The foldable smartphone market is tipped to grow many folds over the next few years, and so will the demand for those foldable displays that make such smartphones possible. Samsung, one of the frontrunners in this market, is apparently planning to ramp up the production of foldable displays.
Samsung Display, the South Korean conglomerate’s display manufacturing arm, currently produces around 260,000 units of foldable displays per month. The company plans to more than double those numbers to 600,000 units per month by the end of May 2020.
And come the year-end, Samsung Display expects the production capacity to rise up to million units a month. This means the company is looking to nearly quadruple its current production capacity.
Several smartphone makers around the world are working on their own version of a foldable smartphone. Samsung Display wants to supply foldable display panels to them as well, and not only to Samsung Electronics. The company is planning to build additional facilities to boost production.
Samsung expanding foldable display production
Samsung is two foldable phones strong and has already achieved a breakthrough in foldable displays. Its first foldable, the Galaxy Fold, featured a plastic-made foldable display that could be easily scratched even with fingernails. However, for the Galaxy Z Flip, the company created Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) that can bend.
A UTG panel offers better protection against scratches compared to plastic ones and hence is more durable. This gives Samsung an upper hand over its OLED display manufacturing rivals. The company is now looking to grab this opportunity in the best possible way, by producing more foldable displays so that it’s always ready to meet the ever-growing demand for such displays.
For this, Samsung is going to build additional facilities with its module plants in Vietnam, with more such facilities planned for the second half of this year. Philoptics, an equipment manufacturer that supplies cutting equipment to Samsung Display, says it will supply $13.8 million and $5.84 million worth of equipment to the company by the end of both May and July, respectively. This is indicative of the increasing scales of operations that Samsung is planning for.
The manufacturing process of foldable OLED panels is apparently similar to that of normal flexible OLED panels. However, it differs when it comes to the module manufacturing step as components and materials are attached to it. This is one of the reasons why Samsung is investing in its module lines.
Samsung will likely launch a successor to the Galaxy Fold this year, featuring a UTG panel. Huawei and Motorola are the only other companies with foldable phones on the market. However, it should be safe to expect many more OEMs joining them over the next few years.
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Source: ndroidheadlines.com