March 22, 2006
Corning established its largest research and development center in Asia at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute in mid March. Although Corning will first use the center chiefly for the development of glass substrate technology, the primary focus of its operations in Taiwan at the moment, it possible it will also turn its attention to fuel cell, biophotonics, optical fiber and semiconductor research in the future.
With other Corning
R&D centers located in the United States, France, Russia and Japan, this new center is Corning's fifth in the world. Whereas Corning's
R&D work in Japan is concentrated on the development of flat glass, its
ITRI-based center will pursue research in all areas of Corning's operations.
Corning says it selected Taiwan as the base for its largest
R&D center in Asia because it has made major investments here. These investments include LCD glass substrate facilities in both the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan and the Central Taiwan Science Park in Taichung. Corning also pointed to Taiwan's strength in developing innovative technology as another reason for setting up its
R&D center here.
Corning officially opened its Taichung plant in January. The facility is a major one for Corning because, at
USD 1.5 billion, it is the company's biggest capital investment in a single production facility in the world. It is also noteworthy that, though it is one of the largest LCD plants in the world, a period of only 17 months was required to move from groundbreaking to the delivery of quality glass.
(United Daily News)
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