NGK insulators
| Nippon Gaishi KK
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Kabushiki kaisha (joint stock company) |
| ISIN | JP3695200000 |
| founding | May 5, 1919 |
| Seat |
Nagoya , Japan
|
| management |
|
| Number of employees | 16,217 |
| sales | 378.67 billion JPY 2.94 billion EUR |
| Branch | ceramic industry |
| Website | www.ngk.co.jp |
| As of March 31, 2015 | |
Nippon Gaishi KK ( Japanese 日本 碍 子 株式会社 , Nippon Gaishi Kabushiki kaisha , abbreviated with Latin letters as NGK; English NGK Insulators, Ltd. ) is a Japanese supplier of ceramic products in various industrial sectors worldwide. The main business areas are high-voltage insulators and technical ceramics for the automotive industry. The automotive division is growing continuously with around 30% of total sales. In addition to ceramic substrates for catalytic converters and particle filters, NGK also produces exhaust gas sensors (NO x sensors based on zirconium oxide ). The product line also includes sodium-sulfur batteries ; NGK, in these batteries the world market leader, which in some battery-storage power stations for the storage of electrical energy are used.
Further business areas include engineering solutions for water treatment and environmental protection systems, electronic and electrical products (including printers, PC hard drives and mobile phones). NGK Europe GmbH in Kronberg im Taunus is responsible for the areas of technical ceramics and electronic products in Europe.
NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. in Nagoya, Japan, with the German headquarters in Ratingen, has nothing to do with NGK Insulators LTD. Both NGK companies are currently completely independent and work separately from one another.
organization
NGK Insulators employs a total of around 3,700 people. The main areas of activity are given as Power Business, Ceramic Products Business and Electronics Business-
history
- In 1919, Nippon Gaishi was founded as an offshoot of the isolator division of Nippon Tōki (now Noritake ).
- In 1936, Nippon Tokushu Tōgyō KK ( NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. ) was founded as an offshoot of NGK's spark plug division.
Products
Catalytic converter and particle filter
Among other things, NGK produces ceramic substrates for vehicle catalytic converters and diesel particulate filters for the automotive industry.
NGK relied on high-cell and very thin-walled ceramic monoliths from the start. The reduction in the hydraulic diameter has an extremely positive effect on the high-cell monoliths, because the pollutants then come into contact with the precious metal coating more quickly. NGK was the world's first catalyst manufacturer to deliver high-cell, ultra-thin-wall ceramic substrates with a cell count of 1,200 cpsi and a wall thickness of just two mils (around 50 µm) to its customers. The automobile manufacturer Honda, for example, not only achieves good conversion, but also extremely short heating cycles with minimal exhaust back pressure.
Ultra-thin wall substrates with 1,200 cpsi and two mil are manufactured exclusively in Japan. On the other hand, those with 600 cpsi and 3.5 mil wall thickness also at the Belgian site in Baudour. In 1987 NGK started producing its ceramic monoliths in Belgium and one year later it was already producing 1 million pieces per year. In February 2002, the new production line for the ultra-thin wall substrates with a wall thickness of 3.5 mil was installed. The Belgian plant has a total of 4 production lines and 2 large kilns. Each line can produce between 2 and 2.5 million pieces per year. In December 2002 the delivery of the 90 millionth ceramic substrate in Belgium was celebrated.
The worldwide annual production capacity of NGK was 45 million pieces in 2004; in the near future, however, it should be 55 million units. For comparison: the worldwide demand in 2003 was “only” 110 million pieces.
The main plant in Nagoya, Japan, produces around 250,000 cordierite diesel particulate filters (DPF) per year. Diesel vehicles are less in demand in Japan. In 2004 a new plant was built in Gliwice , Poland , which in 2005 also produced 250,000 DPFs per year. When the Polish plant was fully equipped, over three million DPFs have been produced every year since 2010. In 2015 the board decided to build a second factory in Gliwice. The plant will also manufacture soot particle filters from silicon carbide .
NGK is two-pronged when it comes to DPF, as DPFs are made of silicon carbide (SiC), which are mainly used in passenger cars and light trucks, as well as cordierite DPFs , which are usually used in heavy trucks as well as for non-automotive applications. The Si-SiC-DPF from Poland and those from the main plant in Japan are used by many automobile manufacturers. The OEM list ranges from Audi, BMW, Fiat, Mercedes, Nissan, Mazda and Opel to Volvo and VW.
Accumulators and sensors
The NaS (sodium-sulfur) accumulators for electrical energy storage are used in various systems, including experimental systems or systems that are only in the planning stage, e.g. B .:
- Planned 34 MW NaS plant at a 51 MW wind farm in Japan.
- 1.5 MW NaS system on a 5 MW photovoltaic system in Japan
- 6 MW NaS test system for grid stabilization in a substation in the USA, operated by American Electric Power .
- 1 MW NaS test facility at an 11 MW wind farm in the USA, funded by Xcel Energy.
- The 1 MW NaS test facility has been operated by the Younicos company on the science campus in Berlin-Adlershof since 2009 .
In 2010, NGK and Continental AG received the Automotive News PACE Award for the joint development of the Smart NO x sensor for the detection of NO x emissions in vehicle operation, both for passenger cars and for commercial vehicles.
In 2013 NGK won the Japan Ceramic Society's Technology Award for the Smart NO x sensor and its substantial contribution to the development of cleaner diesel vehicles.
Web links
- Official website (Japanese, English)
- NGK Europe website (English)
- NGK Ceramics Polska website (Polish and English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Corporate Outline
- ↑ a b NGK 2015 Annual Report , accessed on August 21, 2016
- ↑ Converted at the rate on the balance sheet date, March 31, 2015
- ^ NGK Insulators Ltd, NAS Batteries
- ↑ NGK Insulators, Ltd. Business Overview
- ↑ a b NGK Insulators, Ltd. History
- ↑ NGK Insulators, Ltd. Products
- ↑ build a second factory in Gliwice for Diesel Particulate Filter
- ↑ NGK Insulators, Ltd. Reference installations
- ↑ Japanese Companies Test System to Stabilize Output from Wind Power (English)
- ↑ Wind power and smart grids in Japan ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Wakkanai Mega Solar Project ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ American Electric Power to Install Six MW of NAS® Battery Storage (English)
- ↑ Sodium Sulfur Battery Energy Storage ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Xcel Energy Fund, 2010
- ↑ Azores island of Graciosa is energy self-sufficient 20 December, 2010
- ↑ Smart NOx sensor
- ↑ 2010 Automotive News PACE Award Winners - Product-Europe ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
