Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, one of the core companies of Tanaka Precious Metals, has introduced seven new electron beam welding materials for use in automotive sensors.
Each material is made by combining five precious metals, known as contact metals, and two copper-based metal or base metals based on the application. Electron beam materials are highly effective materials that use minimum amount of precious metal to produce cladding material in shapes such as through-lay and edge-lay. Thus, they are highly consistent cladding or contact materials that function when the base and contact metals are accurately welded using an electron beam.
AgPdCu and AgPd30 are low-end products that are ideal for potentiometers. AgPd30 general-purpose rotary encoders decreases bullion costs by 30% as it contains low amount of palladium and AgPdCu lowers bullion costs by 20% through the utilization of a three-element alloy. AgPd50 and SP-1 are few high-end products used for applications like throttle position sensors (TPS) and automotive accelerator pedal sensors (APS). SP-1 precious metal-based materials provide greater heat resistance and 30% longer lifetime compared to the existing product. AgPd50 material offers enhanced abrasion resistance than AgPd30.
At present, electron beam welding materials are utilized for automotive applications such as sliding brushes. The price of precious metals like palladium and platinum used in electron beam welding process is increasing. This enables the automotive sensor market to look for electron beam welding materials with the least necessary functionality. Under this condition, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo has successfully increased the electron beam welding material options by enhancing the welding conditions as well as the rolling and processing conditions. Thus, the company helps to minimize the cost of electric vehicle sensor materials by up to 30%.
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo aims for 100 million yen sales per month by distributing the electron beam welding materials particularly to the automotive sensor component manufacturers.
Source: http://www.tanaka.co.jp/