1. Home
2. Supplier Database
3. Major Suppliers
4. Stanley Electric Co., Ltd.
5. Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. Business Report FY ended Mar. 2016

Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. Business Report FY ended Mar. 2016

Investments Outside Japan

-The Company will establish a new company dedicated to design and development of automotive lights in Tianjin, China, in August 2015. This is the first time for the Company to set up a subsidiary specialized in design and development. The specialized development base will act to make the company more responsive to the needs of Japanese automakers in China. The new company is capitalized at USD 34 million (JPY 4.1 billion) and fully owned by Stanley Electric. The engineering division of Tianjin Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. will be separated to establish the new company at a site neighboring Tianjin Stanley Electric. The new subsidiary will be in charge of designing mainly headlights and tail lamps. It will also manufacture and sell dies for the lamps. It's expected to generate sales of JPY 2.3 billion in the initial fiscal year to end in March 2016 and JPY 2.7 billion in the next fiscal year. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on June 30, 2015)


-The Company announced that it will establish a new subsidiary to manufacture and sell automotive lighting products and electronics components in Jalisco, Mexico in March 2015. The new company, which will be called Stanley Electric Manufacturing Mexico S.A. de C.V., will have a land area of about 100,000 square meters and a floor area of about 15,000 square meters. It will be capitalized at MXN 665 million (approximately JPY 5.2 billion), of which 70 percent will be provided by Stanley Electric and 30 percent will be provided by Stanley's U.S. subsidiary, Stanley Electric Holding of America, Inc. Production is scheduled to start as early as the summer of 2016. Sales are expected to reach approximately JPY 1 billion by the fiscal year ending in March 2017 (FY 2016) and approximately JPY 3.3 billion by FY 2017. (From a press release on February 23, 2015)

Product Development

HUD module
-The Company will launch a head-up display (HUD) module using a vertically aligned liquid crystal display by 2018. This will be Stanley's first optical unit for HUDs. The HUD module features enhanced cost competitiveness with a two-color display securing high visibility. The Company is concentrating on HUD-related business, developing Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) scanner devices for HUD systems. Expecting an increase in demand for HUDs, the Company will expand its HUD business on a full-scale by applying its LED technologies. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on October 14, 2015)

Laser headlamp
-This product is a single-unit, high-beam/low-beam headlamp that uses a laser light source. Since laser light sources have very limited and narrow areas of illumination, headlamps incorporating laser light sources can be made smaller. In addition, headlamps using laser light sources give more freedom of design for the front-view and are far superior in terms of their LED super luminosity and their the long-distance range of vision.

-The Company will launch a new laser headlamp that uses a laser light source in 2017. The new headlamp will achieve a high beam range of up to 310 meters, which is about 1.7 times that of a LED headlamp. The Company has almost finished developing the expected performance of the new headlamp. From now on, the Company will increase durability and other aspects to commercialize the new product. The Company regards the new product as a next-generation headlamp system which will offer greater safety and enable early detection of obstacles in front of a vehicle, and will widely propose it to auto manufacturers. The Company has been developing laser light source as a headlamp light source following the LED. With improvements in reflection and other technologies, the new headlamp will feature increased area of illumination and other performances that are suitable for automotive headlamp systems. Only the laser light source is used to emit high beams while the laser and LED light sources are combined to emit low beams. The new headlamp has substantially increased its low beam range from 115 meters with only the LED light source to 170 meters when the laser and LED light sources are combined. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on October 25, 2014)

Rear-window lamp (Exhibited at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show)
-The rear lamp lights up when the LED, which is placed along the edge of the plastic rear window that has been finely processed, is illuminated. Since the rear-lamp is placed at the same height as drivers coming from behind, this improves visibility and also gives more freedom of new designs for vehicles. The fine processing that is done at the curve of the window is based on the Company's proprietary technology in dies, while the LED illumination is based on light-distribution and optical guidance technology.

Road surface-illuminated signal lamp (Debuted at the 2015 CEATEC Japan)
-This lamp alerts nearby vehicles and pedestrians of the vehicle's next movement, such as backing up or stopping, by way of arrows and other marks illuminated on the surface of the road. Since this lamp gives more detailed indication of the vehicle's movements, it is hoped that it will greatly help to prevent accidents.

Unusually-shaped LCD panel unit
-This unusually shaped LCD panel unit gives more freedom of design to LCD panel units. This unit was made possible because of free-form surface laser scribe technology that enables glass to be cut as desired. As a result, the operating panel and the LCD panel can be placed closer to each other, so the entire unit can be more easily used, as well as more compact. Previously, processing the glass and the boards used in LCD panel units for automotive air-conditioning systems was rather difficult, so almost all of the panels were rectangular, limiting the freedom of design of the display panels.

R&D Activities

-The Company pursues "the five values of light", which are creating light, detecting and recognizing through light, freely obtaining information through light, making use of light energy, and rendering a scene with light.

-Advancing and integrating core technologies (light distribution, design, CAE, circuits, control, light source, process innovations)

-Major areas of R&D activities:

• Opto-electronics: High-output white LED, high-output red/infrared LED, high-speed/highly sensitive image sensors
• Displays: ultra-high contrast LCD, fiber micro scanner, display drive circuit
• Light source/lighting: automotive lighting, LED road-surface lighting devices, interior lighting devices, lighting drive circuits/power sources
• Software/CAE technology: light-distribution simulator, tools for measuring the optimum shapes of optical devices
• Materials and processing technology
• Styling and design of products
• Products in which the above devices and technology have been integrated

R&D Facilities

-Established Tianjin Stanley Electric Technology Co., Ltd. in August 2015, in China, which will design and develop automotive lamps.

-The Company plans to spend JPY 44,000 million in capital investments in the fiscal year ending in March 2017.

>>>Financial Forecast for the Next Fiscal Year (Sales, Operating Income etc.)

The Fifth Medium-term Three Year Business Plan (April 2014 through March 2017)