Wire Bulletin - January 2016

VOLUME VII | ISSUE I | January 2016

` 125

WIRE BULLETIN India’s Quarterly Bulletin Dedicated to the Wire and Cable Industry

Wire DUsseldorf Preview The next staging of Wire Dusseldorf, the biggest international wire and cable trade fair of its kind, will take place from April 4-8, 2016 at the fairgrounds of Dusseldorf in Germany. Over 1,300 exhibitors from 50 countries will showcase the most up-to-date technologies and products. This issue is the first in the curtain-raiser series for the show, highlighting some of the companies that have confirmed their participation.

News bites • India needs USD 1 trillion worth of investments in infrastructure over the next five years, according to a government official. The government is keen to move forward quickly with further simplification of the procedures to the maximum.

• Public sector enterprises would now be required to procure at least 20 per cent of their annual value of goods or services from micro and small enterprises.

Quotable Quotes “

The government has taken significant steps to check corruption and menace of black money in a short span of time.” ~ Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, India.

“

The government’s target is to move to 8 per cent growth first and then exceed it.” ~ Shaktikanta Das, Economic Affairs Secretary, Government of India.

In this issue: Editorial................................ 02 Calendar............................... 03 Event Review........................ 03 Industry News ..................... 04 Interview | IEEMA Elecrama.05 Wire Dusseldorf Preview....... 06 Using IT in Cable Manufacturing...................... 12 Profile | Fenn....................... 14 Profile | Metalube................ 16 Profile | Micro-Weld............. 16 Technology | XLPE Material for Subsea and EHV Cables.. 17 People.................................. 18

Sterlite Grid to collaborate with Burns & McDonnell for power transmission projects The country’s largest private developer of independent power transmission systems, Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Limited and a global leader in transmission and distribution engineering, Burns & McDonnell International, Inc., have signed an agreement to apply world-class engineering and construction methodologies on transmission projects in India.

Sterlite Grid and Burns & McDonnell will initially be working on Northern Region System Strengthening 29 (NRSS 29) Project, which will carry 2,000 megawatts (MW) power to the energy-starved region of Kashmir Valley from the power-surplus state of Punjab.

Sterlite Grid will invest close to ` 3,000 crore towards this critical asset comprising 900 circuit kilometres (Ckm) of transmission lines and 400 kilovolt (kV) gasinsulated substation (GIS) at Amargarh.

Responding to the urgency expressed by the central and state governments, Ster-

lite Grid has committed to implement this 50-month project in less than 40 months.

“We, at Sterlite Grid, are committed to a cause that not a single unit of electricity should remain unused due to the lack of transmission infrastructure. To achieve this, we would like to eliminate transmission line delays by delivering these projects in half the benchmark time. Our partnership with Burns and McDonnell will help us achieve this goal by bringing cutting-edge technologies to India,” said Pratik Agarwal – Vice Chairman, Sterlite Grid.|WB

ADB to provide loan for power project in Rajasthan and Punjab The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to provide a USD 500 million governmentbacked loan and a further USD 500 million in non-sovereign lending to India’s national transmission company, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).

The funds will be used to build and upgrade high-voltage transmission lines and substations in Rajasthan and Punjab states, as part of the Indian government’s ‘Green Energy Corridor’ initiative. To increase energy delivery from India’s west to southern region, the project will also include new high-voltage direct current terminals in Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala states, boosting interconnectivity between the regions from about 10 gigawatts (GW) to 16 GW.

Indian electric wire and cable market set for good growth The electric wire and cable market in India is set to grow at a CAGR of 16.18 per cent over the period 2015-2019. According to a recently released report by Research and Markets, upgrade of T&D network systems is one of the key drivers of the market. “The Government of India is making efforts to upgrade the electrical T&D network in response to the rising demand for electricity. The modernisation is also driven by the need to ensure the security of national energy reserves, the high maintenance costs of existing electrical systems, and the need to increase the efficiency of power plants.

Meanwhile, the need to comply with various rules and regulations is one of the major challenges in the market,” the report states.

The report also forecasts that there is

a growing awareness about environmental concerns in India, which is leading many companies to focus on developing wires that have a lower negative impact on the natural environment. The chemicals used in these wires have enhanced fire-proofing attributes and do not produce hazardous fumes in case of fire.

Some of the companies mentioned in the report include Finolex Cables, Havells India, Polycab Wires, Sterlite Technologies, Cable Corporation of India, Cords Cable Industries, Diamond Power Infrastructure, General Cable Energy India, Gupta Power Infrastructure, KEC International, KEI Industries, LS Cable India, Paramount Communications, R R Kabel, Shilpi Cable Technologies, etc. For more information, visit www.researchandmarkets.com.|WB

Polycab implements CableBuilder design software InnoVites B.V. announced that Polycab, the leading cable manufacturer of India, has successfully implemented CableBuilder in their operations. “Polycab uses CableBuilder to streamline their engineering and product designing processes. The objectives of the implementation project were completely achieved. CableBuilder allows Polycab to create designs faster, with less effort, while eliminating human errors,” a press note states. Commenting on this development, Bharat Jaisinghani, Director, Polycab, said, “It’s important for Polycab to have efficient and consistent procedures in our engineering processes. InnoVites helped us to get the most out of CableBuilder and streamline our operations. The creation of new designs now takes minutes rather than hours. Mass updates of product data are now a simple routine rather than a

time consuming headache.”

CableBuilder is a software solution to create, calculate and maintain cable designs for all kinds of cables, including power cables, instrumentation cables, telecom cables, optical fiber cables and hybrid cables. This solution helps cable manufacturing companies to reduce design and maintenance time, quotation lead times, produce professional looking datasheets and catalogues, improve manufacturing instructions and reduce rework and scrap.|WB

Rajasthan will be one of the beneficiaries of the ADB power loan.

India is promoting the increased use of clean and renewable energy to meet growing power demand, provide universal electricity access, and increase energy self-sufficiency. Earlier this year, India announced ambitious plans to achieve a national renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022.

About 90 per cent of this is expected to be generated from solar and wind sources that are concentrated in a few Indian states.

Investment in efficient, inter-state transmission infrastructure that can address the intermittency and timing differences of renewable energy is therefore critical in supporting expansion and optimal use of renewable energy in India.

“The new transmission lines connecting renewable energy-rich areas to the national grid will enhance connectivity between the regions by bringing clean energy to more people, making the overall Indian power system more efficient, and improving India’s overall energy security,” said Hun Kim, Director General of ADB’s South Asia Department. PGCIL’s funding needs for the interstate Green Energy Corridor exceed USD 3.4 billion, while enhanced overall interregional connectivity—critical not just for renewable energy but for large power transfers and power sector optimisation—will require a further USD 10 billion.|WB

January 2016 | 1

EDITORIAL Wire 2016: A World of Micros and Macros

T

he stage is all set for yet another edition of the world’s biggest trade show featuring wire and cable products and equipment. Of special interest will be the focus on products made from wire of the smallest dimensions Wire and the resulting products, such as springs, screws and cables, are necessary for technical systems to function. However, products made by the wire and wire processing industry also play a major role in everyday life - paperclips, ballpoint pen springs, key chains, and of course power cables, for example. Progress in areas such as transport and power engineering are closely related to ongoing developments in the wire and wire processing industry and the increasing miniaturization in many

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areas of technology is only possible with the help of suitable wire products. These are based on wire made from a variety of metals and with a diameter between 0.52.5 mm.

The prefix ‘micro’ is applied to anything below 1 mm in all three dimensions. While the dimensions of micro components are getting smaller and smaller, a steady increase in requirements on technical properties and thus also on the relevant production equipment and its components is evident.

Some typical components are micro screws with a nominal diameter of 1 mm or less, used in sensors, mobile phones, printed circuit boards, digital cameras, hearing aids and small parts in medical devices. One cost-effective manufacturing method is cold forging, i.e. the shaping of material at room temperature. However, at the microlevel, the physical phenomena that must be taken into account are not the same as in the macro-range.

For instance, the structure of such a small work-piece has a far greater effect on the processing method and friction, too, works differently between the part and the tool compared with the forming of larger parts. Moreover, adhesive forces behave differently than in the macro-range. Similar to a hair, micro parts may stick to the wall of the tool or to one another during transportation. Micro-forming technology still has considerable room for development. Special metal forming centres are already in use for industrial purposes, using

wire with diameters between 0.5-2.6 mm.

Within a single operation they can produce ready-to-use micro screws with dimensions between M0.6 and M3, and at a speed of 400 screws per minute.

Another important group of wire products is technical springs. As there has long been a need for such products in typical applications such as precision engineering and watch-making, the manufacturing of micro springs started much earlier than the production of micro screws. Made from ultra-fine wire with a diameter of 0.05 mm, the resulting micro springs have a diameter below 1 mm and are almost invisible to the naked eye. Another amazing fact should be the yield of a single gram of wire, as it can be used for up to 20,000 such springs.

Some typical applications are mechanical and electro-mechanical watches, measuring and control devices, office equipment, small motors, power tools, consumer electronics, optical instruments and of course components for motor vehicles, such as anti-lock braking systems.

All this along with the latest equipment and technologies from the cable and wire sector will be highlighted at Wire 2016, the leading international trade fair for the wire and cable industry. The concurrent staging of Tube 2016, International Pipe and Tube Trade Fair, will create valuable synergy effects for attendees. Both events will be held from April 4 – 8, 2016 in Dusseldorf, Germany. According to a press release issued by Messe Dusseldorf, exhibitor registrations for the show have been very strong this year, indicating that fresh winds are blowing across the global wire industry.

As in the past, countries with particularly strong exhibitor participation at Wire 2016 will include Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, Sweden and Germany. But a large number of registrations have also been received from overseas: from the US, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Japan and China.

The fair will feature machinery for the production and finishing of wire, tools and auxiliary materials in process engineering as well as materials, special wires and cables. It will also cover innovations in measurement, control and test engineering.

The trade fair will occupy Halls 9 - 12, 16 and 17, featuring wire, cable and glass fiber machinery, wire and cable products as well as wire and cable trade. Innovations in metal forming will be shown in Hall 15 and Hall 16 will house mesh welding machinery and spring-making technology. For further information on visiting or exhibiting at the wire or tube fairs, contact Messe Dusseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601. Tel.: (312) 781-5180; Fax: (312) 781-5188; E-mail: info@mdna.com; Website: http://www.mdna.com.|WB

CALENDAR & EVENT REVIEW World calendar February 2-3, 2016: Advanced Cable Middle East

Dubai, UAE. The second conference in the series will examine the markets for advanced power transmission, subsea cables, construction and building infrastructure, fire performance, specialty and fiber optic cables across the region and will provide a detailed analysis of long-term advanced cable demand for the region. For details, visit: www.integer-research.com.

February 13-17, 2016: ELECRAMA

Bengaluru, India. The biggest showcase of the world of electricity, ELECRAMA brings together the complete spectrum of solutions that powers the planet. It features not just equipment and technology but peerless thought leadership platforms for everything electric - from technical conferences to industry summits. It has the widest choice of product and technology across the spectrum on display - over 221 transformers, 321 cables and conductors, 202 control and switchgear, 113 instruments and instrumentation amongst others. The show will have the presence of global majors to small-scale manufacturers - the entire value chain to strengthen supply chain, logistics and vendor capability assessment. For details, visit: www.elecrama.com.

April 4-8, 2016: Wire Dusseldorf 2016

Dusseldorf, Germany. The next concurrent staging of Wire Dusseldorf, International Wire and Cable Trade Fair, and Tube Dusseldorf, International Tube and Pipe Trade Fair, will take place at the fairgrounds in Dusseldorf. Over 2,500 exhibitors will showcase the most up-to-date technologies from the wire, cable, tube and pipe processing industries. At Wire 2016, an expected 1,300 exhibitors from 50 countries will present their latest innovations in the following categories: wire manufacturing and finishing machinery, process technology tools and auxiliary process technology materials as well as materials, special wires and cables, measuring and control technology and test engineering. For registration, contact: Messe Dusseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601. Tel.: (312) 781-5180, Fax: (312) 781-5188, E-mail: info@mdna.com, Website: www.mdna.com.

May 9-11, 2016: Saudi Power

Riyadh, Middle East. Saudi Power attracts thousands of business visitors including officials, engineers, managers, technicians, contractors, consultants, developers and investors from the following categories: government agencies, power companies, construction and development companies, large industrial companies, power production companies, factory operators, service providers, and distributors and retailers. It showcases products, services and technologies to a professional audience from Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East region. For details, visit: www.saudi-power.com.

