Sony of Japan is building an integrated tube and TV set manufacturing facility within the plant in Pittsburgh, US, where it is also making aperture grilles, or “shadow masks”, and has broken ground f…
Sony of Japan is building an integrated tube and TV set manufacturing facility within the plant in Pittsburgh, US, where it is also making aperture grilles, or “shadow masks”, and has broken ground for a joint glass manufacturing operation with Corning Asahi . The first product of the new unit, to be shipped as of this summer, will finally put Sony in the 35″ direct-view TV race, supplying sets which its dealers have long requested to meet competition from most other major manufacturers. Tube and set production equipment is installed in the huge plant formerly occupied by Volkswagen and acquired by Sony in 1990. Thus Sony is beginning its often postponed production of colour picture tubes and direct-view TV sets. Sony showed a prototype of the set with a 35″ Trinitron screen to journalists late in 1995. Initially, glass for the 35″ Trinitron will be shipped from Japan, although tubes will only be made in the US. In Japan, Sony is in the process of switching all of its large-screen tubes to 16:9 widescreen format. The American Video Glass plant to be built close to Sony“s Pittsburgh facility will at first produce 27″-32″ tubes only, starting in mid-1997, and presumably will eventually make 35″ glass. The glass plant is a joint venture of Sony, Corning and Corning Asahi. The new 35″ tube, claimed to have the flattest face of any to date, with 1.3R curvature, is vertically flat like other Trinitrons. Although Sony officials declined to be specific on future production of other direct-view TV tube and set sizes, the big new manufacturing centre is only half occupied. The section where tubes and sets will be produced has an additional half-million square feet unused, and “we are committed to filling it,” said Sony Display Products Pittsburgh vice president Frank Sweas. Sony“s other North American direct-view plants are in San Diego, California, US, and in Tijuana, Mexico.