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Wandering around the plasma factory was pretty impressive to say the least. The manufacturing floor is huge, as you would expect considering the ridiculously high yield. But what I didn't expect was that the whole manufacturing floor is staffed by just 15 people, with pretty much every aspect of panel manufacture automated.

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This huge sheet of glass can be used for four 50in screens or one 103in monster.

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Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos on the factory floor, but I can assure you that the technology that Panasonic has implemented in its plasma factory is nothing short of breathtaking. Watching massive robot arms pickup huge sheets of glass with millimetre precision is quite a sight, but not nearly as impressive as watching said robots spin smoothly, in an almost balletic motion, as they move glass from one section of the production line to another.

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Panasonic removed lead from its plasma production last year.

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And it's not just the big robots that are impressive. There's a point during the production process where the two glass panels have to be bonded together. In order to ensure a secure bond, the glass is held together with clips running all around the edges. Once the panels are bonded they run down a conveyer belt to another machine that carefully opens each of these clips, slides them free of the glass, then drops them into containers. The precision of each of these operations is just staggering, and I can't even begin to imagine the tight tolerances that each of these machines has to work to.

I can only imagine that the technology in the new plant will be even more advanced when it goes online in 2009 - hopefully I'll have the opportunity to visit Amagasaki again and find out for myself.

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