EVENT REVIEW Focus on Superconducting Power Grids On December 7, 2015, Nexans took a look at the role of superconductivity in providing reliable and energy-efficient solutions to integrate renewable power generation while reducing carbon footprint, with inputs from leading experts from industry and academics. The company welcomed Oliver Sauerbach, project manager of the AmpaCity project at RWE, who presented his experience with the AmpaCity system where the world’s longest superconducting power cable has been integrated in a medium-voltage grid infrastructure in the city centre of Essen in Germany. This cable system is now in continuous operation since March 2014 and proves the maturity of superconducting power cable systems for grid applications.

Frank Schmidt, Nexans’ head of superconductor activity, presented an overview of current applications using superconductors and an outlook of next projects including an overview of the industrialisation efforts for superconducting systems and material manufacturing. The conference also highlighted new ways to design distribution grids based on the use of superconducting fault current limiters. The panel discussed how the adoption of superconducting solutions could be expanded faster, now that the systems have proven their reliability in existing grids. Especially the AmpaCity concept is tailor-made for applications in dense urban areas where there is a need to transport large amounts of power in reduced space and where high-voltage systems could be replaced by superconducting medium-voltage solutions.

Delegates heard about how superconducting cables could significantly improve the efficiency of transportation systems to reduce their carbon footprint contributing to meet the European environment policy targets. Some application examples were given, including their use for cruise ships, as well as ambitious future projects, such as providing power on board prototype hybrid airplanes. Long-length DC superconducting cables relying on hydrogen as both a cooling fluid and energy storage medium were also presented.

Pierre Kayoun, Corporate Vice President of Technology & Innovation at Nexans, said, “This year’s technical conference presents an important opportunity to discuss superconductivity in depth as just one of our contributions beyond interconnectors and renewable energy generation solutions to assist an energy transition. This year in particular, coinciding with COP21, will surely present some progressive debate about the role that technology has to play in preserving the environment - a goal which Nexans remains dedicated to throughout our R&D activities.”

Nexans brings energy to life through an extensive range of cables and cabling solutions that deliver increased performance for its customers worldwide.|WB

June 8-9, 2016: Wire Expo

Connecticut, USA. The WAI Operations Summit & Wire Expo is organised by WAI and is held biennially in a different industry hub within the US for the wire and cable manufacturing industry. The event incorporates technical paper presentations, a comprehensive exhibit, on-floor production solutions demonstrations, networking activities, and more. Wire Expo originated in Boston in 1990 and has since been hosted in the following locations: Louisville, Kentucky; Detroit, Michigan; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cleveland, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; Chicago, Illinois; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Dallas, Texas. For details, contact: Bob Xeller, Tel.: 1-203-453-2777. Website:www.wirenet.org.

June 21-22, 2016: Polymers in Cables Overview

Pennsylvania, USA. AMI’s ‘Polymers in Cables 2016’ will take place at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue in Philadelphia. This two-day conference attracts a high level of decision-makers and managers addressing issues specific to the North American cable industry. The programme for the 8th edition will feature several cable producers along with a mix of compounders, material suppliers, equipment manufacturers, and research consultants. The presentations will be organised to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest material, technology and business trends. The earlier show, held in 2014, was attended by over 145 professionals from 100+ companies and featured a sold-out exhibition room. Cable manufacturers that were represented in 2014 included Aetna Wire, Belden, Cerro Wire Llc, Champlain Cable Corporation, Coleman Cable, Encore Wire Corporation, General Cable, Liban Cables, Nexans Inc., Northwire, Prysmian Cables & Systems, Southwire Company and Shawflex, among others. For details, visit: www.amiplastics.com.

September 26-29, 2016: Wire China 2016

Shanghai, China. Join the China show which is held every other year in Shanghai.

This show presents the following product groups: Wire manufacturing and finishing machinery including fastener and spring manufacturing and finishing machinery, process technology tools, auxiliary process technology materials, materials, special wires and cables, measuring and control technology, test engineering, and specialist areas. For details, contact: Vivian Pan, 2345 Longyang Road, that attio rrm ionn that fo a Pudong New Area, Shanghai, China – in m e v fo a you have in sectionn??

D 201203. Tel.: (86 21) 6169 8300, Website: Doo you sh in thhis tio t is sec -mailil ttoo:: g bbeelo www.wirechina.net. lonngs in it by ee-m a

mit by net.orrgg.. se subbm PPle leaase su tin@w ire t.o lllleetin@wirene u b e ir u w b wire

January 2016 | 3

INDUSTRY NEWS Hengtong Optic-Electric acquires Aberdare Cables Hengtong Optic-Electric Co. Ltd. declared a wholly-owned subsidiary to acquire a 75 per cent stake in Aberdare Cables Proprietary Limited and 100 per cent stake in Aberdare Holdings Europe BV Limited for CNY 372 million, inking a framework agreement with Power Technologies (P) Ltd. in Johannesburg on December 2. Aberdare Cables Proprietary Limited, founded in 1946, is the biggest cable maker in South Africa headquartered in Johannesburg, offering customised power solutions to power transmission and distribution, railway, petrochemical, mining, port, airport, and wholesale and residential construction.

Aberdare Holdings Europe has the whollyowned Cables de Comunicaciones Zaragoza, S.L. (CCZSL) and another cable maker in Portugal. Aberdare Cables is a top cable maker and power solution provider in Africa and Europe whose R&D and production bases are located in South Africa, Mozambique, Spain and Portugal.

General Cable expands its Kentucky manufacturing centre General Cable Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest wire and cable manufacturers, will invest USD 2.5 million to expand and relocate production to Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. The company plans to create more than 54 jobs. In May, General Cable announced the closing and relocation of its manufacturing facilities in Franklin, Mas-

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sachusetts, and Des Plaines, Illinois. The company has now announced that these operations will be consolidated into its existing facility at Lawrenceburg. The facilities that are being relocated principally produced data communications cables, including specialty and fiber products. The company estimates that it will be transferring around half of the production volume and manufacturing assets to the Lawrenceburg facility.

Prysmian supplies cables For Niagara Wind Farm Project Prysmian Group has won a Euro 16 million contract for power transmission and distribution cabling for the 230 MW Niagara onshore wind farm in North America.

The contract was awarded by NCS International for medium-voltage power and fiber optic cables and Eptcon for HV cables.

Prysmian will supply 25 km of 138 kV underground cables with aluminum conductor and XLPE insulation and 650 km of 35 kV MV power cables to interconnect the wind farm to Hydro One Networks. It will also supply HV outdoor terminations and Click Fit jointing systems along with direct burial fiber optic cable. The mediumvoltage and high-voltage cables will be supplied from Prysmian Group’s factories in Prescott, Ontario in Canada and Abbeville, South Carolina in the USA. The fiber optics will be supplied from Claremont in North Carolina. The wind farm will consist of 77 3.0 MW turbines, grouped into 10 collector circuits that bring power to substations via 34.5 kV underground cable.

Leoni opens wiring systems SMS Group commissions plant in China modernised converter shop Leoni, a leading European provider of cables and cable systems to the automotive sector and other industries, opened what is now its fifth wiring systems factory in China. The facility, located in Tieling, will develop and manufacture products for several vehicle models of the company’s new customer BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. (BBA). BBA is a joint venture between BMW AG of Germany and its Chinese partner Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. “We are delighted to have significantly expanded our production capacity in China with this plant in Tieling and from there to be able to supply BBA as a new customer,” Dr Andreas Brand, member of the Management Board of Leoni AG in charge of the Wiring Systems Division (WSD), said on the occasion of the opening ceremony.

Leoni is investing a total of Euro 35 million in the new building and equipment in Tieling. With an area totalling more than 25,000 square metres, the plant provides space for up to 2,000 employees when running at full capacity. Serial production is scheduled to commence in early 2016. The new plant in Tieling is the Wiring Systems Division’s fifth alongside its production facilities in Shanghai, Jining, Penglai and Langfang. All the plants produce cable harnesses and wiring systems for the car and commercial vehicle industry, also supplying local manufacturers in addition to customers based in Europe and the Americas.

Moreover, Leoni WSD has an additional location with operational units in Changchun. Leoni’s other division, Wire & Cable Solutions (WCS), operates a further seven plants in China.

At SSAB Lulea, Sweden, SMS Group has successfully commissioned a modernised converter shop and the pertaining environmental technology. SSAB fully achieved its own target of increasing the yield of both converters and satisfying the high environmental standards demanded.

Kurt Lindqvist, project manager of the converter shop at SSAB Lulea, said, “The proven technology of SMS provides very good results. Furthermore, the cooperation and communication during the erection and commissioning went very smoothly in an atmosphere of strong team spirit.”

SMS supplied two converter vessels with lamella suspension and the tilt drive systems. The two-motor tilt drive systems are easily accessible and very maintenance-friendly. The scope of supply also included the converter trunnion bearings, the height increase of the existing trunnion pedestals, and the installation of the vessels and trunnion rings. “Thanks to the design concept developed by SMS Group, the new converter vessels have become significantly larger. With an unchanged quantity of charge material of up to 130 tonnes, the internal volume of the converter has been increased by 10 per cent.

The additional capacity enables more environment-friendly process control and efficient energy recovery,” a press note states.

This increase in capacity was achieved by improved utilisation of the existing installation space. This was possible due to the lamella converter suspension system developed and patented by SMS Group.|WB

Interview

Babu Babel, President | IEEMA The countdown to ELECRAMA 2016, organised by the Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA), has begun. The 12th edition is scheduled from February 13 to 17 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), India today is the world’s third-largest producer of electricity and has a robust and thriving electrical products and equipment manufacturing industry, spanning the entire value chain from generation, transmission, control, distribution and last mile connectivity to end users. In this interview, Babu Babel, President, IEEMA, elaborates about what can be expected from this year’s show: What does this year’s ELECRAMA have to offer?

Every ELECRAMA has something different. This time it’s the World Utility Forum, which is a unique concept where we will try to get the top utilities of the world to come and choose relevant topics with regard to what the world is facing in terms of power generation, transmission and distribution.

There is a huge export opportunity waiting to be tapped for Indian manufacturers of electrical equipment. Developing countries across the globe are focusing on electrification to meet the rising aspirations of their people. Even in developed countries, there is an increasing demand for electrical equipment for renovation and modernisation of their ageing electricity networks. Simultaneously, with the ‘Make in India’ campaign taking shape, we are expecting a significant rise in international exhibitors this time in ELECRAMA. Will there be any focus on innovations and R&D in the electrical industry?

The constant changing conditions of international markets forces the stiff conditions that the nations have to face. Therefore, innovation is key to the competitive advantages available to any country. Technology advances help lower the cost and risk levels, thereby reducing the manufacturing capital requirements. Therefore, organisations have to always be in the learning mode to have a sustainable competitive edge. Increased spending in R&D will help develop costeffective technologies.

What is the status of the electrical equipment industry in India?

The size of the industry is valued at around USD 28 billion; a fourth of it is made up of power generation equipment with transmission and distribution contributing the rest.

The industry provides direct employment to about 5,00,000 people and indirectly to about 1 million. We, as a country, are aspiring to increase the output of the electrical equipment industry to USD 100 billion by 2022 and become a destination of choice for overseas’ producers of such equipment.

What is the status of the cable industry in particular?

The Indian wire and cable industry is now ` 33,000 crore in size, which is 14 per cent higher than the previous year. However, the CAGR of the industry for the past five years is only 10 per cent as the year before there was a dip in the market. In comparison, the Indian electronics and electrical industry, which saw a similar downturn in the previous year, has shown a growth of 10 per

cent. The wire and cable market is expected to witness rapid growth in the coming years due to government investments in power and telecommunication, dynamic industrialisation and urbanisation. Indian manufacturers have proven that they are as capable as global players in terms of manufacturing for special applications within India as well as for exports. The latest entrant to product upgradation is the 220 Kv technology that has more than five players in the industry versus less than two just a few years back.

How will the current government’s renewed focus on infrastructure development help the electrical industry? What are the estimated growth projections?

The Government of India has identified the power sector as a key sector of focus to promote sustained industrial growth. The Indian power sector has an investment potential of ` 15 trillion (USD 237 billion) in the next 4–5 years, thereby providing im-

mense opportunities in power generation, distribution, transmission and equipment.

By 2022, the installed power capacity in India is expected to reach 350 gigawatts (GW) from 243 GW in 2014, on the back of increasing industrialisation and economic development. The total market size of electrical machinery in India is anticipated to reach USD 100 billion by 2022 from USD 24 billion in 2013.

How are Indian companies faring in terms of export of electrical equipment, and especially cables?

