Wire Bulletin - July 2012

VOLUME III | ISSUE III | JULY 2012

Rs. 125

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

SAIL earmarks capex of Rs 14,500 crore

ASK THE EXPERT

Q: Why does the slip on my

intermediate drawing machine increase backward instead of being constant? Can I calculate the diameter of the capstans in case there is no slip? Can I increase the capstan diameters according to the slip percentage?

See answer on p. 17

NEWS BITES • OPG Power Ventures will expand its presence in India with an investment of Rs 3,000 crore.

• IEEMA will put in place a smart grid cell in association with the Ministry of Power.

• EUTEX International Singapore office now offers type P cable.

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QUOTABLE QUOTES

FDI will continue to be encouraged, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, high technology and exports.” ~ P. Chidambaram, Former Finance Minister, India

“

America cannot ignore the fact that the centre of gravity is moving eastwards to Asia.” ~ Frank Wisner, Former US Ambassador to India

IN THIS ISSUE: Editorial.............................. 2 Calendar & Event Review.... 3 Industry News..................... 4 Business Innovation............ 6 Corporate Focus ................. 8 Featured Concepts............ 10 Global News ..................... 12 Products, Media, & Technology.................... 13 Production Tips................. 16 Ask the Expert .................. 17 Technical Article ............... 18 Economic News ................ 21 People on the Move.......... 22 Ad Showcase .................... 24

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 14,500 crore in 2012-13 as the final phase of its five year, Rs 72,000 crore modernisation and brownfield expansion plan. “Some of the major facilities that are planned for completion in 2012-13 include a new cold rolling mill at Bokaro steel plant, raw material handling system, coke oven battery, sinter plant blast furnace and a wire rod mill at the IISCO steel plant, sinter plant at Bokaro steel plant, coke oven battery, blast furnace at Rourkela steel plant, round-cum-bloom caster and medium structural mill at Durgapur steel plant,” C.S. Verma, chairman of SAIL told the Financial Chronicle.

The culmination of the investment will help improve the state-owned company’s ability to compete with its private sector counterparts. The capital expenditure will go toward payments for various capital

C.S. Verma

projects being undertaken at its Bhilai, Durgapur, Rourkela, Bokaro and IISCO steel plants. After the modernisation and brownfield expansion, SAIL’s hot metal capacity will increase from 14.6 to 23.4 million tonnes per annum. The company has been funding its Rs 72,000 crore modernisation and expansion plan through internal accruals and debt.|WB

KEC secures new orders

KEC International (KEC) has secured new orders worth Rs 14.16 billion spread across its various businesses, geographies, and customers.

In the transmission business, the company has secured orders from India, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic (DR) of the Congo and the Americas. In India the order is for design, supply, and construction of 765 kV double circuit transmission line on a turnkey basis between Wardha-Aurangabad (Maharashtra). Secured from Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL), the total order value is Rs 3.20 billion. The project will span 32 months with a total line length of 178 kms.

India awaits Wire & Cable India 2012

Wire & Cable India 2010 drew 5,600 visitors.

Even as the inquiries generated in March at wire 2012 are still being converted into business transactions, the countdown begins for Wire & Cable India 2012—the country’s biggest wire industry event—to be held at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Center, Mumbai, 30 October to 1 November, 2012. The show

drew the attention of 5,600 visitors and 286 exhibitors in 2010 and the expectation to increase participation is riding high.

Once again there will be country-specific pavillions and the buzz is that Austria, China, France, Germany, the US, and the UK will be among the major participants.

On show will be wire manufacturing and finishing machinery; spring making and fasteners; process technology tools; and auxiliary process technology materials. Materials; special wires and cables; measuring and control equipment; test engineering tools; and specialty equipment and services will also be on display. See page 23.

To book an exhibit space or to register contact: Messe Düesseldorf India, 1, Commercial Complex, 2nd Floor, Pocket H & J, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi, Tel.: +9111-26971056/26971745, Fax: +91-1126971746.|WB

Assomac bags order from UAE

Assomac Machines Ltd., engaged in the manufacturing of wiredrawing, galvanizing plants, cable machinery and other allied machinery, has announced a recent order worth USD 1 million from a leading UAE company. A subsidiary company of the Assomac Group based in New Delhi (NCR), Assomac Machines commenced the production of quality wiredrawing machinery in 1989. Since then it has been seeking to revolutionise the wire industry by offering its customers sophisticated state-of-the-art technology.

The company claims to have the largest customer base in India. “We manufacture world-class equipment at the most competitive prices,” a company note said.

Lately the company has received orders from reputed international companies from across Europe and the US. Some of the company’s latest technological innovations were exhibited at wire 2012.

“The strong presence of visitors from India and other countries has confirmed the fact that there is an upward trend of interest, especially by the European companies, to establish their presence in India in sectors like infrastructure, automotive, etc., and to source the machinery from India itself.

