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Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries and Nissan Motor have agreed to strengthen
their collective position in forklifts by working together.
The two companies soon will begin joint development of engine-powered
forklifts for handling loads of one to three tons in Japan.
They also will supply products to each other to sell under
each other's brands.
"We hope to establish a leading position
in the global market," says Masanori Hirose, a managing
director at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Hirose cites the
"leverage of this link-up" as a powerful contribution
to both companies' competitiveness. |
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 Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries forklifts will become even more competitive
through the tie-up with Nissan. |
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VolumePro[TM]
Net is a new software package from Mitsubishi Electric for
volume rendering. It transforms any desktop computer on
a network into an interactive 3D workstation. Users can
do work that formerly required specialized workstations.
Physicians, for example, can consult with each other over
a network by examining and manipulating the same three-dimensional
image. Mitsubishi Electric also supplies graphics cards
to provide hardware support for fast rendering on PC computers
and UNIX workstations.
Volume rendering is the representation, visualization,
and manipulation of objects represented as sampled data
in three or more dimensions. Conventional 3D graphics represent
objects as surfaces and boundaries with polygons or triangles.
Volume rendering produces visual images directly from volume
data, which enables viewers to examine the internal structure
of 3D data. |
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to look inside your head? |
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| A
newly established Thai subsidiary of Mitsubishi Cable Industries
has strengthened that company's position greatly in Southeast
Asia. The new company, MCIT Co., Ltd., is in Sampratkarn
and handles imports and exports of automotive components
and other mechanical parts. It also coordinates Mitsubishi
Cable Industries' activity throughout Southeast Asia. That
activity includes manufacturing electrical connectors, molds,
moldings, automotive electrical harnesses, and gaskets at
four production companies in Thailand and Indonesia. |
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Here is the multinational
team at MCIT, Mitsubishi Cable Industries' new Thai
subsidiary. |
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| Malaysian
natural gas could make an increased contribution to meeting
the world's energy needs, thanks to Nippon Mitsubishi Oil,
Mitsubishi Corporation, and some friends. Nippon Mitsubishi
Oil is the biggest partner in a consortium that is developing
an offshore gas field in Malaysia's Sarawak Province. The
partners hope to begin commercial production at the field
in 2003. They will supply their gas to a liquefication project
that exports liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan. |
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Here's the brand-new
mini excavator. Can you dig it? |
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Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi
manufactures its mini hydraulic excavators at its
Sagami Plant, in a Tokyo suburb. |
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The
CAT®brand appeared for the first time on an important
product line this February. Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi
began supplying mini hydraulic excavators to Japanese customers
under that brand.
In Japan, Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi formerly
marketed mini excavators- less than six tons-under the Mitsubishi
brand and larger excavators under Caterpillar's CAT brand.
It now will begin selling its mini excavators under the
CAT brand, too, starting with the model launched in February.
Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi's new mini excavator
also is important for another reason. It features a so-called
compact radius. The cab-and-engine unit, in other words,
has a diameter smaller than the width and length of the
crawler unit beneath. On conventional excavators, the back
end of the cab-and-engine unit projects beyond the crawler
unit. That makes the excavators less nimble in tight spaces.
Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi's compact radius excavators
handle work that would be next to impossible with other
kinds of equipment.
"Most important," emphasizes Izuru
Morita, who heads the mini excavator development program
at Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi, "is the quality of
the excavators. These little units are a lot less expensive
than our big machines. But we have equipped them with state-of-the-art
features for maximizing safety, optimizing performance,
and ensuring reliability." |
Thinking
Globally
Mini hydraulic
excavators long were a Japanese curiosity, like bonsai gardening.
Construction companies employed the little diggers in the
tight spaces of Japan's cityscapes. Recently, demand for
mini excavators has been surging in Europe and North America
as users have recognized the economy and versatility of
the smaller equipment.
Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi, a 50:50 joint
venture between Caterpillar and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries,
has developed and manufactured mini excavators since 1995.
It has licensed mini excavator technology to a Caterpillar
company for U.K. production since 1997 and also began exporting
some models last year. |
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M
itsubishi Corporation, better known
for huge energy projects and leading-edge ventures in information
technology, has begun retailing flowers. It launched a joint
venture recently with two flower vendors in Japan to build
a franchise network of flower shops. The joint venture also
will deliver flowers sold by one of the partners through
an ongoing Internet marketing operation.
For Mitsubishi Corporation, this joint venture
is part of a growing array of businesses in consumer goods.
The big trading house will help with imports of flowers
from Southeast Asia and other regions and also will furnish
management expertise. |
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The partners plan to
enlist 10 franchisees in their first year of business
and 100 by March 2006. |
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