The wire and cable industry is facing issues of over-competition, under-utilisation of resources, as well as over-capacity. Coupled with this are problems of cheap imports, low quality barriers for most products and abysmally slow payments by buyers.

Our own power cable industry is linked to the power sector, which is overall in deep financial trouble due to the accumulated losses of the utilities (mainly discoms) amount-

ing to more than ` 3 lakh crore; the entire sector is heavily stressed financially. Hence, it comes to a quirkily paradoxical situation where even if idle capacity is available the products cannot be supplied because of lack of working capital. A lot of companies have closed down and most others are limping along hoping for “acche din”. For the industry to rise above this, the government has to ease up the woes of the power sector and might have to finance the state governments to in turn finance the discoms.

Will IEEMA promote any particular themes in 2016?

ELECRAMA will for the first time feature the World Utility Summit. In addition, ‘Network to Networth’ is another new interesting and necessary addition to ELECRAMA 2016. ELECRAMA, for the first time, will feature unique experience pavilions displaying ‘energies of tomorrow’ and ‘evolution of 125 years of electricity’ in collaboration with IEEE.|WB

PLEASE VISIT US AT STALL NO. HB38 IN HALL 3A AND Stall No. REE 1 RE-PAVILLION AT ELECRAMA-2016 January 2016 | 5

Feature Messe Dusseldorf Gearing up for the Dusseldorf Show

AEI Machines

ust a few months from now, wire manufacturers from across the world will converge at the biggest trade show of its kind for this industry – Wire Dusseldorf 2016. It will be time once again to put on the best foot forward with a wide portfolio of products and technologies and network with professionals from the industry. Wire Bulletin presents responses from some of the confirmed exhibitors about the products they will display and their expectation from the show.

With 45 years of continuous presence in manufacturing and design of rigid stranding machines,

J

2M-Tech | Khu Sondermaschinen Group These two companies will exhibit in Hall 8 the following products: • QSVM 800 – High-speed strander based on a revolutionary design, capable of highest speeds with 100 per cent back twist, modular design, quick loading and unloading • SZ - Stranding machine with torsion type drive for stranding cables and OF • SZ - Stranding machine with multiple drive for screening SZ and Ceander • Multi-function robot for fully automatic cable processing • Crossheads for processing fluoropolymers • Crosshead for coating large diameter cables • Tooling with low friction coating • Extruder screws with low friction and anti-wear coating • Cable spools, braider snap on spools

Peter Khu, Managing Director

Thomas Mallinger, Managing Director

• Technology for retrofitting extruders for foamed insulation and sheathing.

“By exhibiting completely new technology, our group of companies expects to reach the international cable-making community at this first-class venue,” says a statement issued by Thomas Mallinger, Managing Director, 2M-Tech GmbH and Peter Khu, Managing Director, Khu Sondermaschinen GmbH. Websites: www.2mtech.at and www.khu.at.

Alok Jain, CEO AEI Machines (Associated Engineers & Industrials Ltd.) has taken power conductor stranding to the next level. This will be on display at Booth 11, D06 at the show.

The rigid strander specialist, known for superior quality and performance of its machines, emphasizes on design innovation, materials, process, workmanship and after-sales support. One of the key factors in years of consistent operation of AEI Machines is the in-house parts manufacture, fabrication and assembly of the complete machine. The main advantages of AEI’s rigid stranding machines for end-users are high speed, latest technology, robust construction, minimal maintenance and operator safety. Moreover these highly automated machines offer higher energy efficiency and ease of operation with reduced workforce.

AEI shall showcase its rigid stranders, which deliver accurate back tension, smooth strand deviation and precise lay control. These features are essentially required for superior quality compacted conductor in case of low, medium and EHV power cables and for high production

Enhance Quality Streamline Production

speeds in case of overhead conductor manufacture. Enhanced cage speeds and use of fully automatic bobbin batch loading systems further ensure higher production efficiencies and uptime. Also on display shall be the redesigned heavy duty compacting head suitable for high tolerance, Milliken conductor and other heads, including the recently developed TW head for manufacture of latest generation HTLS / trapezoidal wire overhead conductor. Website: www.aeimachines.com.

Ajex & Turner

Ravi Bansal, CEO Replacing the traditional ways of wiredrawing and compacting, the company has developed revolutionary VNT nano dies for copper, aluminium, aluminium alloy, stainless steel, MIG, and high/low carbon wire. These products will be on display at Booth 11, C03. With the boom in the wire industry, there is a call for new science to draw materials with both good wear resistance and surface properties, so that the quality of the drawn product is not compromised. The revolutionary nano-crystalline technology is the answer to all the needs of the wire industry. Along with VNT nano dies, the company has also developed lubricants for copper and aluminium with the continued on p.7

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for Drying • Conveying • Blending

Feature Messe Dusseldorf lowest consumption rate that can solve the problem of copper blackening and provide better lubricity.

“Our revolutionary TCD-10 will keep you ahead in the area of die polishing and grinding as it grinds and polishes angles and bearings in a single operation, which saves time, energy and is also very costeffective. The machine operates at a very high speed and can recondition dies in a very short time period. It provides accurate and precise angles on re-cut dies,” CEO Ravi Bansal states. Website: www.ajexturner.com.

Aztech Lubricants Aztech Lubricants is global provider of wiredrawing and lubricant solutions. With over 125 years of cumulative expertise, the company excels at providing a full line of calcium, sodium and potassium stearate drawing powders, RP oil, drawing oils and precoats. Its key brands that will be showcased at this year’s show at Booth 9, F062 will include EZDraw, EZClean, EZFeed and EZCoat. Additionally, the company offers a complete line of AZWipe spiral brushes for an easy method to remove excess scale, rust or coatings from wire. It has manufacturing and distribution capabilities in the US, South America, India and Asia.

Website: www.aztechlube.com.

Condat With 160 years of expertise, Condat’s lubricant range is recognised as a world reference in the metal forming market, especially for wiredrawing processes (mechanical and electrical wire). Its Vicafil® and SteelSkin® range gathers together the widest choice of wiredrawing soaps,

surface treatment, neat and soluble oils, degreasing products, etc. Condat works on a daily basis to improve its lubricant range and to develop safer products for both operators and the environment. The company proposes low HSE impact technologies: formulations with least severe labelling possible.

For high carbon steel, steelcord, spring wire, ropes, PC strand: dry drawing lubricants with low or zero Borax (sodium tetraboratepentahydrate). Since the end of 2010 and the classification of Borax as SVHC, Condat has discontinued the production of high Borax dry lubricants and surface coatings at its European site. This first step ensures that its surface coating and dry lubricants are not labeled reprotoxic and ensures a safer workplace for the operators. Keeping in mind that the future of Borax in Europe is jeopardized by its inscription on the SVHC list, Condat’s R&D has worked relentlessly to provide its customers with high-performance solutions.

Vicafil Santale 6®, wiredrawing soap, satisfies the more demanding operations such as the production of steelcord, allowing continuous quality improvement of the final product.

For low carbon steel, wire to be galvanized, CO2 welding: minimising the use of titanium dioxide in dry drawing lubricants. Lubricants containing titanium dioxide are often used where a heavy duty, high coating weight is required. Keeping ahead of the potential evolution in regulations, Condat has started to diminish the percentage of titanium dioxide in its lubricants and developed alternatives that are free of titanium dioxide. Vicafil Decal 440® is the perfect example: its use has been validated on processes where lubricants containing titanium dioxide were

usually used. This switch has been done without impact on productivity and provides improvements such as lower maintenance of acid cleaning baths or better compatibility with in line fluidized bed ovens.

For stainless steel on spring wire, cold heading wire: chlorinated paraffins. Another example is where Condat has discontinued the use of short and medium chain lengths of chlorinated paraffins.

Short chain lengths are banned and medium chain lengths contribute to the classification of industrial sites (e.g. European Seveso regulation). Chlorinated oils are commonly used in high-duty metal forming operations. Condat has reformulated its range of drawing oils and greases so that they are not labeled under the GHS regulations. Condat products, for example Vicafil TFG 4295® or Vicafil TFH 1672® oils, can be used safely by operators, with minimal impact on the environment and do not contribute to Seveso classification for end-users. They also result in cost savings in terms of waste disposal and site equipment. Website: www.condat.fr.

Davis-Standard Davis-Standard will feature its latest wire and cable technology during Wire Dusseldorf at Booth 9, A19. “Wire 2016 is an excellent venue for Davis-Standard to promote a new line of traversing and collapsible take-ups and pay-offs as well as capstan and extruder technology,” states a company press release. With a smaller overall footprint and excellent operator ergonomics, these machines have been well-received since their introduction in early 2015. Machine sizes range from 1,250 mm to 5,000 mm (48 to 195 inches)

with the greatest concentration within the 1,800 mm to 2,500 mm (70 to 98 inches) size range. For international customers, the machines are equipped with a Siemens AC drive, PLC and HMI with a Mitsubishi servo drive.

Jim Murphy, CEO For North American customers, the machines feature a Yaskawa A-1000 AC drive and Allen-Bradley/Rockwell components that include a servo drive, PLC (programmable logic controller) and HMI (human machine interface). Technology is available as ‘standalone’ (running in torque control) with a dancer or with an accumulator. Davis-Standard has also seen ongoing demand for its caterpillar capstan and HPE extruder technology. The company supplies multi-pass, linear and belt wrap capstans for the full range of wire and cable applications. Website: www.davisstandard.com.

Enkotec At Booth 15, C22, Danish manufacturer Enkotec A/S will present new, high-performance machinery for nail production. The company will present ENKOllator paper stick collator, designed for making collated sticks of nails. The collator includes many new features for reliable and cost-efficient continued on p.8

January 2016 | 7

Feature Messe Dusseldorf production. During the exhibition, the collator will be running in-line with a highspeed ENKOnail+nail manufacturing machine. Enkotec and Baussmann will jointly be exhibiting another high-speed in-line nail manufacturing line, including the ENKOllator wire coil collator, engineered and built by Baussmann. The in-line system will also feature an ENKOnail+machine and an ENKOrollthread-rolling machine.

Bent Just Petersen, Managing Director Enkotec will be demonstrating an ENKOnail machine, intended for small and mid-size capacity needs, which will be running together with its movable ENKOpacknail-counterpackaging machine.

Moreover, visitors to the booth will be able to see the new high-efficient plastic stick collator, engineered and built by Baussmann. Also on display will be an ENKOclean nail cleaning system, engineered and built by Vibron. Enkotec’s managing director, Bent Just Petersen, said, “This time we will be displaying most of our product programme, featuring great news as usual, in the largest booth ever seen with operating machines. We expect to attract many interested customers and look forward to welcoming you all.” Website: www.enkotec.com.

Gauder Group

Thierry Collard, CEO At Booth 10, E40, the Gauder Group will display new machines, second-hand machines, services and bows. This will be under the aegis of various companies such as: • Bow Technology: It designs and manufactures high-technology bows in a technical partnership with the most renowned cable-makers, offering a wide range of 500+ customised bow designs as well as the exclusive and the patented ‘GreenBow2’, enabling energy savings. The bows are available for 25+ well-known brands of double-twist machines (560 – 2,500 mm) such as Cortinovis, Lesmo, Niehoff, etc.

• Cable Services & Systems: The C2S division of the Gauder Group takes care of all wire and cable production lines, whatever the brand of the rotating equipment.

Up to 70,000 identified spare parts’ references are distributed worldwide through four logistic platforms, including hightechnology bows.

• Daloo: This is the logical extension of the group’s global offer for cable producers wanting an attractive alternative between new machines made in Europe with higher cost and second-hand machines without guaranteed performances. Its complete stranding lines and accessories

for the production of power and communication cables are delivered worldwide, including rigid cage stranders, taping lines, rewinding lines, take-ups and payoffs, pulling caterpillars, and now tubular stranders.

• Gauder: This is at the core of the Gauder Group and has the largest stock of machines for the wire and cable industry in Europe. “Creating solutions together”, the company is an ideal partner to set up ready to manufacture processes from its 1,000+ machinery warehouse (drawing, stranding/cabling, screening/taping/ armouring, wire coating, extruding, and coiling/rewinding for the production of wires, conductors, cables, ropes or steel products.

• Pourtier: It develops and produces highquality stranders, cablers and armouring lines for ferrous and nonferrous cables.

These machines are made in Europe with the highest standards in design and manufacturing for the production of all types of power cables from low and medium-voltage up to high and extra-high voltage: overhead cable (including new development with various shaped wires) and insulated cable, AC type (using high quality Milliken conductor) or DC type (using large round compacted crosssections). The company has recently chalked out an impressive achievement in the field of submarine and umbilical cables with the supply of large armouring lines and laying-up lines.

