An experimental station (beamline) for material analysis at Saga Prefectural Kyushu Synchrotron Light Research Center by Sumitomo Electric Industries became operational in November 2016.
January 11, 2017
Sumitomo Electric has been proactively utilizing synchrotron radiation facilities both in Japan and abroad for the development of various products, such as automotive wiring harnesses, devices for wireless base stations, flexible printed circuits, high-temperature superconducting wires, and cutting tools. In large synchrotron radiation facilities, such as SPring-8,*1 one can use X-ray more than 10,000 times stronger than commercially available X-ray equipments, thus enabling very precise and sensitive material analyses compared with commercially available equipment.
However, since the usable beamlines*2 had been shared with other organizations, there were time restrictions for their use. Consequently, the Company had been working on the construction of two beamlines at Kyushu Synchrotron Light Research Center,*3 and started their operation in November this year, for exclusive use by the Sumitomo Electric Group. The new beamlines have solved the problem of time restrictions and now enables us to promptly meet our analysis needs. In addition, they will enable us to innovatively improve our production process and product performances, allowing in-situ analyses by reproducing production conditions and so on. The new beamlines will be core system whereby low-cost and high-quality products can be more promptly developed and provided.
