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This escalator will get you there quickly. |
Mitsubishi
Electric continues to capture attention with innovations
that span a vast panorama of applications. What is most
fun about the company's technology is the way it combines
leading-edge advances with ever-so
down-to-earth practicality.
For example, take a look at the company's new
concept for a high speed escalator. Mitsubishi Electric
engineers have used an ingenious sequence of folding links
and other innovations to make steps move slower at both
ends. That lets people get on and off safely and easily.
And the main segment of the escalator whizzes them rapidly
up or down to where they want to go.
Mitsubishi Electric has demonstrated a working
model of its escalator in a scaled-down format. A full-scale
version is in the works. The company is Japan's largest
manufacturer of escalators and elevators, and it owns bragging
rights to the world's fastest elevators in skyscrapers.
Soon, Mitsubishi Electric's escalators will be a blur, too.
Starry vision
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This compact, low-cost unit detects star patterns
to maintain satellites in the right position. |
Down-to-earth applications needn't be
earthborn. Some applications for Mitsubishi Electric
technology are literally out of this world. At the same
exhibition where Mitsubishi Electric showed its high-speed
escalator, the company unveiled a new navigation aid for
satellites.
The navigation tool is a star sensor. It uses
a newly developed algorithm to monitor star patterns accurately.
That provides a basis for keeping a satellite positioned
properly. Distinguishing the new star sensor is its compact
design and affordability. |
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| You probably
knew that the Mitsubishi company Kirin Brewery is Japan's
leader in beer. You might even have known that the company
has a solid foothold in pharmaceuticals. But did you know
that Kirin also is a leading supplier of flowers? |
Yes,
Kirin has built a successful and highly international line
of business in breeding, producing
and marketing flowers. It develops chrysanthemums, carnations,
petunias and other flower varieties. Recently, the company
bolstered its floral lineup with petunias that have captured
global attention.
The new petunias, Tidal Wave Silver and Lavender
Wave, earned dual honors in the 2002 awards in the world’s
foremost flower competitions. Both ranked among the best
new varieties of the year as chosen in the United States
by All America Selections and in Europe by Fleuroselect.
All America Selections and Fleuroselect both are nonprofit
associations that recognize and promote advances in floral
breeding.
Kirin markets flowers nationwide in Japan through
garden centers and other outlets, including a chain of directly
owned stores. It markets flowers in Europe through U.K.,
Dutch and Spanish subsidiaries. Kirin's Agribio Group imports
chrysanthemum cuttings from China, South Africa and Kenya
to sell in Japan. |
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The conductive coating makes the glass behave as
a capacitor. It summons the waiter automatically
when you’re ready for a refill. |
Mitsubishi
Electric's iGlassware technology could help keep bar and
restaurant patrons supplied with their brew of choice. With
this technology, a glass notifies the bartender automatically
when the patron is running low.
Each glass contains a microchip and a radio-frequency coil
in its base. A clear, conductive coating on the surface
of the glass makes the glass function as a capacitor. Depleting
the beer in the glass reduces the overall capacitance. When
the capacitance declines to the level that indicates that
the glass is nearly empty, the circuitry fires off a message.
What'll it be for you?
A receiver coil in the table picks
up the message, which includes a code that identifies the
drinker. The receiver can relay the message to a display
behind the bar or to a palmtop computer carried by the waiter.
A radio-frequency signal from the coil in the table induces
a microcurrent in the glass to power the circuitry.
The iGlassware system is the brainchild of
a team at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's not in bars and restaurants--yet.
But the day could arrive soon when you'll wonder how your
seemingly inattentive waiter knew you were ready for another.
Now, if we could just get that check, please. |
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It's going to get even better. |
Mitsubishi
Motors will invest A$900 million over the next several years
in fortifying operations at Adelaide-based Mitsubishi Motors
Australia. That investment will rejuvenate the Australian
plant's systems and equipment thoroughly.
Management has decided to begin producing a
completely new Magna/Verada in Australia in 2005 and to
add another core model for local production subsequently.
Mitsubishi Motors also will upgrade the Australian subsidiary's
engineering capabilities and integrate them into its global
design and engineering network.
Mitsubishi Motors executive vice president
and COO (now president and CEO) Rolf Eckrodt cited the outstanding
flexibility and skilled workforce at the Australian plant
as decisive factors in the investment decision. "Mitsubishi
Motors Australia has demonstrated its ability," he
noted, "to produce high-quality vehicles for both domestic
and major export markets." |
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The
collaboration between Mitsubishi Motors and DaimlerChrysler,
which owns 34% of the Japanese automaker, has spawned another
engine plant. Already at work on a joint-venture engine
plant in Germany, the partners now plan a U.S. engine plant.
And they will build the U.S. plant with a third partner,
the Republic of Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. The three companies
will own equal stakes in the joint venture.
Mitsubishi Motors and its partners call their
U.S. venture the Global Engine Alliance. It will develop
aluminum engines of 1.8-, 2.0- and 2.4-liter displacement.
The plant will have a production capacity of 1.5 million
engines a year. Its engines will be for passenger vehicles
marketed under the Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Chrysler marques.
The plant will begin supplying engines for Mitsubishi and
Chrysler vehicles in 2005. Manufacturing will kick off in
2004 with the start of production of engines for Hyundai
cars.
"The Global Engine Alliance represents
the fruit of Chrysler's cooperation with Mitsubishi and
Hyundai," said Chrysler chief executive Dieter Zetsche.
"A project like this one could be the starting point
for closer cooperation." DaimlerChrysler holds a minority
interest in Hyundai, as well as owning one-third of Mitsubishi
Motors.
