Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. said Monday it plans to launch commercial production by the end of the year of high-temperature superconductive wire whose electricity transfer capability is about 130 times that of conventional copper wire.
The company said it has succeeded in making 1,000 meters of superconductive wire at one time from copper and bismuth, a byproduct of lead and zinc refining, allowing it to become the world's first company to put wire of this kind in commercial use.
Japan's largest producer of electric wire and cable will start mass production of the wire at a plant in Osaka and plans to initially sell it to U.S. electric power companies.
Superconductivity is a phenomenon in which electrical resistance completely disappears in a substance, especially at very low temperatures.
Usually, materials become superconductive when temperatures are lower than minus 200 C, but high-temperature wire can realize this phenomenon when temperatures are above this level.
With the new wire, power suppliers can cut costs tied to the laying of electric pipes when they increase the volume of transmission.
Sumitomo Electric officials said they plan to further upgrade the capabilities of the firm's superconductive wire and apply it to transformers used in bullet trains and marine vessels.