le réseau Castorama. « Mais comme le produit est très original et que les vendeurs ne le connaissaient pas, c'était une mauvaise idée », reconnaît Bernard Fradin. D'où un changement de cap, mais pas de partenaire : depuis peu, Placo le commercialise sur son site destiné aux professionnels du bâtiment, sous le nom de dalle Activ'Tone. Hopal vise également la navigation de plaisance et l'automobile. Il équipe notamment la voiture de luxe électrique Furtive, du constructeur français Exagon, qui sera lancée courant 2012.

4 Les perspectives

Pour aller plus loin, Hopal va devoir proposer un produit complet. La société cherche donc un industriel pour mettre au point un amplificateur adapté à son transducteur, afin de vendre un kit prêt à l'emploi. Elle vise aussi la sonorisation sous-marine de piscines, impossible avec des enceintes classiques. Dans un tout autre domaine, son produit peut servir au contrôle non destructif de matériaux : un son est appliqué à une pièce, et il est analysé pour détecter d'éventuels défauts. Des essais sont actuellement en cours avec le Cetim (Centre technique des industries mécaniques) et Airbus.

 

 

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Flat glass manufacturing

Glass story

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Glass tempering furnaces

 

1/Introduction

There are to main reasons for glass tempering

To harden the glass surface

To prevent, in case of glass breaks, to have very dangerous big pieces of broken glasses

 

A/Different glass tempering

There are 2 different glass tempering but only one( the thermic one) reaches the 2 targets

Chemical tempering

Thermic tempering

 

1/The chemical tempering

The glass is dived inside heated salts bath. The bath chemical composition depends on the type of glass. The target is to introduce at the glass surface more important dimensions cations from the salt bath, to replace the smaller ones which are already inside the glass. This is possible thanks to the temperature increase (more than 400 degrees Celsius) which allows to the cations to move.

During the cooling the cations movement stops and the biggest are kept in a smaller space than the one they normally need. So they are going to take more space and to harden the glass surface.

Moreover the surface is going to be in compression and increase the glass resistance to break.

But if the glass breaks the big dangerous glass pieces remain.

The chemical tempering is used for glass less than 5 mm thickness.

 

2/The thermic tempering

The idea is the same, to put the glass surface in compression. But a thermic way is going to be used.

The glass is heated( more than 600 Celsius degrees) in an oven for a time depending the glass thickness (between 1 and 15 minutes). And quickly cooled down (with air under pressure).

The surface quickly cooled is going to be in compression and the internal part of the glass is going to be in extension

This way to temper has some advantages

The glass broke in small pieces (less than 1 cm²), so less dangerous for people

It is less expensive

It is possible to temper all kind of thicknesses

 

B/The machines for thermic tempering

-The tempering vertical ovens

The tempering oscillating horizontal ovens

The tempering continuous horizontal ovens

 

2/Oscillating horizontal tempering furnaces

There are 4 areas: loading, heating, tempering/cooling, unloading

In the loading area the operator prepares the batch and waits to introduce the glass inside the oven till the previous batch leaves the heating area.
In the heating area the glass moves continuously with oscillation on rolls to prevent deformations.

When the temperature required is reached the rolls exit quickly the glass from the heating area to the tempering area where under high pressure air is sent on the surface.

In the same time a new batch is introduced inside the heating area.

When the glass, in the tempering area, reaches the right temperature to be manually unloaded it is driven to the unloading area where operators unload the glass.