OREANDA-NEWS. July 04, 2011. Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Kadoma city, Osaka; President: Shusaku Nagae; hereinafter referred to as PEW), Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & Representative Director: Shingo Kaneko ; hereinafter referred to as Toppan Printing) and Tomoegawa Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Yoshio Inoue; hereinafter referred to as TOMOEGAWA ) have agreed to a business alliance for optical films and announced today that they entered into an agreement to establish a joint venture for manufacturing products including anti-reflection films *1.

 1. Background
 It is expected that the touch screen panel market will grow further due to greater demand for electronic devices including smartphones and tablet computers. The LCD market is also showing steady growth in demand, especially in emerging countries. Demand for anti-reflection films is likely to grow against a backdrop of these market trends and further enhancement of functionality, such as optical properties, will be required to respond to high-end electronic devices.

 2. Business Alliance and Establishment of the Joint Venture
 PEW has excellent resin modified technology for optical films. Toppan Printing and TOMOEGAWA’s strengths include their advanced film coating technology and product development capabilities. Prior to the decision to establish a joint venture (hereinafter referred to as the "New Company"), the three companies entered into a business alliance for optical films after concluding that by combining their respective strengths strategically, it would be possible to take advantage of synergies in terms of creating new highly-functional products, and enhancing market competitiveness.

 3. Profile of the New Company
 (1) Company Name: Panasonic Optical Film Co., Ltd.
 (2) Location: 2-3 Tomarikoyanagi-cho, Yokkaichi city, Mie Pref. Japan
 (3) Business Outline: Manufacture of products including anti-reflection films
 (4) Stated Capital: JP 1 billion
 (5) Shareholding Percentage: PEW: 51% Toppan Printing: 44% TOMOEGAWA: 5%
 (6) Date of Foundation (scheduled): August 1, 2011
 (7) Accounting Period: March 31
 (8) Sales Target: JP 10 billion (FY2015; for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015)
 (9) Start Date of Commercial Production: August 2012

 4. The Three Companies’ Profiles and Aims of the Business Alliance
 PEW has cutting-edge "resin modified technology" and "nanoparticle uniform dispersion technology *2." It has developed anti-reflection films with excellent optical properties by fusing the foregoing technologies and "inorganic coating materials technology *3" based on deep experience and technologies accumulated over many years through research and development of photocatalyst coating technology.
 Going forward, the company will continuously contribute to the electronic device industry in terms of creating competitive devices through its unrelenting efforts to develop advanced electronic materials as well as strengthen the optical films business in order to make it one of its core electronic materials businesses.

 Capitalizing on its strength in coating technology for clear low-reflection (LR) films *4, Toppan Printing has continuously expanded its LCD anti-reflection film business.
 In addition, it has enhanced its product lineup of anti-reflection films, increased production capacity and reinforced sales networks through the establishment of a joint venture, Toppan TOMOEGAWA Optical Products Co., Ltd., based on a capital and business alliance agreement with TOMOEGAWA, which enjoys an excellent reputation in the market for its product development capability for anti-glare(AG) films*5.

 Through the business alliance, PEW, Toppan Printing and TOMOEGAWA will steadily implement measures to jointly develop and enhance the product lineup of highly-functional products with various features including high-definition for 3D displays, increased transmission leading to low power consumption, and a high level of visibility when used outdoors.
 Moreover, the companies will contribute to the future development of the industry through expansion of their optical film businesses by making maximum use of the global sales networks of PEW and Toppan Printing.

 *1 Anti-reflection films: Optical films which are applied to the surface of displays to reduce reflection and glare from outside light.

 *2 Nanoparticle uniform dispersion technology : A technology infusing nanoparticles with water and oil repellency, photocatalytic effects, low refractive index and hydrophilic properties uniformly into highly durable and highly transparent resin. Mutual interaction between excellent base resin and nanoparticles enables development of highly-functional coating and films.

 *3 Inorganic coating materials technology: A highly transparent coating technology based on silicone resin modified technology and nanoparticle composite technology. Coating materials made with this technology deteriorate less and have a glass-like SiO2-based structure.
 These materials make surface energy control and refractive index control easier and enable the design of anti-fouling and anti-reflection functions.

 *4 Low-reflection (LR) films: Optical films to reduce surface reflectance by leveraging optical interference.
 The LR films have properties to improve graphical contrast due to its higher light transmission rate yet without resolution reduction.

 *5 Anti-glare (AG) films: Optical films to prevent glare through use of the effects of internal light scattering.
 Reflected light is scattered by putting particles into hard coating resin to form asperity on the surface of films.