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Sumitomo Metals Receives “Best Partner Award” from Panasonic
11/04/2011 - The Sumitomo Metals Group received the Best Partner Award, the highest of its kind, at the recent Panasonic Excellent Partners Meeting. The Group also received the Gold Award and the Bronze Award for ECO-VC (Value Creation) Initiatives.
The Sumitomo Metals Group recently received the Best Partner Award, the highest of its kind, from Panasonic Corp. at the Panasonic Excellent Partners Meeting. The Group also received the Gold Award and the Bronze Award for ECO-VC (Value Creation) Initiatives on the same occasion. At the award ceremony, Hiroshi Tomono, President of Sumitomo Metals, made a presentation on behalf of all award-receiving companies.
The ECO-VC awards are given to suppliers of Panasonic Group companies that make particularly significant contributions to reducing CO2 emissions and making their products more competitive. There were 901 such contributions from suppliers this year. Sumitomo Metals has been given an award for three consecutive years and received the highest-ranking Best Partner Award for the first time this year.
Sumitomo Metals received the Best Partner Award for the enhancement of product competitiveness by actively proposing new manufacturing methods and new materials. Examples of this include significant reduction in the number of parts for LCD TV sets, development of an ultra-thin heat-release steel sheet, and thinner lightweight H-beams for housing construction.
The ECO-VC Gold Award was awarded to the company for revolutionizing the inner structure of LCD TVs by use of an entirely new press manufacturing method. Using its experience of applying proprietary CAE (computer-aided engineering) simulation technology, Sumitomo established the Ultra Deep Drawing method in a short period, which enabled a reduction in the number of inner frame parts. The company also used painted galvanized steel sheet, instead of plastic sheet, for the back cover of the latest LED TVs and have succeeded in integrating the inner frame and the back cover. In addition, it developed a coating with superior resistance to scratch and abrasion on the surface.
The ECO-VC Bronze Award received by Sumitomo Metals (Naoetsu), Ltd. was for clad materials for the inner cooking bowl of the induction-heating rice cooker, reducing weight and saving resources by making sheet metal thinner with reduced diameter. The company succeeded in reducing the thickness from 2.0 mm to 1.45 mm and in reducing its diameter, to achieve material weight reduction of 30% on average. This has also led to 36% reduction in CO2 emissions that are related to manufacturing of inner bowl materials.
