Awarded “The Technological Development Award” at the 74th JSAE Awards

Because the number of automobile wire harness circuits and weight increase along with the advances in CASE, there are growing expectations for the replacement of copper wires with lightweight aluminum wires. In response to the problem of corrosion at the junction between the aluminum wire and copper alloy terminal, we commercialized a corrosion-proof terminal (Alpha Terminal®) with a sealed tube structure for narrow-diameter aluminum wires. However, difficulty in welding thick terminals and connecting the terminal and wire remained an issue to commercializing a similar terminal for large-diameter aluminum wires. We solved this issue by combining the fiber laser beam mode control technology^{(note 2)} developed by Furukawa Electric Group and high precision press forming technology. The advancement led to the development and commercialization of an Alpha Terminal® for large-diameter aluminum wires. In addition, when connecting aluminum wires, it is necessary to destroy the oxide layer that forms on the surface of the conductor. With large-diameter aluminum wires having many strands, connection through crimping alone was deemed to be difficult due to excessive compression deformation. However, by optimizing the cable structure and applying the sealed tube structure, we succeeded in connecting large-diameter aluminum wire and the terminal without the previously required pre-crimping processing. Along with eliminating the need for pre-crimping processing and corrosion-proofing, this led to the development of an Alpha Terminal® for large-diameter aluminum wires with a thickness of 5-8sq, more than twice the size of the existing terminal. This new development will make it easier to adopt large-diameter aluminum wires, which will lead to lighter weight wire harnesses.