“The company has recorded good sales in the immediate past financial year and hopes to do better in the current financial year. Assomac Machines has been in a constantly expanding mode since the last decade and this has led to the development of various new product lines and technologies in the wire industry in ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys,” the statement said. For further details about the company’s products visit the website www.assomacmachines.com.|WB

In Bangladesh the order is for design, supply, and construction of 230 kV double circuit transmission line between Barisal, Bhola, and Borhanuddin. The total order value is Rs 2.43 billion and the project duration is 24 months with total line length of 61 kms. This is the company’s biggest order from this country. The order for the DR Congo is for the supply and installation of optical power ground wire (OPGW) on the existing 220 kV and 500 kV transmission lines. In its cable business, the the company has secured various orders for supply of power and telecom cables, the total value of which is Rs 1.45 billion.

“Our total order inflow for the year FY 2012 is over Rs 65 billion. The good thing is that the orders have been spread across various businesses, geographies and customers.

We have a robust order book which gives us good visibility for FY 2013,” said Ramesh Chandak, MD & CEO, KEC.|WB

A D V E R T I S M E N T

See page 7.

MACHINES THAT GROW YOUR BUSINESS.

spxprecision.com

J U LY 2 0 1 2

EDITORIAL

A

reader recently raised some concerns about whether the Indian steel industry is doing well or not.

It’s a question loaded with confusion for the simple fact that there have been tangential reports about this sector, mainly because of the ongoing ban on mining activities in certain states. The March 2012 quarter results declared by some of the major steel companies have indicated slower growth and this has raised worries about what lies ahead.

However, despite slower sales growth, steel makers witnessed an improvement in their operating profit margins in the March 2012 quarter, compared with the preceding one. But this could be short-lived. For any benefit companies dependent on imported coal would get from the fall in coal prices would be negated by the sharp decline in the rupee, implying that the cost of production will stay high.

Surveys of the steel industry indicate that with demand not expected to rise significantly, steel makers will not be in a position to raise prices much, which will squeeze margins. As inflation remains at uncomfortable levels, there is a risk of regulatory intervention on steel prices. Moreover, despite steel being a deregulated commodity, the government may exert indirect control on it as seen in the past. In addition, the a ratings agency expects the cost of production for steel makers to rise by about 3-5 per cent because of a 10 per cent hike in iron ore prices by NMDC in May. During the March quarter, the steel industry registered a 10 per cent growth in sales - the lowest in six quarters. The raw material cost as a percentage of sales was 43 per cent during the quarter, compared with 50 per cent in the December quarter. As a result, the operating profit margins rose by 350-360 basis points on an average.

Meanwhile, how will the fall in iron ore prices affect the steel sector? It could primarily offer a window of opportunities for Indian steel plants, which are starved of ore because of the ban on illegal mining in key mining belts such as Karnataka and Odisha. For domestic steel companies, grappling with low and erratic supplies due to the ban on illegal mining, the gap in local and international prices could offer an advantage in terms of an option to import ore.

The Indian steel industry plays a significant role in the country’s economic growth. In fact, India is the fifth-largest steel producer on the global front and struggling to become the second-largest producer in the coming years. The country has acquired a central position on the global steel map with its giant steel mills, acquisition of global scale capacities by players, continuous modernization and upgradation of old plants, improving energy efficiency, and backward integration into global raw material sources. Global steel giants from across the world have shown interest in the industry due to its phenomenal performance.

A new research report on the Indian steel industry outlook for 2012 says that the Indian crude steel production will grow at a CAGR of around 10 per cent during 2010-2013. Moreover, the government’s proactive incentive plans to boost economic growth by injecting funds in various industries, such as construction, infrastructure, automobile and power will drive the steel industry in the future. The report also reveals that steel consumption in India is expected to grow significantly in the coming years as the per capita finished steel consumption is far less than its regional counterparts. As such, the scenario certainly looks upbeat.

And with the Supreme Court scheduled to give the green signal for mining operations to start in some of the ‘A’ category mines, things can only get better.

Huned Contractor Editor hcontractor@wirenet.org | hunedc@gmail.com

2 | WIRE BULLETIN

CALENDAR & EVENT REVIEW Event Review

WORLD CALENDAR July 14-15, 2012: Automation Asia

New Delhi, India. Automation Asia 2012 will showcase the latest in industrial automation solutions covering all aspects of factory, industrial building, and process automation, as well as engineering and maintenance services from individual components to complete automation solutions. Contact: Triune Exhibitors, #25, 3rd Floor, 8th Main Road, Vasanthnagar, Bangalore - 560 052, Tel.: +91-80-43307474, Fax: +91-80-22352772, E-mail: info@automationasia2012.com.

WAI’s new Summit & Wire Expo 2012 gains strong showing, earns positive buzz

July 27-30, 2012: Amtex

New Delhi, India. Asian Machine Tool Exhibition (Amtex) 2012 is as one of the largest showcases of machinery, machine tools and manufacturing technologies in Asia. The event at Pragati Maidan will showcase products such as machine tools and accessories, material handling equipment, industrial automation, hydraulics and pneumatics/pumps.

