Awarded “The Technological Development
Award” at the 74th JSAE Awards- Contributing to lightweight and the shift to aluminum wire harness
through the expanded use of our original corrosion-proof terminals Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Head Office: 2-6-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo;
President: Hideya Moridaira) and Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc. (Head Office:Inukami-gun, Shiga; President: Kentaro Sakamoto), a member of Furukawa ElectricGroup, were awarded “The Technological Development Award” at the 74th JSAE Awards
during the 2024 Spring Congress hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan,Inc.
The JSAE Awards were established in 1951 with the goal of “encouraging development
engineering and automotive technology”. “The Technological Development Award” is oneof six awards presented in the automotive technology category, and it is awarded toindividuals who develop and/or co-develop new products or technologies that contributeto the advancement of automotive technology.
The current award was presented in recognition of the contribution to improved fuelefficiency resulting from reduced wire harness weight following the development of a
new terminal that applies original materials and processing technology for corrosion
resistance based on the company’s Alpha Terminal® (Note 1) and expanding the use toinclude large-diameter aluminum wires with over twice the diameter of the existingterminals.
“The Technological Development Award” at the 74th JSAE Awards

AwardReason
selectionfor

Development of a corrosion-proof terminal for large-diameter aluminum
wires that does not require pre-crimping processing or corrosion
proofing

Award

Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc. – Takashi Tonoike, Shunsuke

recipients

Kishihara
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. – Junya Takeshita, Hitoshi Iijima, SaburoYagi

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Because the number of automobile wire harness circuits and weight increase alongwith 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 thejunction between the aluminum wire and copper alloy terminal, we commercialized acorrosion-proof terminal (Alpha Terminal®) with a sealed tube structure for narrowdiameter aluminum wires. However, difficulty in welding thick terminals and connecting
the terminal and wire remained an issue to commercializing a similar terminal for largediameter aluminum wires. We solved this issue by combining the fiber laser beam mode
control technology (Note 2) developed by Furukawa Electric Group and high precisionpress

formingtechnology.

Theadvancement

ledtothedevelopmentand®

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 thesealed tube structure, we succeeded in connecting large-diameter aluminum wire andthe terminal without the previously required pre-crimping processing. Along witheliminating the need for pre-crimping processing and corrosion-proofing, this led to thedevelopment of an Alpha Terminal® for large-diameter aluminum wires with a thicknessof 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 weightwire harnesses.
(Note 1) Alpha Terminal®: Similar to general-use terminals, the terminal is formed using
a high speed press. The crimp connection is sealed in a tube structure using fiber laser
welding. At the same time the aluminum wire is connected, the covering around the endof the wire is crimped to create a tightly sealed structure with excellent corrosion
resistance.
(Note 2) Beam mode control: Technology that enables user-defined changes to the laser
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beam shape pattern and power.
https://www.furukawa.co.jp/fiber-laser/en/product/tech/beam.html

Alpha Terminal is a registered trademark of Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

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