Sumitomo Copper Rolling Works, which formed the basis of Sumitomo Electric Wire and Cable Works, the predecessor to Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., was established in 1897. The nation was experiencing a severe recession as a reaction to an entrepreneurial boom following the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). In the wake of Sumitomo's acquisition of Japan Copper Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in March of this year, Sumitomo Copper Rolling Works was established.

In 1914, we developed trolley wires. The first delivery was made to Tokyo City (present-day Tokyo metropolis) in 1916. Since then, these trolley wires have been used in various railways in Japan (in recent years, in the Keihan Nakanoshima Line, Tokyo Metropolitan Nippori-Toneri Liner), as well as overseas in the Taiwan High Speed Rail, also known as Taiwan's bullet train.

This major project started when Sumitomo’s copper mine refinery was relocated to the uninhabited island of Shisakajima in 1905. Much time and expense was incurred since coal used as fuel had to be transported by ship from Niihama each time, making it less economical to continue with thermal power generation on the island. A hydropower plant was located on the opposite shore of Besshi, where there was an abundance of power. However, it was a remote spot located more than 20 km away, and required underwater power transmission lines that were considered impossible with the technology of that time.

Typhoon Jane was a large typhoon that hit Osaka in September 1950, inflicting damage with 336 people dead, 500,000 victims, and 15,000 houses collapsing mainly in the Kansai region. The western plant of Osaka Works was flooded by water. Aluminum overhead transmission cables bound for India were submerged by floodwaters. Although the products could have been made usable by washing them, management decided to re-make them all, with no thought of gain. This clearly shows our traditional spirit of devoting ourselves wholeheartedly to supplying quality products and placing prime importance on reliability.

Regular tracks are often visualized with wooden railway sleepers, but in the case of Dywidag sleepers adopted in the Tokaido Shinkansen, PC materials assumed this role in place of wood. Sumitomo Electric's Dywidag sleepers were adopted for use in the Tokaido Shinkansen in 1961, with full-fledged delivery starting in the following year.Since the start of research in 1955, we have developed air springs mainly for railway cars. In 1962, we developed a diaphragm air spring in cooperation with Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. and supplied to private rail cars and bullet train cars.

Sumitomo Electric's parabolic antennas for syncom satellites were used at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, enabling the world's first satellite TV broadcasting of the Olympics. Broadcasting the games in real time to the world was one of the dreams of the people around the world at that time.

In addition to traffic control systems, we also developed a bus location system from the middle of 1970s to 1980s. Road congestion was already a significant issue, and the poor punctuality of city buses had resulted in a visible decrease in users. The bus location system was examined as a countermeasure to address this issue and was introduced for the first time in Japan. Under the guidance of the Ministry of Transport, joint experiments were conducted with Sumitomo Electric in charge of the development of equipment, and Tokyu Corporation in charge of operations.

Parallel wires are giant-sized suspension materials used for large suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges. With manufacturing starting in 1980 for Onaruto Bridge, these wires were also produced for the Kita and Minami Bisan Seto Bridges, Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, and Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge.

Construction work on Kansai International Airport began in January 1987. Sumitomo Electric was responsible for the construction of roads and railways, electrical power supply to the airport, paved PC steel materials for parking lots, information infrastructure, and integrated communication systems. Specifically, our PC steel products are used in airport roads, including the Japan Highway Public Corporation's Kansai International Airport Line and Hanwa Expressway, as well as the Hanshin Expressway Wangan Route, in addition to elevated bridges and orbital concrete sleepers for the Kansai International Airport Line on the JR and Nankai Railway.

A high-temperature superconducting cable manufactured by Sumitomo Electric was used for the practical application of underground power transmission cables for the first time in the world. In a superconducting cable project in Albany, U.S. SuperPower Inc. was the main contractor, National Grid supplied power cables, BOC (now Linde) conducted cooling, and Sumitomo Electric oversaw the manufacturing, installation, and operation of superconducting cables. A 350-m superconducting cable was constructed over 3.2 km between two substations in Albany City, and long-term power distribution demonstration was carried out using a real system.

This project built an interconnecting transmission line between the UK and Belgium over a total length of 141.5 km including 130 km long under sea connection. Sumitomo Electric and its subsidiary, J-Power Systems, will oversee the design, manufacture, installation, and maintenance of the transmission cable system. Please take a look at this project in our e-magazine "id".