• Setic: It designs and manufactures highquality double-twist bunchers/stranders for power cable and automotive industry as well as complete solutions to produce special/LAN cables with enhanced performances (in one or two steps according to the product mix). The company is

continuously developing new lines and new concepts for nonferrous cables in order to meet the customers’ needs such as tandem mica taping/bunching, special high-speed lines for battery cable, new high-speed lines for special and instrumentation cables, etc.

Websites: www.bowtechnology.com, www.cable-services-systems.com, www. daloo-machines.com, www.gauderonline. com, www.pourtier-setic.com.

GMP Slovakia Group GMP Slovakia Group is worldwide leader in the production of steel reels, take-apart reels and handling equipment for the wire and cable industry. The company manufactures many different models of steel reels in their main manufacturing plant in Europe and in the second manufacturing plant in India. GMP Slovakia is a specialist in out-of-standard products also, and can design customised products to meet all customers’ requests. The company’s range of products also includes a patented product, the EK-EasyKoil.

Ruggeneneti Bruno, President This take-apart reel is very easy to use: the inside mechanical system of the continued on p.9

Silicone insulation line Meet us there!

Hall 9 Booth 9A60

For a product diameter of 10 to 240 mm2 with peroxide cross-linked silicone insulation.

Because we love to surprise you with our technological developments.

www.rosendahlnextrom.com

8 | WIRE BULLETIN

Feature Messe Dusseldorf EasyKoil allows the operator to release automatically the flange below, without any intervention, by just lifting the upper flange with suitable hooks after releasing the security lock. All internal parts of this take-apart reel and all the reels are manufactured with hardened steel. The products conform to high quality and are manufactured for long-term durability. “We expect to have many customers during the show in Dusseldorf even if the situation of the market is tough and there is huge competition because we are proud of our quality systems and products,” said Ruggeneneti Bruno, President, GMP Reels. Website: www.gmp-slovakia.com.

and effectiveness. The company’s product portfolio offers technical woven tapes (bullet-proof, flame barrier, rodent-proof, anti-temperature, water-blocking) as well as fibers and coated yarns (glass reinforcements, anti-rodent, ripcords, water-blocking, aramids, and a wide variety of coatings) for cables as in fiber optics, telecom, copper and power cables. “Gotex markets, sells and delivers the best products with the highest quality and performance with a remarkable fast response and excellent service,” says Jordi Perez, General Manager, Gotex. Website: www.gotexweb.com.

Gotex SA

For Melos and Inhol, fire protection from the inside will be an important topic during the Dusseldorf show in April 2016. Melos will lead the way to superior fire behaviour and CPR results. At the Melos/Inhol stand, a team of specialists will be available to introduce their ideas about the new approach to fire-fighting from the inside of the cable. Cone calorimeter tests show the excellent fire behaviour of some specific Melos’ bedding compounds. Char forming sheathing compounds will even lead to better fire behaviour results. The proof is there to see: www.inhol.com/downloads/videospresentations/.

The impact of bedding compounds might change the cable world over the forthcoming years. Bedding compounds will be used as a good ‘value for money’ tool to improve the total fire performance of a cable system in conjunction with LSFH jackets and (XL)PE insulations. “During your visit you will also be able to learn more about Mecoline HM 4 and HM 2 compounds and you will get information about the exclusive range of RDX (radiation cross-

Jordi Perez, General Manager Gotex, a European supplier for tapes and yarns for the cable industry will display its products at Booth 9, A2. Following the updated business expansion plan and market forecast for the next four years, Gotex wants to continue being the European leader supplier for tapes and yarns and become a reference in other markets like Asia, Middle East and America. Their in-house technique improves the performance and enduse processing of high-quality yarns, fibers and fabrics with processes that enhance the material properties, extending their life

linkable) high-performance compounds.

Also, our unique cable compound finder tool available for tablet and PC will guide you quickly and easily through our range of compound solutions for your specific cable requirements,” a press release states.

Websites: www.inhol.com and www.melos.com.

Lukas Anlagenbau GmbH

Inhol B.V Lukas Werner, CEO Established in 1959, Lukas Anlagenbau produces customer-specific equipment for the wire and cable industry. The focus of its products is on complete taping lines for producing taped or wrapped conductors with tape materials like PTFE, Kapton, Mica, paper, etc. “Also, for producing special cables for medical and aircraft applications, our taping lines can be found at many well-known suppliers worldwide.

Our product range covers single components like pay-offs, capstans, caterpillars and take-ups, up to complete rewinding lines and fine wiredrawing lines for nonferrous materials,” a press note states.

During the last few years, the development has been advanced by the intention of energy and size reduction. “At this year’s show we answer to this request with new components that are supposed to solidify our top position in taping machines for magnet wire applications and to extend our

business in the cable industry with costoptimised and easy-to-integrate taping and heating solutions. This should give incentives especially to the Asian market. At our new designed and enlarged Booth 12, B22 we are looking forward to meeting our long-standing customers as well as many new suitors,” said CEO Lukas Werner.

Website: www.lukas-anlagenbau.de.

Magnetic Analysis Corporation Magnetic Analysis Corporation will feature the new Minimac®55 affordable, compact, single-channel, high-performance eddy current instrument for testing wire, bar and parts, at its Booth 11, J 14. The Minimac 55 can readily detect short surface flaws such as laps, slivers and cracks, and some subsurface defects. It is well-suited for dedicated, continuous production line testing where simple set-up, without constant operator adjustment, is desirable, and once optimum settings are set, a lockout mode can prevent unauthorised changes.

Minimac can also check continuity and locate welds in single and multi-conductor insulated wire and cable.

Joseph Vitulli, President and CEO MAC’s new ceramic long life coils and bushings will also be featured. These coils continued on p.10

Quality in its purest form.

With passion, we develop future-oriented inspection and sorting devices for the quality assurance of plastic pellets, such as the Purity Scanner.

– detects contamination from 50 μm inside the pellet and on its surface by X-ray and optical cameras – purest material and highly qualitative end products due to automated sorting – efficient production without time-outs and scrap – suitable for different applications independent of material and color

Visit us from April 4-8, 2016 at the wire/tube in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Hall 9, Booth A41

www.sikora.net/purityscanner

January 2016 | 9

Feature Messe Dusseldorf are especially effective for testing critical wire applications without damaging the material’s surface. These coils and MAC’s broad range of encircling and sector test coils are available for use with the Minimac 55. Coil Platforms, including those with DC saturation for testing magnetic material are offered. MAC will also feature its newest Rotomac® eddy current tester for high-performance detection of seam type defects in wire and bar, including lines with continuous wire operations such as drawing, spring-making, parts forming, or straight and cut. “Our 85+ years of experience working with metal producers has given MAC an in-depth understanding of customer needs,” said Joseph Vitulli, the company’s president and CEO. Website: www.mac-ndt.com.

Medek & Schörner

Werner Lichtscheidl, Managing Director Medek & Schörner will be presenting and demonstrating the following highperformance cable marking machines at Booth 10C, 52-01: Cable Marking Machines • High quality gravure printers (LAN cables, control cables, etc.) for speeds up to 1,200 m/min.

• Water misting unit for the application of fine water dust for pre-cooling of the hot wire immediately after the extruder.

• Embossing meter markers / hot foil sequential meter markers for highest accuracy of length measurement (power cables, telecommunication cables, optical fiber cables, etc.).

• High performance ring markers for marking telephone wires, switchboard wires, automotive cables, LAN cables.

• Video system for monitoring the print quality of fast-running cable printing machines, e.g. allowing real-time inspection for bad quality and/or missing prints.

• Laser marking system for cables.

Optical Fiber Coating Systems Top speed optical fiber processing systems such as: • Optical fiber colour coding up to 3,000 m/min.

• Ring marking of optical fibers.

• Tight buffering up to 1,300 m/min.

• Fiber ribbon production with excellent ribbon planarity and for speeds up to 1,000 m/min.

• CFU production of compact fiber units.

“Thanks to the modularity and flexibility of its systems, Medek & Schoerner as a market leader in coating machines for optical fibers was able to implement other applications, including some outside the field of optical fibers such as copper wire insulation with UV varnishes (enamelled wire) and manufacture of dimension-sensitive precision micro flexible flat cables (FFC) using UV resins. So far, Wire Duesseldorf has always fulfilled our expectations in terms of strengthening customer relationship, holding interesting discussions with customers and other exhibitors and the op-

10 | WIRE BULLETIN

portunity to display our innovations. Since Dusseldorf is not too far from Austria, it lets us display several of our cable marking machines and optical fiber coatiing lines.

In the last few years, India has become the most important market for us and we are looking forward to meeting our business partners and friends from India,” said Werner Lichtscheidl, the company’s managing director. Website: www.medek.at.

TIG (GTAW) stainless steel filler welding wire have recently been accredited with Deutsche Bahn (DB) approval in addition to prestigious approvals from Bureau Veritas for marine applications, TUV for pressure vessels and equipment and CE Mark,” said the company’s Executive Director Nikhil Nevatia. The company will exhibit its product range at Booth 11, D59. Website: www.nevatiasteel.com.

Micro Products Company

Rigon Instruments

William Banks, CEO US-based Micro Products Company, a leading manufacturer of butt welders for over 85 years, will display its high performance Micro-Weld butt welders. Because of its location and large number of international attendees, the show not only gives Micro-Weld an excellent opportunity to display its butt welders for continuous processing of wire, rod or cable, but also to meet existing and potential customers from all over the world, show and explain the uniqueness of design and capabilities and even explore the possibilities of customdesign for special applications.

Micro-Weld also uses this event to meet many international representatives and discuss business opportunities and strategies in their countries. Micro-Weld butt welders are used in over 30 countries, including India, by leading national and international wire and cable manufacturing companies.

Fifty models are available for steel, copper, aluminum, brass and alloys. The company offers excellent service and support worldwide with representatives in several countries, including India, China, Turkey, Western Europe, Middle East, Bangladesh, Russia, Korea, Mexico/South America, Brazil, etc. Website: www.micro-weld.com.

Nevatia Steel & Alloys

Nikhil Nevatia, Executive Director Incorporated in 1988, with its corporate headquarters in Mumbai, India, Nevatia Steel & Alloys has two stainless steel wire production units at Tarapur (near Mumbai) with total manufacturing capacity of 9,000 MT per annum. The company’s products are used in the manufacturing of springs, screws, rivets, nails, sieves, wire mesh, fasteners, wall ties, kitchenware, EPQ for baskets and trolleys, filler wire, electrodes, etc. They are also used in automotive, marine, petrochemical, food and paper industries. The products are exported across the globe, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK, USA, Russia, Malaysia and Vietnam. “Nevatia Steel is proud to announce that Nevinox® brand MIG (GMAW) and

Roberto Rigon, CEO With its specialisation in enamelled wire, the company will display its wide range of wire testing equipment. “For enamelled wire, we are able to control all the main features, viz. dimensions and mechanical, electrical, chemical and thermal properties. Wire manufacturers rely on us for testing equipment that confirms to the best international standards such as IEC 60851, NEMA MW 1000, JIS C 3003, etc.

We also undertake specific tests that apply technologies of the future,” says CEO Roberto Rigon. Website: www.rigon.it.

Over the last two years, Nextrom has focused on further developing its preforms and fiber manufacturing solutions to attain excellence, allowing customers to improve productivity while reducing production costs: high-yield VAD core process, OVD cladding technology with SiCl4 or D4, draw towers for extreme speeds, very large preforms and spools, and the recovery of helium, to name just a few. The company will present its latest developments regarding dual take-up and the proof tester.

In the field of fiber optic cables, Rosendahl and Nextrom have not only worked regularly on achieving further developments, but also hit the “high performance” button. The new “turbo” loose tube line not only saves space thanks to its new design and technology, but is also efficient with regard to material and energy consumption. The turbo is definitely due to production performance, though. With its product speed of up to 1,000 m/min, it represents the fastest secondary coating line on the market. Its live streams show the lines in production. In addition, the new ROBI high-speed, low-tension binder will be presented as part of the SZ standing program for fiber optic cables. Website: www.rosendahlnextrom.com.

Sarvasv Group

Rosendahl and Nextrom Sarvasv Group Team

Siegfried Altmann, CEO

Gerhard Jakopic, CEO

Over recent months, Rosendahl has been working intensively on extrusion technology. In particular, when it came to the extrusion of high-temperature materials and silicone, a great deal of finesse was called for. Those who are familiar with Rosendahl know that the team loves a good challenge, and that was precisely the reason for the excellent results. The extrusion crosshead plays a decisive role here, which was also the reason that many hours of development were invested. The full range of standard and special extrusion crossheads will be on show at the fair at Booth 9, A60. They are suitable for product diameters of 2 to 180 mm. From single layers to skin-foam-skinstripes, the sky is the limit. The production lines for your needs regarding low, medium and high-voltage energy cables as well as automotive and communications cables have also been improved and enhanced.

