Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

M NOVEMBER 2R, lORO • • • MANUFACTURING, DISTRIBUTION, FINANCE BONDED-TUBE BATTLE JUST BEGINNING: At least 3 important new techniques for mount ing safety plate in front of picture tubes are now rising to challenge Corning-Sylvania bonded-shield concept, and an industrial battle royal already is shaping up. Among the new approaches: (1) Du Font's Mylar safety shield, designed to be affixed permanently to picture tube (Vol. 16:47 pl6), but still in developmental stage. (2) Inexpensive "dry-seal" process, developed cooperatively by 4 companies, with many advantages of bonded-shield technique, and already adopted by 2 set makers. (3) Sharply improved Pittsburgh Plate Glass laminating (bonding) process, soon to be used on RCA color tubes — but so new it has been shown so far to only 3 manufacturers. • • • • Meeting head-on the challenge to its 2-year-old bonded-shield principle. Corning is embarking on $500,000 promotion & education campaign, aimed at telling distributors & dealers "how to use features instead of price" as TV selling points. This promotion drive will be geared primarily to boosting TV as a whole, but Corning officials state that advantages of bonded tubes certainly will be among the selling features stressed. A consumer ad campaign may follow, but not until "a year from now." Corning presumably has other aces in its hand. One might be development of a lighter-weight bonded bulb, but we're told that's still quite far in future. The Protagonists: Approximately 50% of all picture tubes made for new sets use Coming's bonding process, in which Corning-made molded glass cap is laminated to front of tube (by tube maker) with a special resin. Bonded tubes are made only in 19 & 23 -in. sizes, and while 23-in. bonded tube has generally caught on with industry, only one set maker (Sylvania) uses bonded tubes throughout its 19-in. line. Kimble Glass Co., the Owens-Illinois subsidiary, is Coming's principal competitor in the picture-tube bvdb field. It opposes the bonded-shield approach, makes so-called "strong" 19 & 23-in. bulbs designed for external non-bonded safety plates. (Corning also makes "strong" bulbs, but emphasises the bonded approach. Bulbs made for Coming's bonding process are called "weak" because they are structurally built for the addition of the bonded cap, which provides the needed strength.) Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. supplies 90% of the raw "gray" glass used by glass-formers & molders to make external safety implosion-glass plates. At the time Corning introduced its bonded-shield concept, Pittsburgh brought out its own approach to laminated-on-the-tube shield, using its own curved plate glass. This concept was not accepted by TV industry — but, as we advised more than a year ago (Vol. 15:42 pl8): "Don't coimt Pittsburgh out of the race. Too much is at stake." E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., the huge chemical & plastics firm, has been trying to become a strong factor in the picture-tube implosion shield material business for about 10 years, without notable success. Strongest threats to Coming's bonded tube are being moimted by the team of Pittsburgh & Kimble, which have most to gain — or lose — aided by other firms which are contributing to their new processes. Acceptance of Coming's bonded bulb has changed the profile of TV sets. Implosion plates are now curved to fit contours of picture-tube faceplate, giving better looks, more flexibility in set design and reduced reflections. Accordingly, flat implosion plate is on way out. Any new, competitive approach must use contoured plate. And all the important new ones do.