Contact: Triune Exhibitors, #25, 8th Main Road, Vasanthnagar, Bangalore - 560 052, Tel.: +91-80-43307474, Fax: +91-80-22352772, E-mail: info@triuneexhibitors.com.

August 23-26, 2012: Pune Machine Tools Show

Pune, India. Scheduled at the Auto Cluster Exhibition Centre, Chinchwad, the fourday event would showcase the latest trends and technologies available in the world machine tool market. The event would focus on general engineering, machine tools, automotive technology, material handling, testing and measuring instruments. Contact: KMG Business Technology, 203, Binori Ambit, Opp New York Tower, S G Highway, Ahmedabad - 380 059, Tel.: +91-79-32410602, E-mail: info@kmgindia.com.

August 23-26, 2012: Himtex 2012

Hyderabad, India. Himtex 2012 is the fourth international machine tool expo to be held at the Hitex Exhibition Centre, Hyderabad. It will include a display of machine tools, metal forming machines, automation systems, air compressors, drilling and boring machines, grinding tools, and other machine equipment. Contact: Hyderabad International Trade Expositions Ltd., TFO Building, NAC Campus, Izzatnagar, Hyderabad - 500 084, Tel.: +91-40-23112121/22/33, E-mail: js@hitex.co.in.

September 7-10, 2012: Automation 2012

Mumbai, India. Automation 2012 is scheduled at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC), NSE Complex. The event is billed as Asia’s major event for industrial automation, factory automation, robotics, drives and controls, logistics, hydraulics and pneumatics, building automation, pumps and valves and software solutions. Contact: Mr. Arokiaswamy, IED Communications Ltd., 64, Empire Building, D N Road, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001, Tel.: 022-22079567/22073370, E-mail: jyothi@iedcommunications.com.

The Wire Association International’s new two-day Operations Summit & Wire Expo 2012, held at the Omni Dallas Hotel, Dallas, Texas, USA, May 22-23 featured a sold-out exhibit floor and ample opportunity for networking. Nearly 1,200 participants with representatives from 39 states and 29 countries took part---- in conference activities, panel and round-table discussions, and interaction on the exhibit floor.

“The investment of time by the speakers, exhibitors, visitors, and WAI volunteers is what made the format for this first-time summit such a success. WAI set out to offer wire plant operators valuable content in a new format emphasizing operational excellence. Judging from the early feedback and the vibrant exchange of information, we met our goals,” said WAI President Nicholas Nickoletopoulos.

The conference highlights included: a keynote presentation by speaker Dr. Michael Cox, director of the O’Neil Center for Global Markets & Freedom, five case studies, visitor flow from the American Metal Market (AMM) and American Wire Producers Association (AWPA) Wire Rod

Supply Chain Conference, conference sessions on machinery, commodities, safety, copper wire in renewable energy, process effectiveness, Washington overview, utility penalties, alternative fuel options in material handling, UL mark for telecom cable, intellectual property law developments, Encore Wire’s LEED Platinum R & D Center, workforce challenges for US manufacturers, employee involvement in sustainability and talent management, and exhibits from 179 wire and cable makers and suppliers.

Other activities included the production solution demonstrations on wire break analysis and die evaluation, local plant tours to Encore Wire Corp. and Gerdau Corp. and the presentation of WAI’s highest honors—the Mordica Memorial and Donnellan Memorial Awards—to Professor Paul Van Houtte, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium, and Ron Reed, Lloyd and Bouvier, respectively.

A ‘Green’ Hannover Messe

The Hannover Messe 2012, held April 23-27, focused on three major points: “Green technologies are a viable business model with the power to drive growth around the world. The industry has the solutions needed for achieving sustainability in manufacturing. And green technology can translate into higher profitability for the industry.” Interest in the show’s ‘green’ offerings ran high, with approximately one in four of the nearly 1,85,000 attendees visiting the new Industrial Green Tec show in Hall 26.

“All the right topics, a further rise in participation from abroad and highly satisfied exhibitors - this year’s show added up to a complete success,” said Dr. Wolfram von Fritsch, chairman of the Managing Board of Deutsche Messe.|WB

September 25-28, 2012: wire China 2012

Shanghai, China. wire China 2012 will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center along with Tube China 2012. An expected 1,400 exhibitors will show wire, fastener and spring manufacturing and finishing machinery, process technology tools and auxiliary process technology equipment as well as special wires and cables, measuring and control technology, and test engineering. Contact: Messe Düsseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601, Tel.: (312) 781-5180, Fax: (312) 781-5188, E-mail: info@mdna.com, www.mdna.com.

October 8-12, 2012: World Steel Conference

New Delhi, India. Organized by The World Steel Association (WSA) this conference is intended to make the steel industry more sustainable in view of the recent global economic uncertainties. The WSA represents 170 producers, accounting for 85 per cent of the world’s steel production. Visit: www.worldsteel.org.

