New businesses and productsCreate businesses designed to solve social issues through proposal capabilities and utilizing the accumulated technology
Leveraging the group's core technologies, the segment is working to create businesses in new domains such as life sciences and social infrastructure maintenance and management.
Business environment and background
Increasing expectations for the life sciences domain in the era of 100-year life expectancy
Life expectancies are increasing, and it is said we will soon enter the “era of 100-year life expectancy”. The ability to realize healthy, independent lifestyles and respond to the “pre-disease” state for preventing the onset of the actual disease will be the key to increasing “healthy life expectancy” and enabling people to live a fulfilling life. To achieve this, it will be important to reduce patient burden, including early diagnosis and fewer in-patient visits through the use of the online environment, as well as reduce the burden on medical practitioners through work style reform.
Given this, attention is turning toward “minimally invasive and non-invasive treatments” that incorporate digital technology into existing technology to reduce physiological burden, and the expectations for the life science domain, which will realize such treatments, are growing extremely large.
Ability to maintain social infrastructure despite the declining population will be key
Maintaining and managing the aging social infrastructure such as roads is becoming a pressing issue as the number of workers declines in today’s ultra-aging society. In order to realize infrastructure maintenance and management with even higher added value, there are growing calls for the importance of promoting digital transformation (DX) of social infrastructure.
In response to these issues, Furukawa Electric is using original technology to create a wide range of new business designed to solve social issues.
Business domains and strengths
Utilizing proprietary optical technology to provide safety and security to patients and medical practitioners
In the life sciences domain of Furukawa Electric, based on the keyword of “find using light, measure using light and cauterize using light”, we are developing new solutions that utilize light (photonics) technology.
This section introduces “TELLUMINO” and “treatment and testing solutions using optical fiber probes”.
First, let’s look at “TELLUMINO” that finds using light. The technology enables the visible confirmation of implanted medical devices from outside the body. This makes it possible to use the existing CV ports of medical device manufacturers more safely and realizes “CV ports that light up” to provide safety and security to both patients and medical practitioners.
Next, let’s look at the “treatment and testing solutions using optical fiber probes” that cauterizes using light. This solution uses technology that enables precision control of the light output strength, shape and direction in a range of wavelengths, and it is possible to customize these variables to match the treatment requirements.
For example, this technology can be used for treatments that use lasers, such as ablation, photoimmunotherapy and photodynamic therapy, as well as for testing & diagnosis (spectroscopy) and monitoring (optical coherence tomography).
Contributing to the maintenance and management of social infrastructure through the use of digital and laser technology
In the area of social infrastructure maintenance and management, let’s take a look the Infralaser and maintenance solutions that promote digitalization using independently developed AR and RPA technology.
The maintenance solutions developed by Furukawa Electric contribute to increased efficiency of roadside and railroad equipment management and maintenance. The roadside equipment maintenance solution uses proprietary digital technology to detect the position and status of roadside equipment from dash cam video. Simply by driving around while filming with a dash cam, it is possible to manage the millions of roadside equipment nationwide. This enables the efficient maintenance of roadside fixtures and reduces total costs through preventive maintenance.
The maintenance solution for railroad equipment utilizes the technology for roadside fixtures to provide a solution for maintaining rail line equipment. By installing a dash cam on a commercial train operating on the targeted rail line, it is possible to acquire basic data on the railroad equipment and digital data such as video for patrol inspections. This contributes to increasing the efficiency of rail line equipment management.
The Infralaser is a surface processing solution for infrastructure that combines digital technology with laser technology accumulated in the industrial laser domain. Unlike existing surface processing methods, this new solution uses a laser, which results in zero emissions of abrasives and other waste, and it aims to reduce the environmental burden, improve occupational health and increase the efficiency of infrastructure maintenance work.
Products
Product website
Furukawa Electric Group, Vision 2030
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