Special Issue

Polymer Materials Technology

SPECIAL ISSUE
ON POLYMER MATERIAL RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT
Takahiro Ueno*
Furukawa Electric Group has been focusing to utilize its
material capabilities in the areas of “Polymer”, “Metal”
and “Photonics” where the polymer is one of the key elements. Our company’s founder, Mr. Ichibei Furukawa,
developed an electric wire with the refined copper with asheer desire to make the Japanese family life bright andto contribute to the distribution of electricity. Our uniquepolymer technology starting from the developing of theinsulation for the insulated electric wires has been following the founder’s desire as DNA and is applied to manyindustry areas: the automotive, the infrastructure materials, the functional industry materials, etc. to help realize abrighter society that is comfortable for living.
We pursue to provide a solution proposal product anticipating the demands of our customers, through improving
both of a polymer material technology and a processing
technology. Also we challenge in creating new businesses by delivering cost-effective high-performance polymer
and hybrid materials with leading-edge processing technologies.
The following achievements in our polymer technology
development were applied on the recent products.
A:	A low cost polymer material with a high-performancethrough the technical improvement of compounding,reforming and modification.
B:	The precise control technology of adhesion between
a conductor and a polymer with a treatment on afunctional group.
C:	An innovative molding process technology with thecompetitive cost to achieve a high-performance.
D:	Expanding and promoting of a new functional foaming technology.
E:	The pursuit of an analysis technology for the lifecycle
and the reliability of polymers.
This special issue on the polymer technology introduces some of our R&D results in our laboratory and thepapers attached included the above item A to E.
We would like to ask readers who is thinking of a new
product to make a comment or an advice whether thetechnologies can be applied on their products.
We would like to ask for your continuous support fromnow on.

Polymer Modification and Reformulation Technology
・High heat resistance with a cross-link
・Low dielectric and thinner insulation for wire coating・Ultra low-hardness polymer material
・Recyclable material

Composite andMultifunctional

・Insulated rectangular magnet wirefor hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)・Light-weight automotive wire
・Triple insulated wire

Cost Reduction
・Cable insulation and sheath material
・Optical fiber coating material・Power cable component
・Injection foamed material・High injection molded productHigh-performance
Polymer Analysis Technology
・Electrical Insulation design analysis
・Identification and quantitative analysis
of compound components
・Speculation of molecular structure
・Polymer structure analysis

・Anti-vibration rubber material
for an automotive
・Automotive wires
・Recycled plastic cable trough・Light-weight fireproof putty forthe fire prevention
・High flame-retardant material
・Fine foamed material

Polymer molding and control technology
・Foaming control
・Ultra-precise and ultra-fast molding
・Functional thinner film
・Metal/polymer composites
・Interface between different materials control

Furukawa’s polymer technology provided to the market* General Manager, Polymer Materials R&D Laboratories,
Research & Development Division.

Furukawa Review, No. 4520141