October 30-November 1, 2012: Wire & Cable India 2012

Mumbai, India. Organised by Messe Düsseldorf, this show will be held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon (East). Exhibits will include machinery for wire manufacturing, finishing, casting, surface and heat treatment, rolling, pressing, forming, wire cleaning, coating, stranding, cutting, marking, sheathing and insulating, coding and printing, welding; measuring and controlling technology, QA and measuring systems, lubricants, adhesives, and packaging. Visit: www.wire-india.com.

January 7-10, 2013: Tekno Arabia 2013

Dubai, UAE. Tekno is the 11th international trade fair for the industrial machinery, metalworking, machine tools, and tubes/pipes industry giving companies access to the Middle East market. Contact: Messe Düsseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601, Tel.: (312) 781-5180, Fax: (312) 7815188, E-mail: info@mdna.com, www.mdna.com.

April 23-25, 2013: Interwire 2013

Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Interwire is a trade event for the international wire and cable manufacturing community. The largest event of its kind in the Americas, it includes exhibiting companies, speakers, and attendees from more than 50 countries around the world. at Contact: The Wire Association International, ation th m r fo in Inc., 1570 Boston Post Road, Guilford, CT ave Do you h his section?

06437 USA, Tel.: (001) 203-453-2777, Fax: in t to: belongs y e-mail (001) 203-453-8384, www.wirenet.org. ubmit b

Please s @wirenet.org. etin wirebull

JULY 2012 | 3

INDUSTRY NEWS Nexans to supply power cables to IAF

Nexans announced that it has been awarded a contract by Tata Power’s Strategic Electronics Division, worth approximately Euro 5 million, to supply specialised medium voltage primary and low voltage secondary airfield lighting cables. A press release said that the contract is part of the Modernization of the Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) project for the Indian Air Force.

The four-year contract, it said, calls for Nexans to supply several thousands of cables to upgrade the runway and taxiway lighting power circuits for 30 Indian Air Force (IAF) bases throughout India.

The MAFI project is focused on modernising the infrastructure of IAF bases where the runways need to be upgraded and are not capable of handling the new array of military aircraft set to enter service, the release said. The project will upgrade all the IAF bases with state-of-the-art equipment and systems to provide the capability to handle all types of modern military aircraft, it said. Nexans is supplying both primary and secondary cables, including 5 kV cables manufactured to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards that will be used to form the main backbone of the airfield lighting power series circuits, the release said.

It noted that 600 V secondary cables that meet the H07RN-F standard will also be used to provide the short spur links that

connect the main power network to the individual airfield lights. The airfield cables, the release said, “are designed to withstand extreme temperatures from -25° to +70°C, so they are ideally suited for use in this application where the typical runway temperatures will range from 0°C to +40°C.” It noted that the reliability of the cables and the ability to have a long service life in extremely humid conditions were important factors. The MAFI cables will be manufactured in Nexans’ Lyon and Bohain factories in France, with the logistics coordinated by Nexans’ local facilities in Delhi, it said.

“The key factor in winning this contract was that Tata Power SED was seeking an experienced supplier with the proven capability to provide a high level of locallybased technical support to ensure the correct choice of cables for this demanding airfield lighting application,” said Olivier Pinto, who is in charge of business development for airfield lighting cables at Nexans. He cited Nexans’ long-standing relationship with the Tata Group on previous projects, including its excellent recent track record in delivering cables for civil airport projects in India at Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, as helping acquire the contract.

UIC Udyog to invest in steel wires

Kolkata-based UIC Udyog Limited, a leading manufacturer of steel wires and wire products, proposes to set up a facility for manufacturing of steel wires and wire products with an installed capacity of 1,80,000 MTPA, including galvanising capacity of 1,00,000 MTPA at Bharuch in Gujarat. The total investment for this project would be around Rs 50,800 lakh. The company proposes to fund the project cost with a public issue of Rs 10,800 lakhs, internal accruals of Rs 4,500 lakhs and the balance

amount through term loans from various financial institutions.

UIC Udyog has its existing facilities for manufacture of steel wires with an installed capacity of 60,000 MTPA at Kalyani and an installed capacity of 25,000 MTPA is located at Khanyan, both in West Bengal. It also manufactures steel pins at Khanyan. Besides that, it has installed wind power generation turbines in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Havells India signs JV with Shanghai Yaming Lighting

Havells India Ltd., a USD 1.2 billion enterprise and one of India’s fastest growing electrical and power distribution equipment company, announced a joint venture with Shanghai Yaming Lighting Co. Ltd., a leading lighting company in China. The 50:50 JV would leverage upon technology and manufacturing strengths of its partners, providing energy and cost-efficient products for Global Sylvania and the local China markets. The JV, named as Jiangsu Havells Sylvania Lighting Co. Ltd., would entail an investment of USD 50 million and target an annual turnover of USD 100 million in the next three years.