Nextrom places its trust in high speeds and a manufacturing process for preforms and fibers that conserves resources. The preform technology requires knowhow and precision. Preforms are tending to become larger and larger, which makes constant quality and production lengths possible.

Nextrom has developed a special helium recovery system for draw towers, which will be presented in Dusseldorf. And the latest developments regarding dual take-up and the proof tester will round off the company’s presentation at the fair.

A leader in cable machinery, New Delhibased Sarvasv Group shall be displaying their high-speed double-twist buncher at the show. The buncher is suitable for flexible/rigid/insulated core bunching up to 10 sq mm with speed upto 5,000 TPM. “We are looking forward to a good turnout during the Wire Dusseldorf 2016 show. We expect visitors from across the globe and a good response from old and new clients,” said Varun Kapoor, Director, Sarvasv Group. Website: www.sarvasv.com.

Sikora

Harry Prunk, Member of the Board Bremen-based Sikora will present its full portfolio of well-proven and innovative non-contact measuring, control, inspection and sorting devices for quality assurance and cost reduction in the wire, cable, optical fiber and plastics industries at Booth 9, A41. “I am looking forward to meeting and talking with customers, friends and interested show visitors while introducing our innovative technology. This will include the PREHEATER 6000 TC, a temperature-controlled conductor preheating device that assures an optimum adhesion of the PE or other plastics on the conductor. In this context, we will also present the continued on p.11

Feature Messe Dusseldorf WIRE-TEMP 6000, a non-contact conductor temperature measurement system that is now also available for diameters up to 50 mm and thus suitable for installation in CV-lines,” said Harry Prunk, Member of the Board, Sikora.

Another highlight will be the PURITY SCANNER for online inspection and sorting of plastic material that is used, for example, for the insulation of power cables.

The system assures that only pure material enters the extrusion process and the final product. Furthermore, the Purity Concept Systems would celebrate their premiere at the show. With this technological innovation there are modular designed devices available for on or offline inspection and analysis of pellets, flakes and tapes/films.

The systems are based on X-ray, infrared or optical technologies depending on application.

“In addition, visitors will get to know our sophisticated systems for quality assurance of optical fibers in the drawing tower. The product series is now complemented by a gauge head for measuring the fiber temperature as well innovative equipment that gives information on the coating concentricity. Experience these and many other innovations from Sikora. Come up to our booth for conversations, technical discussions and enjoy freshly prepared food and refreshments from our cocktail bar on the second floor,” Prunk added. Website: www.sikora.net.

Supermac Industries At this year’s show in Dusseldorf, Supermac Industries will once again display its high-speed insulating line for house wiring/automotive cable/control cable.

The configuration of the line is also WB January16 Ad 12/22/15 6:01 AM

Teknor Apex Company

Founders Harbhajan Singh & Kamarjit Singh customised as per technical and budgetary requirements. The lines are available in single/dual/triple extrusion system for providing skin/single line/dual line through piggyback mobile extruder.

These mobile extruders have the benefit of space-saving and can easily be changed for any line direction. The extruder can be rotated 360 degrees with the base fixed to the ground. Also, the company is now representing MicroWeld in India for their product range while MicroWeld represents Supermac Industries in the US for its entire portfolio.

Established in 1974, Supermac Industries is a leading solutions’ provider of cutting-edge process technologies and advanced manufacturing systems for cable industries worldwide. The company is built on the pillars of the combined vision of Harbhajan Singh and Kamarjit Singh.

The innovative approach has helped the company gain prominence in the manufacturing of extrusion lines, insulating equipment and sheathing machinery for premier manufacturers of power cables, optical fiber cables, housing wiring, control cables, and other areas. The company has three advanced manufacturing facilities located in Manesar and New Delhi, altogether covering an area up to 95,000 square feet. Website: 1www.supermacindia.com.

Page

At Booth 9, E06-1, Teknor Apex exhibit will feature a full range of compounds for wire and cable, including: • Apex® PVC compounds covering the broadest range of insulation and jacketing applications, with formulations to meet special electrical compliance, flame retardance, weatherability, oil resistance and many other end-use requirements • Fireguard® low-flame, low-smoke compounds for plenum cable insulation and jacketing • Flexalloy® ultra high molecular weight PVC elastomers for extreme temperatures and environment. With brittle point of -50 °C and high temperature rating of 105 °C, these compounds are UL-recognised components for outdoor and wet location uses and UL-approved for flexible cord insulation and jacketing • Halguard® halogen-free, flame retardant, low-smoke compounds, which meet IEC specifications for smoke generation and flame spread.

Mike Patel, Director-Marketing and Business Development Representing the Vinyl Division of Teknor Apex at the show will be Mike Patel, Director-Marketing and Business Development and David Braun, Wire and Cable Industry Manager. “Wire Düsseldorf

will provide Teknor Apex with access to manufacturers from Europe and around the world looking for solutions to current issues such as increasing regulatory stringency and growing demand for compounds tailored to emerging applications. In addition to new compounds that provide enhanced oil resistance and flame retardance as well as improved cost-performance, we will be featuring products specially developed for a broad range of industrial cables and the fast-growing market of electric vehicle chargers,” Patel said. Website: www. teknorapex.com.

Venus Wire Industries

Ghevarchand Sanghvi, Managing Director Venus Wire Industries is an Indian company manufacturing stainless steel wires and bars. It has been present in the international market since the last 25 years and supplies to more than 60 countries. Its product range includes stainless steel wire, wire rods, welding wire and bright bars in round, hexagonal and square shapes. “We are celebrating our 25th year anniversary in 2016 and hence are particularly looking forward to the Dusseldorf show to meet our suppliers and customers and celebrate with them,” said Ghevarchand Sanghvi, the company’s managing director. Website: www.venuswires.com.|WB

Built in USA Used Worldwide High Performance Butt Welders Used by leading companies in over 30 countries including India for continuous processing of wire, rod and cable Web: www.micro-weld.com Email: info@micro-weld.com

Micro-Weld

Hall-9 Booth-C73 Dusseldorf Germany April 4-8 2016

Over 50 models In India Contact: A.N. Sinha (Director) Alar Group, New Delhi, India Phone: +91-11-23747526 • Email: alar@alar.in Micro Products Company, Batavia, Illinois U.S.A. +1 630-406-9550

January 2016 | 11

FEATURE Making IT work in the wire and cable industry Information Technology (IT) has become a key asset for companies to optimise their business processes and create competitive advantage. Still, the way and the intensity of using IT is quite different across industries and individual companies. In this paper we will explore the potential value-addition of IT specifically for the wire and cable industry.

By Albert Groothedde (MSc, MBA), CEO at InnoVites

Albert Groothedde According to the SIC 3357 definition, wire and cable companies are “primarily engaged in drawing, drawing and insulating, and insulating wire and cable of nonferrous metals from purchased wire bars, rods, or wire”. In this paper we will also consider the companies producing fiber optic cables. We will first describe the business context of the wire and cable industry: what are its characteristics compared to other industries and what are some trends that we see in the industry that are relevant for our analysis. After setting the context, we will identify where IT can contribute most to the business performance in the wire and cable industry and will finish with some conclusions. Notice that in this paper we focus on the role of IT that is specific to the wire and cable industry, and therefore we ignore the ‘generic’ IT solutions that are applicable across industries such as CRM software and social media strategies.

Ongoing consolidation The wire and cable industry is characterised by ongoing consolidation. The top 10 companies are getting larger and taking more and more of the market share to gain economies of scale and better commercial and financial positions in the market. Still a ‘long tail’ of smaller cable manufacturers exists that focuses on specific customer requirements that the large players cannot deliver.

Fragile recovery The industry saw a significant demand fall due to recession. Some companies could cushion the hit by focusing on demand related to renewable energy (wind, solar). In recent years, the revenues in the industry have been recovering, but margins fail to improve due to strong international competition.

Operational rationalisation The competitive pressure has forced cable manufacturers to further rationalise the production processes in their factories.

The drive to continuously improve these processes has resulted into a less diverse product mix that is run in factories. In fact, generally speaking, we see factories in this industry moving to two extremes. Operations become focused on either standard cables, or on custom-specific cables. Factories that run standard products are optimised for the mass production of cable types with limited variation to minimise changeovers so that material costs are mi-

12 | WIRE BULLETIN

nimised and resources’ utilisation is maximised. Factories that move to a diversified mix of custom cables position themselves to maximise their ability to absorb customer information and process this information throughout the supply chain. For these types of businesses it’s crucial to be agile to the continuous changing information in their environment.

Risk of price volatility There is one constant in the wire and cable industry: the continuously changing prices of the conducting materials. In recent years, the price of copper has been anywhere between USD 3,000 and USD 10,000 (per metric ton). Price jumps of USD 500 per month are not exceptions.

This explains why executives in this industry have a close eye on the operations: a lot of the company capital is stuck in inventory in the factory and warehouses. Significant improvements have been made in working capital reductions, but this remains a top priority for this industry.

Application of information technology There are numerous possible applications of IT in the wire and cable industry.

It’s a matter of validating and prioritizing these potential projects. At the end of the day, IT investments have to obey the same ‘financial regime’ as other investments in a company. In the past, CEOs may have decided to purchase an ERP software product based on conversations at the golf course.

Or because a consultant told them that their IT systems would collapse if they wouldn’t replace them with software that knew there was life after December 31, 1999. These days are behind us. Given the capital intensity of the wire and cable business, it makes sense to assess the impact of an investment in this industry on the capability of a business to efficiently utilise capital to operate, show profit, and grow.

A ratio that helps achieving this insight is the Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), defined as:

Earnings Before Interest and Tax ROCE = ——————————————

Capital Employed

We can rewrite this a little bit by introducing the company’s revenue in this equation: ROCE =

Earnings Before Interest and Tax —————————————— Revenue

× Revenue ——————————————

Capital Employed

Now we see that ROCE breaks down into two components: ROCE = Return on Sales (ROS) × Asset Turnover

For our discussion in this paper we focus on an important subset of the assets: the inventory. We further simplify ROCE to: ROCE ~ Margin × Inventory Turnover So, when assessing an (IT) investment in this industry, it has to have a significant improvement in either the margin or the inventory turnover for the company. In the following parts of this paper we will discuss a number of business domains where an investment in IT can indeed help a wire and cable manufacturer to improve the margin, the inventory turnover, or both. We recognise that it can be a challenge to express the impact of IT investments in monetary terms. In some cases, IT is a strategic enabler of future growth of the company and the impact on margin and inventory turnover can only be estimated based on assumptions.

Examples of business domains that benefit from IT We will now explore business domains in the wire and cable industry that can benefit from IT. Remember, we pay special attention for opportunities to improve margin and inventory turnover. Based on our experience in the wire and cable industry, we will focus on some business domains where we often find opportunities to improve business performance by investing in IT.

Product engineering and quoting Product engineering and quoting the customer are about volumes and conversion rates: the success of these processes depends on the ability to process requests for quotation (RFQ) efficiently while converting a high percentage of the quotes into orders. As the win ratio in the industry typically is around 10 per cent, it’s important to use the resources that process customer RFQs efficiently. IT can certainly contribute to the success of a company in this area.

Industry-specific engineering and quoting software can automate the complex costing calculations and keep the designs consistent and up-to-date. This software can automatically produce high quality data sheet, 2D or 3D drawings, quotations, etc.

This can result in significant savings for the company and at the same time the sales organisation becomes more responsive to customer requests.

Modern workflow capabilities enable an efficient routing of the tasks throughout the organisation, further reducing the turnaround times for customer RFQs. The engineering software, when integrated to ERP and MES systems, will also enable the automatic and real-time distribution of product data across the company. The availability of up-to-date product information in all parts of the company is crucial to support and leverage product and process innovation and stay ahead of competition.

The largest cable manufacturer of India, Polycab, implemented the leading engineering and quoting software in this indus-

try (CableBuilder) and reported significant benefits. It enabled them to establish efficient and consistent procedures in their engineering processes. The time needed to create new designs dramatically reduced to minutes rather than hours. Mass updates of product data became an automated routine rather than a time-consuming task. By reducing costs and becoming more responsive to customer needs, IT can help improve margins in this business domain.

