At this time Nankai Plywood Co., Ltd.,(1-15-10 Matsufuku town,Takamatsu city,Kagawa prefecture-President: Mr.Osamu Maruyama) and Hitachi Cable Ltd.,(2-1-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ku, Tokyo - President: Mr. Seiji Hara) are collaborating on the development of a built in electric floor heating system-'Utatane'-which is due to go on sale from April this year.

As the heat source for this system is not exposed it is remarkably safe and because it can emanate from under foot it is a very pleasant way to heat. Its suitability to heating places used especially by children and the elderly has been coming to the attention of the public recently and we are expecting the scale of the market to increase by 10% this year, when demand for remodeling a house increases.
The 'Utatane' system that has been developed by the two companies uses electricity as a heat source,so: 1) the heater wires, 2) the thermal equalizer and 3) the insulation material are all built in and can be placed between floor panels. The floor panels are the same standard thickness, of 12 mm, as ordinary floor panels and both the panel and it's connector can be operated easily by using a special, one touch connector. Furthermore, because a state of the art, grain patterned printed sheet is used as floor covering the system is wear resistant, crack resistant and water resistant.

Up to now, Nankai Plywood Co. Ltd's main line of business has been standard house building materials but now they have the 'Utatane' electric floor heating technology, they intend to use this new business opportunity to diversify their range of building materials. On the other hand, Hitachi Cable Ltd., who already have a lot of experience in industrial use heating, in such areas as: road, pipe and tank heating are looking to use the technology of the unit as a building material in this capacity. Furthermore, with the development of this technical know how, they hope to increase the awareness of the system as a viable heating system to be sold alongside the existing water circulatory heating systems in the future.
With it's easy operability, and low cost we are firstly going to target those who own high grade free standing houses and luxury apartments as possible customers for the 'Utatane' built in electric floor heating system.

An outline of 'UTATANE'

1. Product description	A built in electric floor heating system- 'Utatane'
2. Sales target	Amount: 6,600 square meter/p.m. by March 1999 = Sales: 1,200 million Yen/p.a.
3. Special Features	Totally crack resistant. (Durable) Bacteria resistant. Low Formaldehyde content (JAS Standard F1). Easily operable (By way of a connector). A variety of sophisticated, specially designed grain patterned sheets are available.
4. Division of Labour Nankai Plywood Co., Ltd.:	Floor panel construction including heater unit, sales assembly.
Hitachi Cable Ltd.:	Heater unit construction and supply.
5. Standard price	approx. 478,000 Yen (In the case of the laying of 63% of a room area of approx. 13 square meter.)