It would increasingly focus on launching energy-efficient and green lighting solutions, including but not limited to LEDs, CMI, HID and lighting fixtures. Havells Group, through its global Sylvania operations, has significant interest in the lighting industry. The JV would facilitate constant innovation and quicker product release in international markets, including a coowned, reliable and stable supply source in China. The JV reiterates Havells’ philosophy to establish local presence to cater to the growing consumer demand for quality products in China.

Speaking on the occasion, Qimat Rai Gupta, CMD, Havells India Ltd., said, “This is an important milestone for Havells and also for the entire Indian manufacturing industry. We are blending the latest technology with best-in-class manufacturing practices with this combination of the leading companies of China and India. We are confident that this initiative will help Global Havells Sylvania operations, including our local operations in China” Jingwei Liu, Chairman, Yaming Lighting Co. Ltd., added, “It is a unique platform to showcase and integrate our strengths to provide energy-efficient solutions as are required in the current global environment.”

Havells India Ltd. is a billion-dollar-plus organisation with a wide product range from industrial and domestic circuit protection switchgear, cables and wires, motors, fans, electrical water heaters, CFL lamps, luminaires and domestic appliances covering the entire gamut of household, commercial, and industrial electrical needs. Havells, through its Sylvania subsidiary, manages a global lighting business across more than 40 countries with prestigious global brands like Sylvania, Concord, and Luminance.

LSCI to make power cables in India

LS Cable and System India (LSCI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the USD 7.67 billion LS Cable & System (LSC&S), has announced the completion of one of India’s largest power cable manufacturing plant at Bawal in Haryana. The state-of-the-art plant spread over 2,15,000 sq. ft., built with an investment of Rs 180 crore, will have the ca-

4 | WIRE BULLETIN

pacity to produce Rs 1,000 crore worth of power cables up to 220 kV and optic ground wire and Rs 500 crore worth of communication cables. The inauguration ceremony had over 150 special invitees in attendance including Pt Shiv Charan Lal Sharma, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Haryana, Joong-Keun Kim, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to India, Rajeev Arora, Managing Director, HSIIDC and C.G. Rajnikanthan, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Rewari District, among others.

Senior group executive Jong-ho Son, President & CEO, LSC&S, was also present on the occasion. “India is among the top five energy consuming nations in the world accounting for 3.7 per cent of the world’s entire energy consumption. And the country is investing heavily in energy projects across states. That makes it a key strategic market of focus for LSC&S which is known for its offering in this vertical globally. LS Cable and System is committed to the Indian market for long term and this significant investment only reinforces that commitment. We will contribute to the growth of power and communication infrastructure sectors in India by doing projects with the best technology and leveraging years of experience in the cable business,” Son said.

LS Cable and System India (LSCI) was established in 2008 with an initial focus on manufacturing coaxial cables and RF antennas in India, which will later expand according to the company’s aggressive plans.

However, LS Cable and System has had experience in the construction of ultra-high voltage subterranean lines in New Delhi and Bangalore since 1997. The fast growing operation has its corporate office in Gurgaon besides offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata and employs more than 300 professionals.

Batoyle introduces lubricants for India market

In association with Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co., Batoyle Freedom Group has announced the availability of its lubricants for the India wire and cable market.

“We want to add value to the Indian wire and cable industry,” said Keith Glossop, Technical Director, Batoyle Freedom Group, adding, “It’s the technology and experience of four decades that we bring with us in the form of being a major supplier to some of the sophisticated markets in the world. Delivering high performance is the key requisite for any industrial lubricant as it can have a significant impact on the quality of the wire drawn vis-a-vis efficiency in terms of production and cost-saving. So, the lubricant is absolutely critical.”

(l-r) Ravi Bansal, Keith Glossop, and J.S. Gupta.

Highlighting the importance of presence in the Indian market, Glossop said, “India is a developing market and in another five to ten years it’s going to change massively in terms of its technology requirements, as the country’s infrastructure develops and standard of living grows. The demand for wire and cable industry and also the demand for us as suppliers will also grow. We are very excited about the opportunity in

INDUSTRY NEWS the Indian market. We needed a partner to be able to work here and that’s why we appointed Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co. as our Indian agency. Their philosophy is very similar to ours, i.e., to provide high level of the support to the customer.”

Carrying the legacy of 135 years, Batoyle Freedom Group is one of the UK’s largest independent lubricant manufacturing companies. The family-owned company started as a specialist lubricant supplier to the textile industry and after a period of time they diversified to serve different industries including automotive, glass, industrial, wire, and tube. About 40 years ago the company developed specialist lubricants used in production processing of wiredrawing, tube drawing, and glass moulding. Batoyle now exports to over 50 countries worldwide.

BRICS cable to connect five countries

A new submarine cable system was recently unveiled at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Business Forum held in New Delhi, India. Andrew F.B. Mthembu, chairman of i3 Africa and Imphandze Investments—the two South African entities promoting the project—presented the BRICS cable which was welcomed as a strategic project for the social and economic benefit of the BRICS countries.