Sales and invoicing The main priority in sales is to respond to customer needs fast and accurate. In today’s world the information associated with customer requirements are increasing both in volume and volatility. A successful company is able to deal with this information effectively. Information Technology can indeed help companies to stand out in handling the information in sales-related processes. First of all, an industry-specific order entry system helps sales’ teams to find existing designs and their availability in stock, based on the customer requirements. Systems offer an advanced search possibility to find designs using characteristics such as: application, number of elements, cross-section area, etc.

In addition, the sales team will be able to capture the details of the customer requirements in the system. In the wire and cable industry, these details typically include: length breakdown, length tolerance, drum type, length and clamp marking (e.g. marine cables). This information will travel downstream in the supply chain so that the customer gets the products delivered in time and in the exact conditions as agreed.

An important challenge in the sales of many cable types is the risk management of the price volatility of the conducting materials such as copper and aluminum. IT can be used to execute various strategies of risk management. Amongst others, these strategies include automatic price adjustments on sales lines, hedging strategies, periodic automatic settlements with customers and vendors or mass updates of price lists, all based on actual copper prices.

A US-based cable manufacturer who uses a leading ERP system (InnoVites CableERP) to manage their customer pricing saves 2 FTE by automating their pricing strategies with their industry-specific ERP system. IT helps companies to deal with information about customer requirements more effectively and at the same time reduce the risk of commodity price volatility.

This will result in a better customer experience and ultimately better margins for the company.

Planning Planning in the wire and cable industry is a balancing act to maximise production efficiency while keeping inventory at an acceptable level. On the one hand, the planner will try to create efficient production runs at the extruders and armouring machines by continued on p.13

FEATURE

Representational pictures of various production processes in wire and cable industry. grouping production jobs and minimising change-over losses in time and material.

On the other hand, the planner will avoid to move jobs forward too much as this will increase capital consumption in inventory of semi-finished products. It’s in this domain where IT can show off its core competency of mass data processing and complex computing. Planning software is able to calculate a longer-term preliminary plan based on an ever-increasing number of parameters. For the wire and cable industry it’s important that length-based inventory netting, grouping and parallel consumption of materials is supported in these calculations.

For example, the system should take the maximum drum size for production into account when creating planned orders.

The planner can review and adjust the results before releasing the planned orders in time-buckets (typically one week) to the procurement and production departments.

The production manager will typically apply a second round of optimisation to the orders in these time buckets to achieve optimal production efficiency while taking the complex context of the production operations into account. We will discuss this in more detail in the next paragraph.

Information Technology can be instrumental in the planning process to reduce costs of products by optimising production runs, resulting in higher margins for the company. The effort to optimise production processes should not bring the level of inventory turnover below acceptable levels. We have seen that IT can help in this balancing act.

Also, the operators need to have the complete and up-to-date product and process information at the production line to make sure that the production job is executed according to specifications. Engineering systems can be connected with the ERP and MES systems to make sure that the latest information is readily available on the shop floor. In today’s competitive environment it’s essential to continuously improve processes. To find potential areas for improvements, there is a need for feedback-loops to be installed in the factory: Do we produce within customer tolerances? Do we consume the nominal amount of materials? Do we meet the quality norms?

This is the area of MES where production, process and quality data is collected automatically from SCADA systems, direct PLC input or by manual input. This data is then processed to generate alerts for immediate action or the data is used for trend analysis to identify potential areas for improvements. The feedback that comes back from production can be routed back to the engineering system so that the product engineering team can take appropriate action. In production, IT can help to reduce costs by helping to put jobs in the right sequence and by introducing feedback loops for continuous improvement. The time and material savings will result in a better margin for the company. A well-managed flow of materials also speeds up the inventory turnover, further improving the overall business performance.

Production

The (increasing) product regulation in the wire and cable industry translates in a significant number of quality tests that need to be executed for different cable types. These tests can include multiple measurements and can be applicable for every drum, for a sample test depending on volume or time. The processes related to quality assurance can be very timeconsuming. Again, IT can help to reduce the time and costs related to these processes. ERP and MES systems can automatically generate quality jobs with the required measurements, based on the setup that has been defined for the product (family). In addition, the ERP and MES systems can be integrated to the engineering system to automatically populate the measurements with the norm values and it tolerances as defined by the engineering team. The results of the quality measurements again can be fed back to the engineering system to close the loop of continuous improvement.

Finally let’s consider an example of the application of IT that is specific for the optical fiber cable industry. Industry-specific ERP can be used to automatically register, validate and grade fibers that are received from the vendor. Using the file of the vendor that contains the unique properties of each fiber, the system can automatically validate these properties against the applicable tolerances. IT can create significant

The production domain is where ‘the rubber hits the road’, or maybe better to say where the PVC hits the copper. It’s here where the expensive raw materials such as copper, aluminum or fibers are being consumed in the production processes. It’s here where the scarce capacity of bottleneck resources determines the throughput of the factory. This is why production management in wire and cable factories is focused on minimising scrap and optimising OEE of the assets. Many factors determine the performance of the production department.

To help production management to optimise the operations, it’s important to have a clear overview of the relevant information.

For example, when scheduling the jobs for the extruders, it’s important to see the construction of the conductors, the insulation material, the masterbatch, etc. to be able to determine the optimal sequence of the jobs. At the same time, the planner should take into account the availability of (semi-finished) materials and the impact of rescheduling a job on downstream jobs in the factory and ultimately on the delivery date committed to the customer. Also, the impact on inventory levels should be considered. IT can provide the tools that planners help to make these decisions by presenting this information in a single overview.

time savings in the area of quality assurance. This will improve the margin for the company.

Warehousing and logistics

administration of delivery drums can be automated as well, so that the cable manufacturer will be able to remind, or invoice customers in case of returnable drums. In this area, IT can help to increase the speed of the material that flows through the warehouse, thus increasing the inventory turnover. Also, IT can help reduce (cutting) scraps and thus improve the margin for the company.

In warehousing and logistics, it’s about getting the finished products delivered to the customer at the agreed delivery time, while keeping the inventory at the lowest level possible. In the wire and cable business it is important to have an industry- Conclusions specific ERP system that provides visibility of inventory down to the individual length Just like the rest of the world, opera(drum) level. This granularity is required tions in the wire and cable industry are to be able to efficiently allocate available becoming more information-intensive, stock to demands that come from custom- and this information becomes more volaers or other sources of demand. An indus- tile. Potential customers look for vendors try-specific ERP system can also apply op- that are easy to do business with. It means timisation algorithms for these allocations that the strategic role of IT will continue to minimise scrap and rewinds. Also, it can to increase. It also means that the IT stratoffer alternative products that can be used egy of businesses in this industry has a big to fulfill the need of the customer e.g. after impact on company performance. For wire recoiling a larger put-up. and cable companies there are many opIT can also help to streamline the cut- portunities to use IT as a sustainable comting operations, by automatically generate petitive advantage. To achieve this, it is cutting jobs based on the inventory alloca- recommended to implement an IT strategy tions. Of course the system would provide that leads the company to an industry-spefull traceability for each individual length cific, modern, and fully-integrated IT platacross the supply chain so that quality is- form that addresses their industry-specific sues can be tracked to their source. The needs now and in the future.|WB ad_green_wji_1-4_1112_Layout 1 12/4/12 9:21 AM Page 1

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January 2016 | 13

COMPANY PROFILE FennLLC: A Long Journey Indeed!

Fenn is a global supplier of innovative, state-of-the-art metal forming machinery with 2015 marking 115 years of experience in the industry. With new owners and innovative research and development initiatives, Fenn is the talk of every industry trade show. The company has refreshed its business from the bottom up, with forward looking plans for the forthcoming year.

Torin FZ series spring coiler. ity Products Inc. (QPI). Today, Fenn is still headquartered in Connecticut, USA with agents available across the globe to provide world-class sales and service to support their customers’ projects and goals.

A president with decades of industry knowledge

Paul Uccello In 1900, Wilson Fenn founded Fenn Technologies, a small machine shop in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. In addition to metal forming machinery, Fenn also produced flight critical assemblies for aircraft. In 2003, Fenn acquired BHS-Torin of Connecticut, which itself is a company four years older than Fenn. Also a supplier of rolling mills, wire flattening and shaping equipment, and the well-known Torin® brand of spring coilers, Fenn were able to add additional experienced staff and product offerings to its portfolio. In July of 2014, Fenn was sold by SPX to Qual-

Paul Uccello has been dedicated to Fenn and its parent companies for a total of eight years. Paul has 28 years of experience in aerospace and manufacturing companies prior to working with Fenn. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Connecticut State University, moving on to receive an MS and MBA at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Paul also attended Harvard Business School’s programme for Management Development. Paul’s education, combined with his knowledgeable experience in lean manufacturing, aerospace, operations management and most importantly metal forming machinery have helped to continuously improve Fenn’s processes to better serve their client base.

Product lines

Fenn provides a complete line of metal forming equipment, working with each

REACH OUT! Wire Bulletin, the quarterly publication of Wire Association International (WAI) that covers the Asian wire and cable industry, is now into its sixth year and continues to be the ultimate informative source of news and technical articles.

Advertising in Wire Bulletin can therefore be your most effective route to reach out to your existing and potential clients across the wire and cable sector.

Apart from the print edition, you can also place your advertisements on our website www.wirebulletin.net.

Book your advertisement and avail of many free benefits!

For bookings and inquiries, contact: Huned Contractor, Editor E-mail: hcontractor@wirenet.org Tel: +91-7756851467

14 | WIRE BULLETIN

customer to create a customised machine suited to their specific application. Examples of these equipment include rolling mills for hot or cold rolling of ferrous and nonferrous strip or wire, and wire flattening and shaping lines to form natural flat or shaped wire. Examples of applications for wire shaping machines include wellscreen wire as well as photovoltaic wire for solar applications. Fenn also produces turks heads for forming a variety of shapes directly from round wire at high production speeds, Torin® spring coilers to produce several types of springs on a single machine as well as drawbenches for straight length die drawing and Swagers for reduction forming of tube, rod or wire.

Fenn is unique in that it offers a wide range of spare parts with prompt service on stock or replacement parts. Fenn also offers the option of upgrades and remanufactures for mechanical and/or electronic rework of older machines. These options allow the customer who may not be able to purchase a new machine to increase the safety and efficiency of their aged machine while minimising maintenance time and costs.

Major clients Fenn has had the pleasure of serving several companies within the India market including: • Bilfinger Water Technolgies of Gandhinagar, India • Indian Institute of Technology of Hyderabad, India • AMPRI of Bhopal, India • Apollo of Gandhinagar, India • Indo Schottle of Pune, India.

Fenn is currently serving a variety of indemand industries, including wedgewire for wellscreens in water wells, PV line for the solar industry, and thin fine wire for the medical industry.

Production facilities With QPI’s backing and support, Fenn recently upgraded to its new facility in East Berlin, Connecticut. Fenn’s new state-ofthe-art manufacturing facility has a conveniently located in-house die shop, utilising craftsmen with years of experience in highquality spare parts. The company’s wellappointed office area has enabled them to better serve their clients. The new facility has an additional second floor with generous space available as the company continues its plans for growth.

In September 2015, over 100 customers, vendors, local government officials and industry friends gathered at their new facility to celebrate the move and their 115-year history. The event started with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the morning led by QPI’s Chief Executive Officer David Somers, along with with Fenn’s full staff and government dignitaries in attendance. In the afternoon, Fenn hosted guests with shop tours, educational sessions about

each of their product lines, including wire flattening and shaping lines, rolling mills, spring coilers, swagers, drawbenches and turks heads. Each product line was represented with an actual working machine for demonstration.

Fenn also provided educational outlines about spare parts, upgrade and remanufacture, and service and training capabilities.

“We hosted catered hors-d’oeuvres, an open bar and a beautiful dinner for all of our guests,” said Paul Uccello, President at Fenn. “It was a successful event, and provided Fenn with the opportunity to show both its local and industry communities what our operation is all about. We are very proud that we have remained competitive in providing metal forming solutions for the last 115 years, and look forward to the next 115!” he added.

Growth plans for 2016 Due to significant investment from QPI, Fenn is able to focus on long-term growth and investment in research and development. With Fenn’s commitment to growth, they have hired 10 new employees this year alone, adding support to all departments including engineering, sales, marketing, operations, and finance.

Research and development The first major research and development project Fenn has undertaken in 2015 was a redesign of its Torin FZ series spring coiler. The Generation 2 machine offers customers speed, versatility, and reliability with added features for increased efficiency. In order to manage all of its research and development projects, Fenn has designed a strategic roadmap. The sales, product development and engineering teams will work closely together to manage the designated research and development projects and ensure milestones are met. These projects will include additional enhancements to the spring coiler, swagers, rolling mills and wire shaping lines.

