Policy blood wash color TV manufacturers another life and death robbery

Environmental Policy Blood Washing TV Industry

Similar to the Beijing Municipal Tobacco Control Regulations, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) drafted the Administrative Measures for the Restricted Use of Harmful Substances for Electrical and Electronic Products (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”), which regulates and even bans the sale of electrical and electronic products containing harmful substances. Once the standard is implemented, color TV industry will encounter the blood of environmental protection policies.


In fact, developed countries such as Europe have promulgated corresponding regulations many years ago. It is reported that as early as January 2013, the European Union Parliament and the European Union Council passed the 2002/95/EC Directive, namely “the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment”, referred to as the RoHS Directive. The basic content of the RoHS Directive is: As of July 1, 2006, restrictions on the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers have been restricted in new products for electrical and electronic equipment put on the market ( PBDE) and other six kinds of harmful substances.

According to EU RoHS regulations, the use of cadmium-containing quantum dots will be banned after 2016. Considering that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will be implemented within the year, this means that QD TV will encounter serious setbacks both at home and abroad if it can not get rid of the “cadmium dependence” in technology. Undoubtedly, the environmental protection policy will wash the color TV industry.

Technological changes under the tide of environmental protection

It is not difficult to see from the EU RoHS Directive and the method of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that the most serious environmental protection issue in the color TV industry is the most popular quantum dot TV. At present, QD TV solutions for color TV companies at home and abroad are also very different. The most acute problem is "cadmium dependence."

It is reported that QD TVs use blue LED as the backlight source. This blue light reacts with very fine nanoparticles when it passes through a material medium containing cadmium, emitting very pure red and green light. . Strictly speaking, such particles are called quantum dots by TV manufacturers. In fact, nano-dots should be more appropriate. This is the solution of most TV manufacturers.

After the introduction of the EU RoHS directive, color TV companies in Japan and South Korea began to explore quantum dot TV technology solutions that do not contain cadmium. According to news from the media, Samsung SUHDTV uses cadmium-free nanocrystalline semiconductors, completely abandoned the cadmium element, and has passed the “Environmentally Friendly Products (SPC)” certification issued by Underwriters Laboratories (UL).

According to news from foreign media, Samsung's rival LG, as well as Japanese brands such as Sony and Sharp, are also exploring quantum-dot TV solutions based on cadmium-free elements. It is not difficult to see that after the introduction of the EU RoHS Directive, foreign TV brands are actively exploring quantum-dot TV solutions without cadmium. In contrast, domestic color TV manufacturers did not cause great concern.

At present, the world's three largest manufacturers of sub-point materials are the British Nanoco, the German Nanosys and the American QDVision. Quantum dot display related patents are mostly held in Germany Nanosys, and Samsung Electronics is one of the company's major investors. The quantum dot TV that TCL released at the end of last year, technical cooperation from the United States QDVision, contains cadmium elements. When talking about this issue, TCL's official remarks are: "The normal use of products will not release cadmium, and this is a unified expression of color TV manufacturers.

Obviously, domestic color TV manufacturers are evasive about the pollution problems caused by cadmium, rather than trying to solve it, this approach has become the biggest crisis. Once the measures of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are implemented, domestic quantum dot TV products face enormous risks of ban sales. In the technological change triggered by the environmental protection policy, domestic color TV manufacturers have already been lagging behind.

Environmental protection has become a color TV industry

The policy is already on the string and there is a clear timetable for landing. Although the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has not yet confirmed when to ban the sale of TVs containing cadmium, bans are undoubtedly a lifeline for TV companies. From a technical point of view, it is not easy for QD TV to discard cadmium. This requires forward-looking layout, excellent R&D and huge funds as support.

In the environmental protection research and development of quantum dot TV, Samsung started as the earliest and has done a very careful layout, and has become the industry standard. In addition, from obtaining UL's certification to investing in Nanosys, Germany, it needs huge funds to support it. According to statistics, Samsung’s annual research and development expenses are as high as tens of billions of yuan. The Japanese color TV giants, Sony and Sharp, each have an R&D cost of several hundred billion yuan.

The Korean and Japanese color TV giants are very clear that the environmental protection policy is related to the life and death of the color TV industry. In contrast, domestic color TV companies are more contemptuous of R&D and do not make reasonable assessments of policy risks. In fact, there is a large bubble in the domestic color TV industry, and there are also many potential risks. The root cause lies in the domestic color TV giants who are caught in a vicious competition and have not yet formed a healthy development model.

In the early years, the domestic color TV brand successfully pushed the Japanese system out of the Chinese market, relying on low prices. In terms of technology research and development, from CRT TVs to LCDs to OLEDs, domestic color TV companies have been led by Japanese and South Korean TV companies. In this environmental protection technology innovation, the domestic color TV companies have been pinned by others. If we say that the previous technology containment affects only the profits of domestic color TV giants, then the method of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is related to the survival of domestic color TV companies.

In recent years, policies have had an increasing impact on the home appliance industry. From the new standards of energy consumption for air conditioners, to the introduction of environmental protection measures for color TVs, domestic home appliance companies have always been in a position of passive change. Because of this, domestic home appliance companies surpassed their competitors in sales, but lost to their opponents in terms of standards and technology. It is a foregone conclusion that the color TV industry has abandoned the cadmium element. This policy has also been destined to become a domestic TV maker's death.