The business leaders of the BRICS countries engaged in discussions about critical areas of development, including enhancements to financial connectivity for increasing trade and investment opportunities between the BRICS countries, key role of ICT and innovation to improve business exchanges, cooperation for energy security with focus on green and renewable energy, importance of cooperation in life sciences to BRICS growth potential, and the role of BRICS countries in ensuring global food security.

The BRICS cable has been in the planning and feasibility stages since March 2011, a few months after the admission of South Africa into the BRICS economic bloc. Currently, the BRICS countries are connected to each other via telecommunications hubs in Europe and the USA resulting in high costs, and in some instances on potential interception of critical financial and security information by non-BRICS entities. The recent discussions at the BRICS Business Summit concluded that a critical factor of success for the various initiatives relies on an advanced high-speed communication infrastructure. This also has to ensure high-capacity and direct connectivity between the BRICS countries to offer ubiquitous and reliable services.

The 34,000 km cable system (2 fiber pair, 12.8 Tbit/s of capacity) will link the BRICS economies and the United States. It will interconnect with the WACS cable on the west coast of Africa and with the EASSY and SEACOM cables on the east coast of the continent. This will give the BRICS countries immediate access to 21 African countries and give those African countries access to the BRICS economies. The projected ‘ready for service’ date is in the second half of 2014.

Indian steel sector poised to be second-largest

The Indian steel sector is well-placed to reach its production target of 200 million tonnes by the year 2020. This was made clear at the CII Steel Summit 2012 recently as private and public sector steel makers discussed their expansion plans. While the per capita consumption has grown from 31 kg in 2003 to 56 kg in 2011, it is still less than 30 per cent of global average, present-

ing significant potential for growth. Further the 12th Five Year Plan envisages an investment of USD 1 trillion in infrastructure, which will boost the demand for steel.

But for India to attain this growth, several infrastructural and operational challenges needed to be overcome. As Dilip Oomen, Managing Director and CEO, Essar Steel India Ltd., said, it was imperative that government policies be an enabler for growth.

He called for transparency in pricing, policy commitment and raw material security.

Arun Kumar Sinha, Joint Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises, discussed the performance of the steel public sector enterprises. He noted that large investments were being made in modernisation and capacity addition. He expected the steel demand to grow in double digits in the next year.

Discussing global megatrends and imperatives for Indian steel companies, Abhishek Poddar of AT Kearney Ltd., said that Indian steel makers needed to focus on the following areas: • Define the right competitive positioning; • Adjust the innovation agenda; • Excel in capital investments and project execution; • Pursue M&A for gains in raw materials, markets and technology; and • Not forget the old virtues of cost management, procurement management and supply chain management.

He said there was need for network specialisation as there was also increasing demand for greater innovation and special steels, especially from the auto sector.

Volatility along the steel value chain has also increased. This calls for raw material linkages and value addition within the country. “To improve efficiencies, steel makers are increasingly focused on automation and IT. Adequate supplies of critical raw materials such as iron ore and coal at competitive prices need to be attained and the industry continues to look to the government for support in this regard,” Poddar added.

by the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA).

IEEMA has based these growth figures, after rigorous analysis, on the production and sales data collected from its member organisations, which represent 95 per cent of the entire sector. Sluggish growth in the power sector and the escalating imports of electrical equipment is significantly impacting the commercial viability of the domestic electrical equipment industry and will have severe long term consequences.

All three segments of the power sector—generation, transmission, and distribution—face several challenges which need to be addressed expeditiously. Growth in the capacitor, switchgear, and transmission line sectors in 2011-12 turned negative, suggesting a distinct slowdown in industrial capex activities and slowdown in off-take by users due to the credit squeeze, high interest costs, etc. The cable industry is the only sector that has shown a double digit growth of 25.7 per cent in the year. The absence of a level playing field for the domestic industry to compete with imported electrical equipment, especially from China, is a clear and present threat.

Imports of electrical equipment have grown in the past five years at a CAGR of 28.28 per cent. According to IEEMA, urgent policy interventions are required by both the central and the state governments to check the deceleration in growth of the electrical equipment industry.

Ramesh Chandak, President IEEMA, said, “In India the focus is largely on increasing the power generation capacity. There has been a continuous under-investment in the T& D sector. This lopsided investment pattern needs to be corrected. It will then resolve some of the power problems and will also provide balanced growth.”

Cords Cable gets international approval

Cords Cable Industries Ltd. said it had obtained an international approval for its mainstream cable products from its new customer, Tatweer Petroleum, Kingdom of Bahrain. These products include instrumentation cable, control cable, signaling cable, thermocouple cable, communication cable and LT power cable. With investments of billions of dollars envisaged over the next 20 years, Tatweer Petroleum aims to unlock the full potential of the Bahrain Field, tripling oil production and doubling the gas delivery capacity to meet the nation’s energy requirements and Economic Vision 2030.