Overview of the global wire and cable market for 2016 With a new location, additional staff, and increased product offerings, Fenn is optimistic about what 2016 has to offer, “Based on the higher volume of inquiries in a variety of markets, including medical, precious metal, solar and wellscreen, we feel 2016 will be a very busy year for the wire and cable market,” Fenn’s Sales Engineer Thomas Mushroe shared. With their upgraded facility, new ownership and exciting roadmap for upcoming years, Fenn is very optimistic about 2016.

Contact details: Fenn LLC, 80 Clark Drive, Unit 5D, East Berlin, CT 06023, USA. Tel.: +1 860-259-6600, Fax: +1 860-2596601. Website: www.fenn-torin.com.|WB

COMPANY PROFILE METALUBE: Global Specialists in HighPerformance Lubricants The UK-based manufacturer now has a state-of-the-laboratory to create more innovative products and has also been awarded ISO 14001 certification.

METALUBE® was established in 1989 and is a UK-based manufacturer of specialist industrial lubricants, exporting to over 80 countries worldwide. At its Manchester UK headquarters, the company has a fully integrated lubricant manufacturing facility, including brand new state-of-the-art laboratories. The company set up an office in Mumbai in 2011, headed by General Manager Amit Gupte. The business was built around the production of lubricants for drawing nonferrous wire and tube products and these still remain a key part of the portfolio.

However, today METALUBE also offers a range of lubricants for metal process and protection. These include protective greases for overhead line conductors, metal forming fluids, rust preventatives, wire rope lubricants and chain oils as well as a range of maintenance lubricants. METALUBE’s business in India has grown considerably since its launch four years ago and its customers include Sterlite, Finolex, Havells and Polycab. Although UK-based, METALUBE exports 95 per cent of its production to over 80 countries worldwide. The company has sales offices located in Mumbai in India, Shanghai and Dong Guang in China, San Paolo in Brazil and Dubai in the UAE. Research and development is at the core

of the business with over 20 per cent of the workforce dedicated to science. The METALUBE team of chemists is committed to solving the toughest technical challenges – always striving to achieve the optimum results for customers, and consequently, its products' performance repeatedly outstrips that of its rivals. METALUBE takes immense pride in formulating all of its own lubricants and greases from its purpose-built laboratory, which opened in 2015. This new facility increased the company’s capacity to 126 m² and is fully equipped for both quality control and research and development.

In fact, product innovation is the key to the company’s success across the globe. For instance, the company recently announced a new range of fully synthetic chain oils, Metachain™. The products use the latest synthetic base oils, anti-oxidants and anti-wear additives that meet the demands of specific chain applications for use in ovens where conventional oils cannot function properly.

Chris Nettleship, Technical Director, elaborates, “Our long-term plan at METALUBE is to widen our specialist lubricants into new market sectors and we are delighted to introduce our first superior performance range of high temperature chain oils.”

Metachain™ products are highly resistant to carbonisation, which leads to a reduction in the amount of oil applied over a defined period. They have a lower level of evaporation and carbon build-up on the chain system and internal surfaces of the oven. The unique combination of anti-wear additives reduces friction and metal-to-metal contact on the chain system, which leads to longer chain life and improved consumption of the chain oil.

For the steel wire rope industry, the company has introduced a biodegradable lubricant. Rope-Tek™ WRD, a new range of biodegradable, high-performance lubricants, is

specifically designed to protect steel wire ropes. Each product is formulated from high-performance base oils and thickeners, and contains an advanced additive system that minimises friction and wear, delivering outstanding corrosion protection. Commenting on the new range, Douglas Hunt, Commercial Director, METALUBE says: “Steel wire ropes are complex in construction and are often subject to arduous operating conditions. Movement, such as loading and unloading of the rope, bending and flexing over sheaves and pulleys, creates high load points where wires and strands cross over each other. This can result in fretting wear and corrosion – reducing the life of the rope. The high load-carrying solids contained in Rope-Tek form a low friction barrier between the metal surfaces, minimising frictional contact and wear.”

Further, METALUBE has been recognised for its commitment to sustainable business practices and awarded the ISO 14001 certification. ISO 14001 is the international standard for environmental management systems (EMS) and the most widely used in the world. Commenting on this latest development, Nettleship says, “We are extremely proud to have achieved certification.

As a business, we are committed to reducing our impact on the environment and having an Environmental Management System in place is not only helping us to do this, it’s

also allowing us to make continuous improvements to our systems and procedures.

And improving our performance doesn’t just benefit us, it benefits our customers too.”

The company is also the proud winner of two highly prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. The first, for international trade in 2013 and the second, for innovation in 2014, when the company invented a new type of synthetic grease, ‘OCG 6000’, which protects overhead electrical conductors.

Looking ahead at what 2016 may have to offer, Commercial Director Hunt says, “We have seen excellent growth in 2015 and our India operations have performed particularly well, growing by nearly 40 per cent. There are global challenges predicted for 2016, particularly in China. Our priority is for our products to out-strip our competitors ensuring that customers who require quality will always be assured of excellence if they buy from METALUBE.” He adds, “The outlook for the global wire and cable market is still generally positive.

However, there is significant over-capacity in some markets such as China and this will affect the overall global market. However, METALUBE still expects to increase sales and market share during the forthcoming financial year.”

Contact details: 1) Metalube Limited, 4 Huntsman Drive, Northbank Industrial Park, Irlam, Manchester, M44 5EG, United Kingdom.

Tel.: +44 (0)161 775 7771; Fax: +44 (0)161 775 7511; E-mail: post@metalube.co.uk.

2) Metalube Private Limited, 301 Ganga Prasad, Ram Maruti Road Cross Lane 3, Ghantali Road, Naupada, Thane (West), Mumbai – 400 602, India. Tel.: +91 22 2545 9338, +91 22 2542 6124. E-mail: sales@ metalube.in.|WB

January 2016 | 15

COMPANY PROFILE Micro Products Company: Offering the World a Better Weld Since 1928 Manufactured by US-based Micro Products Company since 1928, Micro-Weld is a leading electric resistance butt welder brand worldwide.

X PC HEDIE D

16 | WIRE BULLETIN

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pan, Middle East, North Africa, several EU countries, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, etc.

India features prominently on the list of rapidly growing markets. According to a recent market report, the main customers for wire and cable industry, including automotive, telecommunication and construction industries in India, have seen significant expansion and annual growth of about 25 per cent in many cases in the past few years. Micro-Weld’s customer list for India includes leading wire/cable companies in the country. “The market trends and the overview for Indian economy predicting good economic growth make India a very important market for Micro-Weld. The company is ready to serve this market on a long-term basis by offering efficient butt welding solutions to its customers in India so that they could avoid downtime and increase productivity,” says Banks. “Micro-Weld takes great pride in its heritage, staying in the forefront of technology for over 85 years. Today, when customers think of the most advanced butt welders in the world, they think of Micro-Weld,” Dayal adds. In India, Micro-Weld is represented by Alar Group and can be contacted for more information on its product portfolio.

Contact details: 1) Micro-Weld India, Alar Group, 5/125, Jeevan Tara Building, Parliament Street, New Delhi - 110 001. A N Sinha, Director; Tel.: +91 11 23747526, Fax: +91 11 23343421, E-mail: alar@alar.in.

2) Micro-Weld USA, Micro Products Company, 1886 E, Fabyan Parkway, Batavia, IL 60510, USA. Website: www. micro-weld.com. H Dayal, Managing Director-International, Tel.: (Mobile) +1 815 603 9071 (USA), +1 630 406 9550, Fax: +1 630 406 9552, E-mail: hdayal@micro-weld. com.|WB

A KER PL E AT

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Micro Products Company started doing business in 1928 as a small manufacturing operation in Peoria, Illinois, USA. It built and sold Micro-Weld brand butt welders in the mid-west region of the country. It has been a long journey since then, and today 87 years later, high-performance Micro-Weld butt welders are sold in 30+ countries, including India, helping customers increase productivity and quality of their end-products. Peoria is still home for the manufacturing operation of the company. The marketing and sales office is conveniently located in Batavia, Illinois in Chicago area.

The unique and robust design of MicroWeld butt welders allows for simplicity of operation, repeatability and reliability for years to come. Micro-Weld design offers any operator to make quality welds quickly. The rigid quality standards ensure that the welders are built tough and accurate without weld breaks and save downtime, maximise weld consistency, and increase customer productivity. The product range includes over 50 models, including a wide variety of accessories. Custom modifications for special butt welding applications are also available.

These models include butt welders for ferrous and nonferrous material (steel, copper, aluminum, brass, alloys) wire, rod or cable.

The models are available in a wide welding range, from very fine thin wire to very large diameters, stranded or solid. Heavy-duty butt welders are used for steel rods or for sleeveless welding of large diameter cables – of copper/aluminum and rods. Ceramic fusion butt welders are applicable for welding copper/aluminum conductors in disposable ceramic sleeves for clean strong welds without flashpoints/burrs, ideal for many applications where such joints are needed.

Though Micro-Weld welders last a long time (one machine is being used for over 30 years in India by a leading cable manufacturing company), certain parts will eventually wear out. Replacements will be needed to avoid weld breaks and downtime, and maximise weld consistency. The company offers Micro-Weld genuine parts and support to all its customers worldwide. The most common parts are kept in stock and can be shipped right away to reach customer location in a few days.

A plant with state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, technical professionals with years of experience in design and manufacturing, its own foundry to produce castings, and in-house production of uniquely designed transformers enable the company to produce high-performance butt welders that meet world-class quality standards. That’s why Micro-Weld welders are being used by every major wire and cable manufacturing

company around the globe for over 85 years.

Further, expert technical assistance and advice is available to customers worldwide on best ways to weld different materials and help them develop proper welding procedures. “Micro-Weld technicians can visit customer locations for new welder installation and operator training if needed, or for service,” states a company representative.

The company also offers a valuable service to its customers in the form of ‘sample weld evaluation’. This is for those who want to learn more about the weldability of their material. Customers can send a sample of their material to Micro-Weld and their technicians will test and weld the sample on a suitable Micro-Weld welder and evaluate the weldability and strength of the sample. In addition, though the primary market for Micro-Weld butt welders is wire and cable manufacturing industry, it also serves manufacturers of automotive electrical cable, formed wire parts, gaskets, tyre cord, spring, nails and bolts.

In terms of the markets served, though Micro-Weld brand dominates the market in North America and has a major presence in South America, William Banks, the current CEO, after joining the company several years ago, felt the need to go global as markets were rapidly growing in many countries. H Dayal (associated with Micro-Weld for 20+ years) was given the responsibility to initiate a structured marketing programme for reaching potential overseas’ customers, especially in the emerging markets of Asia that started growing rapidly. As MD-International Markets for Micro-Weld he has been building an international representative network and offering sales and marketing support to representatives and the markets they serve worldwide. Today, Micro-Weld’s international representative network includes India, China, Bangladesh, South Korea, Ja-

TECHNOLOGY Subsea and EHV Cables Require a Challenging Purity Degree of XLPE Material

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his paper, prepared by Sikora AG, outlines the reason for the need of a high purity degree of XLPE material to be used for the insulation of subsea and EHV cables. Furthermore, there will be technological solutions introduced for purity assurance of XLPE pellets that are integrated at specific production stages.

The purity of the XLPE compound that is used for the insulation of subsea and EHV cables plays a critical role. The purer the compound (Picture 1), the lower is the risk for a breakdown.

cables for offshore applications. That is why cable manufacturers aim at delivering large cable lengths with only a minimum number of joints as they contain a potential risk for breakdowns. One of the aspects to achieve long lengths is using highly pure raw material. As the integration of screens reduces the productivity of the line, an approach is to omit the screens. This requires, however, reliable methods to detect and sort out contamination in the XLPE material at an early stage.

Production of subsea and EHV cables Picture 1: High-quality insulation compound.

Impurities of 50 Îźm may already cause damage to the end product with high follow-up costs. The repair of a defective subsea cable for example, which has been damaged by contamination, can lead to weeks of downtime. Furthermore, impure XLPE compound respectively defective cables and consequential crashes already affect the industry during the manufacturing process.

As part of the production of EHV cables, they are tested in a plant with a test voltage 2.5 times of the nominal voltage. Approximately, five to six breakdowns (Picture 2) a year are detected this way. Those breakdowns cause costs of Euro 30,000 minimum per crash even before the cable can be delivered to its dedicated position.

