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Press Release

Synchrotron Radiation Beamline for Exclusive Use by Sumitomo Electric Group Starts Operation

Products & Technologies

January 11, 2017
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
*This press release was originally published in Japanese on December 15, 2016.

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. had been working on the construction of an experimental station (beamline) for material analysis since February 2015 at Saga Prefectural Kyushu Synchrotron Light Research Center, and its operation started this November.

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 equipments. 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. 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.

The Company plans to utilize the dedicated beamlines and accelerate development in a broad range of areas, including improvement of the performance of new products, such as redox flow batteries and optical fibers, and the quality improvement of existing products.

Synchrotron Radiation Beamline

Synchrotron Radiation Beamline

Schematic diagram of the synchrotron radiation beamline

Schematic diagram of the synchrotron radiation beamline


*1 SPring-8: A large synchrotron radiation facility with the world's highest performance located in Harima Science Park City, Hyogo Prefecture, which was opened in 1997 to both domestic and international industrial, academic, and government users

*2 Beamline: Facility consisting of optical devices to guide x-ray to samples to be tested and analyzers actually measuring the various data

*3 Saga Prefectural Kyushu Synchrotron Light Research Center: Symchrotron radiation facility in Tosu City, Saga Prefecture, the first such facility in Japan constructed by a prefectural government, which was opened in 2006 to industrial, academic, and government users mainly for industrial purposes

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