CES 2023 Our research representative attended CES 2023, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were several companies made him impressive. One of them is Nikon, which is a […]
Our research representative attended CES 2023, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were several companies made him impressive. One of them is Nikon, which is a Japanese multinational company specializing in optics and imaging products. The Japanese company has diversified into new areas. They are like 3D printing and regenerative medicine to compensate for the shrinking digital camera market now.
At CES 2023, one of its technologies made him impressive and that was “Riblets”.
Riblets are a type of biomimetic technology that has a shark-skin-like pattern structure made artificially. It is widely understood that frictional resistance is reduced by using a fine triangular convex structure on a surface that is in contact with air or water. Nikon adds a fine structure called a riblet structure to various products utilizing our proprietary laser processing technology to reduce equipment energy losses and contribute to improving fuel consumption and reducing CO2 emissions.
The reason why Riblets made him impressive is that the technology is strongly related to sustainability. We believe that sustainability is one of the most issues that affect every company in 2020s. This is because companies will not be able to sustain, if our society is not be sustained. In fact, the concept has been changing many industries and the toy industry is one of them.
For example, when we manufacture products, we need energy and our actions emit greenhouse gases. Of course, there are still skeptics that do not believe correlation between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. However, one thing for sure is that our climate is changing after the industrialization. As a result, there are more natural disasters, and people in the world have been passed away.
Therefore, manufacturing companies feel more pressures so that they should reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, which is the organizer of CES, understands this. That is why sustainability was included as one of the main topics at CES 2023.
However, it is easier said than done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, we want to innovate new technologies for new purposes, but it needs time and money at the same time. Also, we have biases that prevent from us innovating.
In this sense, our wider perspective and knowledge are important to move the situation forward. We can learn this from Nikon’s initiative. As we see above, Nikon’s Riblets have a shark-skin-like pattern structure. It means that our external environment including animals and plants can be a clue to realize new innovations. We believe that this idea does make sense.
This is because animal and plants are evolving themselves to adapt new environment or changes. Therefore, their structures are optimizing in each environment. We can recall a famous quote, “survival of the fittest”. This is very true for every organization.
Also, we want to help each organization survive or be transformed through our information. Nikon’s initiative reminds us of our mission and vision. So, it made our research representative impressive.