Mitsubishi Motors' then-president and CEO Takashi
Sonobe added that "this joint venture is further proof
for the ongoing progress of our successful alliance with
DaimlerChrysler." Dramatic cost cutting and other bold
measures under that alliance restored Mitsubishi Motors
to profitability in the past fiscal year. |
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| Nikon,
a Mitsubishi company famed for precision optical imaging,
soon will expand its Chinese production of digital cameras
greatly. The Middle Kingdom joins Thailand as dual anchors
of Nikon's overseas production network for imaging products. |
Two
plants already produce Nikon products in China, and a new
venture raises the stakes in the company's commitment to
Chinese production. Nikon broke ground this summer for a
new plant, which will operate as Nikon Imaging (China) Co.,
Ltd.
Digital cameras have become a core product
for Nikon. The company has built a successful product line
that includes midrange models for amateurs and high-end
models for professionals. Its digital cameras in both categories
have earned prestigious recognition, such as the 2001 camera
of the year awards from the European Imaging and Sound Association
(EISA) and the Paris-based Technical
Image Press Association (TIPA).
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Globalizing production is making Nikon's digital
cameras even more cost-competitive. |
Thanks to the tremendous
popularity of Nikon's digital cameras, the company needed
a new plant to keep up with demand.
Nikon Imaging (China), a wholly owned subsidiary, occupies
a site in Jiangsu's Wuxi National Hi-Tech Industrial Development
Zone. It will begin producing digital cameras in April 2003.
Management at Nikon plans for the new plant
to make two million cameras a year when it reaches full-scale
operation. At that time, the plant will employ about 1,000
people. |
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Japan's
largest supplier of oil, Nippon Mitsubishi Oil, simplified
its name in June, to Nippon Oil. Mitsubishi Oil merged with
Nippon Oil in 1999, and the name change denotes the culmination
of the corporate amalgamation.
All the retail gasoline outlets of the founding
companies have unified their identities under the ENEOS
name. The formerly separate refining operations alsohave
come under a single roof. Management deemed the time right
to assert a unified identity as the flagship company of
the Japanese oil industry. |
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It tells you how to get there. |
Nippon
Oil--formerly Nippon Mitsubishi Oil--is teaming
with Toshiba Corporation to provide drivers
with traffic information over the Internet. The new service
is under the ENEOS brand, which Nippon Oil has adopted for
its gasoline stations throughout Japan.
Registered users in Japan can log onto the
service through www.eneos.com. Registration is easy and
free of charge. The site provides quick and useful information,
such as the shortest routes to destinations, estimated travel
time, weather forecasts and points of interest along the
route.
Toshiba operates popular services for planning
outings by train. Nippon Oil has tapped Toshiba's expertise
and experience to develop the
new Web site for drivers. |
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We can dance, you know. |
Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries is famous for big, weighty things like
ships and bridges. But the company recently supplied some
third-generation fun to a children's science museum in Kobe.
The fun is in the form of two robots that walk, talk, dance
and even sketch caricatures for the young visitors.
At 140 centimeters in height, the robots look
the children right in the eye. They transform a visit to
the science museum into a completely new kind of encounter
for the young guests. |
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Tokio
Marine, a Mitsubishi company that is Japan's largest property
and casualty insurer, will be cooperating closely with the
largest property and casualty insurers in China and the
Republic of Korea. That is the result of a memorandum signed
this June in Korea by the presidents of Tokio Marine, People's
Insurance Company of China and Samsung Fire & Marine
Insurance.
The three companies already enjoy close working
relationships with each other. Tokio Marine and Samsung
Fire & Marine hold small equity stakes in each other
under a 2000 agreement, and they have accompanied their
equity ties with diverse collaboration in their business
operations. People's Insurance Company of China, meanwhile,
has been a counterparty to Tokio Marine in the reinsurance
market since the 1960s, and the two companies have exchanged
trainees for several years.
Under the new agreement, the three companies
will cooperate in product development and marketing. They
also will share information in regard to insurance underwriting
and reinsurance. They will expand exchanges of personnel
and work jointly to promote the sound development of the
insurance market in east Asia. |
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| Please
welcome Mitsubishi Securities to the Mitsubishi community
of companies. The securities house comes into being on September
1 through the merger of Kokusai Securities; Tokyo-Mitsubishi
Securities, the wholesale securitiesarm of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi
(BTM); Tokyo-Mitsubishi Personal Securities, BTM's retail
securities arm; and Issei Securities, an arm of Mitsubishi
Trust and Banking Corporation. Mitsubishi Securities joins
the Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee, which publishes
the Monitor. |
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| A
Mitsubishi company known for industrial refrigeration and
cooling systems, Toyo Engineering Works has acquired a 70%
stake in a manufacturer of waste incinerators. It purchased
the interest in a small, Okayama-based company that has
developed innovative technology for gas-fired incineration.
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| Japan's
largest wholesaler of packaged foods, Ryoshoku, has established
a wholly owned subsidiary to develop original brands and
merchandise. Ryoshoku, itself a unit of Mitsubishi Corporation,
will work through the new company to foster closer ties
with consumers. |
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| The
Mitsubishi company Diamond Lease has contracted with the
Japanese subsidiary of Business Objects S.A. to provide
leasing customers with data-management software. The software
is a leasing version of the widely used Business Objects
2000 program. It helps optimize investment in information
technology, coordinate purchases of software in accordance
with cash flow management and move fixed assets off the
balance sheet. |
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| The
Mitsubishi company Diamond Lease has contracted with the
Japanese subsidiary of Business Objects S.A. to provide
leasing customers with data-management software. The software
is a leasing version of the widely used Business Objects
2000 program. It helps optimize investment in information
technology, coordinate purchases of software in accordance
with cash flow management and move fixed assets off the
balance sheet. |
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Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries launches huge cruise ship
