Kyocera Corporation to construct new R&D centre
Japan’s Kyocera Corporation has announced that it will begin construction of a new research and development centre in January 2021 at its Kokubu campus in Kirishima City, Kagoshima, Japan.
Kyocera has executed a location agreement with the mayor of Kirishima City for the new centre, which will focus on new innovations in the fields of information and communications, environmental preservation, and smart energy.
The Kokubu campus currently houses an innovation hub and three strategic R&D groups: Kyocera’s Monozukuri R&D Laboratory, which focuses on advanced material technologies; its Production Technology Division, focusing on manufacturing process innovation; and its Analysis Center, which develops simulation and evaluation technologies.
Current R&D programmes include 5G smartphone technologies, electronic and semiconductor components used in IoT devices, and key components for new smart energy technologies, such as cell stacks for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs). Intellectual property developed on the campus is said to have found a wide range of other applications such the automotive, aerospace, medical and healthcare fields.
Through greater collaboration among these R&D operations, Kyocera hopes to establish a new platform to accelerate development and production efforts, with comprehensive support for manufacturing new products, promoting factory automation, and improving manufacturing efficiencies. The company states that it will position the new facility specifically as an incubator for open innovation, sharing technical information for human resource development, and networking with inventors outside of Kyocera.
