Opening of the laser application laboratory in Budapest, Hungary

Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Head office: 2-6-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hideya Moridaira) opened the company’s first overseas laser application laboratory inside the group company Furukawa Electric Institute of Technology Ltd. (Budapest, Hungary; hereinafter “FETI”). By providing onsite development of laser solutions for the rapidly evolving electrification of mobility in Europe, the new laboratory will contribute to accelerating the development of components for electrification and production technology.

Following the expansion of e-Mobility, the key vehicle components such as the motor and inverter require higher efficiency, higher output and smaller size. During the copper welding process when manufacturing automotive components, in order to respond to the increased use of copper and resulting increase in welds, there are high expectations for the use of laser welding, which has higher quality, speed and freedom compared to traditional TIG welding. We launched the Blue-IR hybrid laser BRACE® in January 2021. Following this, we opened a laser application laboratory in the Chiba Works (Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture; March 2021) and CALL (Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture; November 2022), and along with developing laser welding solutions optimized for welding copper, we have made co-creation proposals mainly with partners in Japan. Low heat damage and stable, sputter-less welding, which are features of BRACE®, are increasingly in demand in Europe, a major automotive manufacturing hub, and customers have indicated a desire to conduct co-creation in close contact with us at a location nearer to home.

The first overseas laser application laboratory was opened inside FETI as a location for co-creation with our partners in Europe. Since its founding in 1991, FETI has been conducting R&D in a wide range of fields, including welding simulations for metal materials. The new laser application laboratory has been equipped with the newest BRACE® BR1545 model (1.5kW blue laser/ 4.5kＷ IR laser) and BR0400 model (400W blue laser). These lasers will be used for test processing, including copper welding and insulation coating removal of flat wire for motors. In addition, by using the simulation and data analysis technology possessed by FETI, along with shortening the time required to identify the parameters required by our partners, we will aim to create new added value, such as quality monitoring during welding.

Industrial Lasers

FETI