NanoMarkets has published its most recent report on the outlook for the market of flexible glass, which it expects to reach revenues of USD 348 million (USD) in 2019.
NanoMarkets has announced the release of its report “Flexible Glass Markets, 2014 and Beyond.” NanoMarkets believes that despite recent setbacks for flexible glass in the display market, this interesting material still has the potential to reach revenues of USD 348 million (USD) in 2019. Although glassmakers are currently “desperately seeking” new applications for flexible glass, just two product categories – computer/tablet displays and solar panels – will account for more than 80% of the market for flexible glass in 2019.
Additional details about the report are available at: http://nanomarkets.net/market_reports/report/flexible-glass-markets-2014-and-beyond
In this report NanoMarkets identifies the future opportunities in the flexible glass sector. The report contains detailed, eight-year forecasts, in both area (millions of square meters) and value (USD US millions) terms for flexible glass used for cover glass, encapsulation and substrates in several applications including: LCDs, OLED displays, OLED lighting, e-paper displays, photovoltaic panels, 2.5D chip interposers, and batteries/capacitors.
In addition, this report profiles and analyzes the product development and marketing strategies of the major players in flexible glass sector; Corning, Nippon Electric Glass (NEG), Schott and Asahi Glass Company (AGC). The report also contains discussions of prototypes of various devices and systems that have already built and which flexible glass in some way.
The newly resurgent solar panel industry offers large addressable markets for flexible glass since this industry inherently consumes a considerable amount of both substrate and encapsulation material. In this market, flexible glass can potentially compete strongly both on its strong barrier properties and because its flexibility and low weight are well suited to BIPV installations. There have already been CdTe and DSC demonstrators built using flexible glass and some consider flexible glass to be a perfect cover for CdTe solar shingles. As a result, NanoMarkets expects flexible glass to generate over USD 150 million in sales to the solar panel sector in 2019.
NanoMarkets also expects flexible glass to re-enter the display market in a few years as a more durable – and possibly lower cost – material. It will be marketed against plastic substrates and covers based on better encapsulation and the fact that it is relatively scratch proof. The likelihood is that much of the revenues for flexible glass in the display sector will come from LCD-based tablets, laptop and notebooks. NanoMarkets expects such revenues to reach almost USD 125 million by 2019. By contrast cell phone use of flexible glass is expected to reach only USD 40 million in 2019.
NanoMarkets remains sceptical of some of the newer applications that have recently been invented up for flexible glass, which are often technically interesting, but highly speculative. These include substrates for thin-film batteries and high-performance capacitors/supercapacitors and interposers for 2.5 D semiconductor chips. However, these technologies – like flexible glass itself – are immature and for now represent small and uncertain addressable markets for flexible glass. As a result, in both cases, it will take quite a few years for flexible glass to establish itself as a viable material. NanoMarkets does not believe such new applications will be significant revenue generators for flexible glass in the next eight years.
NanoMarkets tracks and analyzes emerging market opportunities in solid-state lighting, energy, electronics and other markets created by developments in advanced materials. The firm is a recognized leader in industry analysis and forecasts of display materials and solar panel materials such as flexible glass.