This approval opens vast business opportunities to the company to further extend its business in the overseas market, the company said. Cords Cable Industries was established in 1987 by a group of industry professionals with the objective of catering to a growing requirement for high-quality customised cables. The manufacturing facility is spread over an area of 21,800 sq metres and situated in the Bhiwadi industrial area in Rajasthan. The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery acquired from internationally reputed companies.|WB

Ajex & Turner signs new agreement

Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co., manufacturer of dies and tools, has been officially appointed as an exclusive agent of UnitekAustria for the sale of its crossheads and peripheral equipment for the wire and cable industry in India. The agreement was signed during wire 2012 held at Düsseldorf, Germany in April. Unitek, established in 1979, is a manufacturer of extrusion crossheads and a leading provider of innovative solutions for add-on technology such as automatic colour changing systems or cleaning systems for the wire and cable industry.

According to Unitek officials, the Indian market has huge potential to use their crossheads for all type of machines. The appointment of Ajex & Turner was based on the fact that the company has extensive experience in the production of dies, tools and lubricants for the wire and cable industry over the last decades. “We have given a commitment to dedicate our full efforts to promote the sales of Unitek’s products all across India. Customers can visit the Unitek website www.unitek.at to know more about their product range,” said Ravi Bansal, CEO, Ajex & Turner.

Electrical equipment industry growth decelerates

The growth rate of the Indian electrical equipment industry has decelerated to 6.6 per cent in 2011-12 as compared to 11.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent in 2009-10 and 201011 respectively, according to data compiled

JULY 2012 | 5

BUSINESS INNOVATION

John Rumpz, Vice President Woodburn Diamond Die Inc. For wire professionals looking to reduce the total cost of production without sacrificing quality, diamond wire dies are the perfect choice. Wire dies that contain industrial diamond technology are simply more abrasion-resistant, which helps wire makers maintain tolerances longer than other traditional, metal-based dies. As more and more wire manufacturers consider applying diamond dies within their wire business, it’s important to understand the basics of industrial diamond material and its development.

In the early days of industrial diamond manufacturing, diamond synthesis led to the development of polycrystalline diamond (PCD).

This material has several important advantages over single crystal diamonds. First, PCD offers a much greater toughness due to the random orientation of the natural cleavage planes found in individual crystals, providing more uniform wear and toughness than a single crystal diamond. Additionally, PCD provides more flexibility in size and shape than is feasible in single crystal diamonds, allowing a wider variety of tools to be made.

In this interview, John Rumpz, Vice President, Woodburn Diamond Die, Inc., throws light on the company’s diamond die products and its presence in India.

Q: What can you tell us about the history of your company?

A: Founded in 1957, Woodburn Diamond Die, Inc. (WDD) has grown to become one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of wiredrawing dies. An ISO

6 | WIRE BULLETIN

9001:2008 certified organisation, WDD is one of the few companies to offer a comprehensive line of wiredrawing dies of its own manufacture. The company serves the wire industry through three primary locations. Our manufacturing facility in Woodburn, Indiana, USA remains the corporate headquarters. A wholly-owned subsidiary, Woodburn Wire Die, S. de R.L. de C.V., is located in Juarez, Mexico, and serves the southwest USA, Mexico, and Central and South America. Our joint-venture partner, Walson Woodburn Wire Die Private Limited serves the Asian market, Middle Eastern countries and Africa.

Q: The company specializes in which products?

A: We make single-crystal diamond dies, polycrystalline diamond dies, tungsten carbide dies, ceramic and sapphire dies and guides, enameling and calibrating dies, provide recutting/die maintenance services and offer inventory management, diamond powder and compounds, die room equipment, and specialty products on request. Our research and innovation are combined with veteran craftsmanship to ensure precision quality and cost-effectiveness using the hardest materials known to man.

Dies manufactured with single crystal diamonds produce drawn wire with superior surface conditions and the ability to maintain very tight diameter tolerances. Drawing applications and required hole size diameters are used to help determine which diamond crystal is the appropriate material with which to work. The polycrystalline diamond die is an industry workhorse; stand-

ing up to demanding wear is a necessity.

This material has highly predictable die wear characteristics and thermal stability with high resistance to fracture.

Our polycrystalline diamonds are manufactured by forming a mass of diamond crystals and then applying a combination of heat and pressure. Through this process, the mass becomes a single unit with the diamond particles inter-grown to each other.

The final product is extremely wear-resistant, maintains tight hole tolerances and provides good surface finish. It’s also the perfect material for stranding, bunching, tube drawing and shaped dies. The polycrystalline diamond is available in various grades, nib sizes, and size capabilities.

Our carbide dies have been used in the wire industry for many years for various drawing applications where diamond dies are not economical or where hole tolerance is not as critical. They are used extensively in the steel industry as well as the nonferrous industry in applications such as bunching or stranding large diameter cables.

Q: What maintenance and inventory control services does WDD offer?

A: Our company provides die recutting and repolishing services for all types of wiredrawing dies. More than 40 years of experience in this field has built a technically sound program that uses precision craftsmanship and current technology to repair dies to like-new condition. State-of-the-art production and measuring equipment have enabled us to ensure that quality standards and required die specifications are met to the customers’ satisfaction. We are recognised

throughout the world as a preferred supplier of die sets requiring elongation certification between dies.

