Establishing a high-power laser diode module joint venture company

April 14, 2015

Fanuc Corporation
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Fanuc Corporation (President: Yoshiharu Inaba; hereinafter, Fanuc) and Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (President and Chief Operating Officer: Mitsuyoshi Shibata; hereinafter, Furukawa Electric) signed a basic agreement to establish a new company that develops, manufactures, and sells high-power laser diode modules (hereinafter, LDM), which are a key component in industrial optical fiber lasers (hereinafter, fiber lasers).

Background

Fiber lasers are spreading rapidly in the metal processing sector for cutting and welding applications. Fiber lasers have a high absorption rate compared to carbon dioxide lasers, particularly due to the difference in wavelength, and they have the advantage of high speed sheet metal processing capability in thin sheet metal cutting. They also have strengths such as low power consumption.

Mainly used in the metal processing sector, fiber lasers have an output from about 1 to 6 kWs, and they have a lot of LDMs, which are the key components, so keeping costs down for these parts had been an issue.

Content

At this point, Fanuc and Furukawa Electric have signed a basic agreement to establish a new joint venture company that develops, manufactures, and sells with the goal of keeping costs down through further enhanced quality and mass production effectiveness in industrial high-power LDMs.

We established the target for the new joint venture company for the first half of 2015, and we plan to determine details such as capital stock and the like in consultation between the two companies going forward.

New company profile

Company name FF Laser Co., Ltd.
Capital stock Undecided
Capital ratio Fanuc 50 %, Furukawa Electric 50 %
Address Main office: Oshino-mura, Yamanashi
On the premise of Fanuc main office plant
Opening of business April, 2016 (on schedule)
Representative Yuji Nishikawa
(Executive Officer, General Manager - Laser Laboratory FA Business Division)

About Furukawa Electric Group

Furukawa Electric (TSE; 5801, ISIN; JP3827200001) Group started business in 1884, when its copper-smelting facility and wire manufacturing factory was established. Since then Furukawa Electric has become pioneers in the latest technologies by addressing diverse technological issues. Furukawa Electric has released products in a number of areas, including telecommunications, electronics, automobiles, and construction, with the three types of materials it works with at their core, namely, optics, plastics, and metals. Many of these products have attained the top global market share, and all of its products have contributed to society in numerous business areas. Furukawa Electric reported consolidated revenues of JPY 931.8 billion (approximately USD 9.3B) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014.