In addition, valuable time is lost, making permitted delivery dates not accomplishable. Often, not agreed joints have to be used, damaging the quality image of the manufacturer consequently and may lead to contractual penalties. It is for these reasons that the Chinese standard for highvoltage cables, for example, demands the exclusion of contamination from 75 Îźm in the processed materials. Moreover, there are guidelines from the AEIC (Association of Edison Illuminating Companies), which state that cables have to be designed in such a way that they are usable for at least 40 years. Accordingly, it is necessary to inspect the material for purity to 100 per cent before it enters the end product.

Sample tests are not sufficient to exclude all contamination reliably.

Today, cable manufacturers use screens to catch impurities in the XLPE melt before they get into the cable. The screens are positioned directly in the melt flow after the extruder, before the crosshead. However, these screens can get clogged by scorches or excessive amount of contaminants after certain run time. Then the melt pressure in the extruder may increase significantly. Finally, the production has to be stopped in order to change the screens, which in turn means that later a joint is required at that position. Joints, where the cables are welded together, are manually made and always critical, in particular with regard to subsea

A subsea respectively an EHV cable is manufactured in a CCV or VCV extrusion line. It mainly consists of a conductor, an inner semicon, the insulation and the outer semicon. Inner and outer semicon as well as the insulation is often made of XLPE material as XLPE has excellent dielectric properties, making it useful for extra-highvoltage cables up to 500 kV AC voltage, and 750 kV DC. In order to assure the highest purity of the XLPE material, it is necessary to continuously measure and inspect certain material characteristics at specific stages before and during the production.

trasonic system melt, shear heating errors are eliminated. It ensures homogeneous melt viscosity for the extrusion process and helps to avoid premature cross-linking after screens, which may lead to ambers and scorches in the polyethylene material.

Picture 2: Cross-section of an EHV cable with breakdown. sible. Though, mainly the surface temperature of the XLPE melt can be measured, because the penetration depth of infrared radiation in LDPE (low density polyethylene) amounts to several millimeters only.

Furthermore the existence of specific fillers in the PE melt can drastically decrease this penetration depth.

An alternative to these conventional melt temperature methods is a non-contact melt temperature measurement system based on non-invasive ultrasonic technology (Picture 3). It precisely measures the melt temperature during production and does not influence the melt flow properties. Moreover, it measures the average temperature of the melt and not the temperature in the centre of the melt flow. The adapter of the system, including the ultrasonic sensors, is positioned in the flow channel between the extruder and crosshead. In contrast to the methods described before, the ultrasonic sensors do not influence the polyethylene melt flow, because they are outside of the flow channel.

In consequence, the extrusion process is not affected by the sensors, even if they have to be exchanged. The extremely high measuring rate allows a fast response time as well as the registration of small temperature variations. Only with the use of the ul-

Picture 3: Measurement of the melt temperature in a CCV line.

In addition to melt temperature measurement, it is important to examine the XLPEmaterial for purity in the flow channel directly before the crosshead, because much of the contamination results from cleaning of the extruder screw or abrasion of the extruder. In order to detect the contamination in the insulating material, a high-speed CCD camera system transilluminates the insulated material and informs about such contamination in the material, as well as amber and scorches (Picture 4). In this way, manufacturers have relevant informa-

Picture 4: Measurement of the cleanliness of the melt in a CCV line.

XLPE purity assurance between extruder and crosshead A homogeneous and pure XLPE melt is decisive for the final cable quality. There are technologies used during the extrusion process that assure these material characteristics. They are installed between the extruder and the crosshead.

Measurement of the melt temperature The temperature of the polyethylene material, which is used for the insulation of subsea and EHV cables, is a significant criterion for an optimum melt and in consequence for a maximum extruder output.

The correct temperature assures a homogeneous polymer melt, eliminates early crosslinking of the material, and thus assures that there are no scorches in the insulation material. Moreover, a melt temperature measurement system should be capable to detect inhomogeneities in the melt.

There are conventional methods used to measure the melt temperature such as thermocouple sensors. More often, even simple hand-held meters are utilised to measure the melt temperature after the crosshead before starting up the extrusion line. These techniques do not offer reliable measuring results as they are contact measurements with a relative slow response time. Moreover, they can influence the melt flow properties, which may result in crosslinking. By using an infrared pyrometer, a contact-free temperature measurement with an improved response time is pos-

January 2016 | 17

TECHNOLOGY tion for the decision to switch from start-up to production.

XLPE purity assurance before material processing: Inspection and sorting The two technologies described before assure a homogeneous, pure XLPE melt and detect contaminants in the melt that are caused in the extruder. It is moreover important to inspect the XLPE material (pellets) for purity before it gets into the extrusion process. Today, a pellet inspection is realised by systems used either in laboratories or for online monitoring during the production process. The majority of the systems are based on optical technology to detect contamination on the pellet.

Contamination inside the pellets cannot be detected by these systems.

The inspection and sorting system described in the following allows for a 100 per cent online quality assurance by using X-ray technology and an optical technique.

Contaminations that are detected are identified by an image processing software, characterised as contamination and automatically separated. The technology allows for the detection of impurities down to a size of 50 Îźm.

X-ray technology The basic detection principle of the Xray technology uses the different attenuation of the material. XLPE mainly comprises of carbon. The carbon atom has six protons in its core. A typical contamination would be steel particles from the extruder or granulator, which is mainly iron (FE).

Iron has 26 protons in its core. These 26 protons have a much higher X-ray attenu-

ation than the six protons from the carbon and results in a contrast between the two materials in the X-ray image.

Optical technology Regarding the optical inspection, the illumination plays an essential role. By using a special light construction technique, smallest contamination is detected. In order to allow precise recordings of material flows at industrial speed, modern camera technologies are used. A powerful image processing software similar to the one used for the X-ray inspection is used to detect contamination with the optical system.

Therefore, by setting a certain threshold, all contaminated pellets, which are above the threshold in the mathematical algorithm, are sorted out.

Typical contamination detected by X-ray and optical technology The combination of both X-ray and optical technologies enables the detection of contamination in the pellet itself and on its surface (Picture 5). The X-ray system inspects transparent and coloured (e.g. black) pellets as well as semi-conductive XLPE material for impurities. Typical impurities detected with X-ray are metal-

Picture 5: X-ray and optical inspection and sorting.

lic as well as organic contamination and inhomogeneities (TiO2) inside the pellet.

In addition, the optical system detects, for example, black specs on the pellet, foreign objects and foreign pellets as well as other organic or metallic contamination.

Feeding system In order to avoid contamination from the feeding itself, the transport of the pellets is carried out via a vibrating ramp made of stainless steel. This avoids contamination that might occur by conveyor belts.

The pellet transport system is hermetically sealed assuring that there is no risk that dust or other contaminants can get into the flow of the XLPE pellets. In addition, the transport system can be operated with an overpressure. The pellet inspection and sorting system is designed for a throughput of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 kg/h and can be integrated into new and existing feeding systems.

The system is typically installed between the hopper that is fed from the XLPE supply (octabin, bag or silo) and the hopper of the extruder, whereas the compound is fed by gravity.

Conclusion In summary, this paper outlined the reasons for the need of a high purity degree of XLPE material used for the insulation of subsea and EHV cables. Furthermore, the paper introduced systems for quality control of XLPE material that inspect the material at different stages of the cable production, before and during processing.

Technologies for melt temperature measurement and melt monitoring in the flow channel assure purity of the processed ma-

terial between the extruder and the crosshead. In this way, contamination that has been caused in the extruder is avoided, respectively detected. In addition, there are pellet inspection systems used for purity assurance either as laboratory or online devices. The presented inspection and sorting system detects contaminated pellets and separates them before they get into the extrusion process. Accordingly, even if cable manufacturers keep on using screens, this technology assures that screens are not getting clogged with impurities from contaminated pellets and allows, therefore, a longer production run.

By using X-ray and optical technology contaminants inside and on the pellet surface are detected, which guarantee 100 per cent quality control.

Taken these advantages together, the use of different technologies for quality control of XLPE material at different production stages is essential to assure high-quality subsea and EHV cables.

Contact: Sikora AG, Bruchweide 2, 28307 Bremen, Germany. Tel.: 0421 48900-60, Fax: 0421 48900-90, Website: www.sikora.net.

Chinese standard IEC 62067 (for 150 – 500 kV) in J Kjellqvist, K P Pang, S Miao, Dow Europe GMBH, Horgen, Switzerland, Dow Chemical (China) Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China, Performance Requirements to Assure Reliable HV and EHV Cables, China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2010) Nanjing (September 2023, 2010).

2) CCV line (catenary continuous vulcanization line), VCV line (vertical continuous vulcanization line).|WB 1)

1-3 March 2016 Dubai World Trade Centre, UAE

Over 1,600 exhibitors 62,000+ sqm of products ''Visiting MEE is equivalent to visiting 10 trade shows'' Fadl Elmula H. Alimam, Technical Manager Arab Inspection Co., Saudi Arabia

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PARTNER EVENTS

People Mark Heneghan joins the Cable Tapes team

Justin Kilgore

Steve Maxson

Robert Malburg

Vicenc Fisas Comella

Promotions and appointments at Graham Engineering Corporation

Express™ system and in helping customers eliminate the handling problems of liquid colours while gaining access to their cost, sustainability, and other advantages over pellet concentrates.”

David Schroeder, president and CEO of Graham Engineering Corporation, has promoted Justin Kilgore to Vice PresidentEngineering. The engineering team Kilgore leads comprises the combined talent of Graham Engineering and the two companies it has acquired over the past three years, American Kuhne and Welex. “It’s my pleasure to recognise Justin’s talent and tenure with this promotion. His knowledge of plastic extrusion, engineering processes, and industrial control systems combined with his leadership skills make this a natural progression,” said Schroeder.

Kilgore joined Graham Engineering Corporation in 2001 as Senior Electrical Engineer and was promoted to Electrical Engineering Manager and Engineering Manager.

Previously he had served as a software engineer for ENGEL Machinery and electronic technician for Red Lion Controls.

Further, Robert Deitrick, Vice PresidentGlobal Sales, Graham Engineering Corporation, has appointed Steve Maxson to be the company’s Global Director of Business Development–Medical. “Steve brings more than 15 years of experience in medical extrusion technology, product development, and sales. For our medical customers and prospects, he is a recognised innovator with unsurpassed technical knowledge and experience in multiple aspects of medical extrusion for catheters and medical devices,” Deitrick said.

Maxson joins the group from Raumedic Inc., where he was Technical Sales Manager, focusing on polymer technologies for minimally invasive medical devices. He was previously an account executive for Vante, and Vice President-Medical Extrusion Systems at American Kuhne, now a brand of Graham Engineering Corporation.

La Farga chairman steps down Vicenc Fisas Comella is leaving the position of chairman of La Farga after 35 years at the helm, and having re-founded

Mark Henegam

the company in 1980. On October 30, he chaired the Board of Directors for the last time and bade an emotional farewell to all of its members. This was followed by an act at the Copper Museum with all the partners and representatives of the executive employees to commemorate the 35 years that Fisas has devoted to writing the history of La Farga. The new chairman will be the current CEO and partner of the company, Oriol Guixa.

Cable Tapes UK Ltd., a source for cable lapping tapes and twines, has announced the appointment of Mark Heneghan as Managing Director. He will be working at the company headquarters based in Manchester, UK. Mark has over 30 years’ experience working in senior operations management positions within the wire and cable industry. A mechanical engineering graduate, he began his career with BICC Cables Ltd. before taking a role at BrandRex Ltd. More recently, Mark worked at AEI Cables, part of the Ducab Group, in the role of Operations Director at its Birtley facility.|WB

join the best: 4-8 April 2016 Düsseldorf, Germany I www.wire.de join the best — welcome to the world’s leading trade fair for the wire and cable industry! Those who wish to find comprehensive information about the latest innovations in wires and cables, manufacturing machinery and equipment need look no further. It can all be found here at the world’s most important exhibition.

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Robert Malburg joins Riverdale Global Riverdale Global has appointed Robert Malburg as Vice President-Sales, responsible for sales of the Riverdale Global® range of liquid colours and additives through the Global Express™ network of satellite operations. The satellites produce custom colour-matched blends for local customers and supply them in pump-equipped containers that stay sealed from the moment they arrive at the customer’s loading dock, through storage, handling, and metering into the process, and during return to Riverdale Global.

“Rob brings nearly 25 years of experience focused exclusively on liquid colours and has long been a successful leader of liquid colour sales programmes,” said Paul Maguire, president of Riverdale Global, adding, “He will play a critical role in the worldwide expansion of our Global

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