The technology that Panasonic has implemented in its plasma factory is nothing short of breathtaking. They have massive robot arms that pick up huge sheets of glass with millimeter precision. Even more impressive is how those same robots spin smoothly, in an almost balletic motion, as they move glass from one section of the production line to another.
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, and then drops them into containers.
The precision of each of these operations is just phenomenal. The robots are so advanced that only 15 people staff the production floor and with the robots they are able to produce 2 million plasma displays per month.