Company
NGK Decides to Expand and Enhance New Product Development Base to Accelerate Business Structure Conversion
Co-Creation Center and Carbon Neutrality-Related Product Development Area to Be Newly Established
November 22, 2023
NGK INSULATORS, LTD. (hereinafter “NGK”) has decided to newly establish a Co-Creation Center and a Carbon Neutrality-Related Product Development Area at its head office site, in order to achieve its business structure conversion to carbon neutrality (CN)- and digital society (DS)-related fields, as laid out in the NGK Group Vision. By reorganizing and developing the head office site into a new product development base, NGK will accelerate the development and commercialization of CN- and DS-related products.
In the medium- to long-term vision “NGK Group Vision: Road to 2050,” the NGK Group states that it wants to be the following: “A company to contribute to carbon neutrality and digital society with our unique ceramic technologies.” In these fields, the NGK Group will promote business structure conversion to increase the ratio of CN- and DS-related sales to 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
To achieve this business structure conversion, the NGK Group will make capital investments of around ¥15.0 billion, including a new R&D building announced in November 2022. The NGK Group will reorganize and develop the head office site, where R&D functions are concentrated, and newly establish the following:
Co-Creation Center (Tentative Name) (Atsuta site)
NGK will construct a new Co-Creation Center as a site for promoting open innovation and adding new value to society with its unique ceramic technologies, as set forth in NGK’s corporate philosophy.
The building will be designed with spaces that foster collaboration, such as an area that introduces NGK’s products and core technologies that help to solve social issues, an area where ideas can be developed with partners from outside the Company, and an area that creates opportunities for new meetings and networking among people from within and outside the Company. Indoors, NGK plans to install the perovskite solar cells* of EneCoat Technologies Co., Ltd., in which NGK has invested, and will conduct demonstration testing of power generation performance. NGK will push ahead with co-creation by integrating various technologies, knowledge and expertise from within and outside the Company, with the aim of creating new products and businesses rapidly and efficiently. Construction is scheduled to be completed in May 2025.
At the Atsuta site, a new R&D building adjoining the Co-Creation Center is currently under construction. The new R&D building will carry out the development of new DS-related products. It is scheduled to start operations in June 2025. Ideas developed in the Co-Creation Center will undergo evaluation and demonstration testing in the new R&D building, and the result will be reexamined in the Co-Creation Center. Through this cycle, NGK will generate synergies, paving the way for the creation of new products at an early stage.
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※Perovskite Solar Cell:
A new type of solar cell that uses a material with a crystal structure called perovskite. These solar cells are thinner and more lightweight than conventional crystal silicon solar cells and feature flexibility, enabling them to be installed and generate power on curved surfaces and other places impossible for crystal silicon solar cells until now.
NGK Invests in Perovskite Solar Cell Spin-off from Kyoto University
Outline of the Co-Creation Center (Tentative Name)
| Location | 2-56, Suda-cho, Mizuho, Nagoya 467-8530, Japan (Head office site) |
|---|---|
| Building area | Approx. 2,200 ｍ2 |
| Total floor area | Approx. 4,350 ｍ2 |
| Completion | May 2025 (planned) |
CN-Related Product Development Area (Mizuho site)
NGK will reorganize part of the existing area for the development and production of ceramic products for emission control into an area for the development and prototyping of new CN-related products.
NGK is currently developing ceramic substrates for Direct Air Capture (DAC), which directly captures carbon dioxide (CO2) contained in the atmosphere. The performance requirements of the DAC substrate have a lot in common with the performance requirements of ceramics for emission control. Therefore, NGK is developing a substrate that will efficiently perform adsorption and desorption of CO2 by applying the ceramic honeycomb structure technology it has cultivated so far. In parallel, NGK has started to develop technologies to coat (impregnate) CO2 adsorption materials on the DAC ceramic substrate. The DAC area started operations in November 2023. NGK will continue to strengthen the development framework by successively developing and expanding the area, with the aim of participating in demonstration testing in 2025 and establishing a mass production system in 2030.
Furthermore, in June 2025, NGK will develop a new development area (separation membrane area) for sub-nano ceramic membranes that contribute to technologies such as Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS), and will move forward with efforts to develop CN-related products.