Die sets being recut must be repaired to a quality level equal to that of when the dies were new to achieve the benefits of the multi-wire drawing machine. The die set is physically elongated to the machine specifications within a tolerance of ±0.5 per cent.

At the completion of the repair process, the die strings are stamped and packaged for ease of identification and future installation in the machine. We also offer our customers the option to have their worn die inventory (or a portion) held at our facility. Frequent information exchanges help to keep the material cycling in an orderly and efficient manner.

Q: Will you elaborate about your joint venture entity in India?

A: We have a partnership venture in India called Walson Woodburn Wire Die Private Limited which comprises two manufacturing units. A plant in Surat’s SEZ has just been started, which is dedicated to exports and the other plant caters to the demand from the domestic market. The initial plant

by Walson was started 35 years back and then in 1997 we got into a joint venture.

Q: What is your view about the market scenario in India?

A: Over the past five to six years the wire and cable industry in India has been growing at a significant pace; there is lot of room for development. Technology-wise lots of international companies are coming in, joint ventures are happening at a rapid pace and all this is leading to quick growth. The main challenge is to keep pace with this growth and the future requirements. We have one of the finest quality control labs in India and we work with our Indian counterparts to continuously improve our product range and cater to the latest requirements.|WB

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JULY 2012 | 7

CORPORATE FOCUS-INDIA Sanjay Conductors & Cables: In tune with the power sector Amidst the ongoing coal and power shortages, India’s power generation capacity has reached another important benchmark of 2 lakh mega watt (MW).

The Kehars: (l-r) Sanjay, Priyadarshan, and Sachin.

Given this encouraging scenario in India’s power sector, the Punjab-based Sanjay Conductors & Cables, finds itself in an advantageous position. Established in 1996

by Priyadarshan Kehar with his two sons Sanjay and Sachin Kehar at the helm of its business, the company manufactures all types of aluminium conductor steel reinforced (ACSR), all aluminium conductor (AAC) and all aluminium alloy conductor (AAAC) for overhead power distribution and transmission lines, earning a reputation for being an innovative, quality conscious, and timely supplier.

A solid or stranded steel core surrounded by strands of aluminium (EC grade) comprise ACSR conductors. These are available in a wide range of steel, containing carbon from 0.5 per cent to 0.85 per cent. “The

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Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced.

higher strength ACSR conductors are used for river crossings, overhead ground wires, and installations involving extra-long spans. Against any given resistance of a conductor, ACSR may be manufactured within a wide range of tensile strength as per the requirement,” said Sachin Kehar.

The principal advantage of these conductors is their high tensile strength.

“Due to the greater diameter of ACSR conductors a much higher corona limit can be obtained leading to big advantages on high as well as extra high voltage overhead lines,” Sachin said. Meanwhile, the AAAC conductors are made from an aluminiummagnesium-silicon alloy of high electrical conductivity containing magnesium (0.60.9 per cent) and silicon (0.5-0.9 per cent) to give it better mechanical properties after treatment. AAAC conductors are made out of aluminium alloy 6201. It has a better corrosion resistance and better strength-toweight ratio along with improved electrical conductivity than the ACSR conductor on an equal diameter basis.

The Aluminium Alloy Conductor, Steel Reinforced (AACSR) is a concentrically stranded conductor composed of one or more layers of 6201 -T81 aluminium alloy wire stranded over a high-strength zinccoated steel core. The core may be single wire or stranded depending on the requirement of the customer. The proportions of aluminium alloy and steel can be varied to

Conductors ready for dispatch.

obtain the relation between the current carrying capacity and mechanical strength best suited to each application. These are used as bare overhead transmission cables and as primary and secondary distribution cables.

For Sanjay Conductors & Cables, adherence to quality standards has been a priority. Says Sachin: “We obtained ISI certification in the year 2003 and the ACSR, AAAC and AAC conductors are being manufactured as per the Indian standards conforming to IS 398.”

The company’s present installed capacity for conductors is more than 60,000 meters per day, i.e., about 3,500 metric tonnes of ACSR, AAC, AAAC conductors. The manufacturing plant is equipped with rod breakdown machines, tubular machines, and stranding machines as also updated quality control facilities. “We have recently introduced an insulated aluminium conductor which is widely used for overhead secondary distribution lines and is coated with weather-proofing polyethylene or XLPE. It mainly provides weather proofing of the conductors, thereby making it very competitive as compared to cables. This is particularly in favour of industries that want to cut costs on cables,” Sachin said.

Among the company’s main clients are the various state electricity boards, turnkey contractors and power plants, both public sector undertakings and private companies.

“Our main strength lies in the fact that our

A view of the shop floor.

team of professionals also helps in product design, manufacture, evaluation, inspection, and testing,” Sachin said, adding, “The raw material used in the manufacture of the conductors is EC grade aluminium of 99.7 per cent purity wire rod and high tensile galvanized steel wire.”

In terms of performance, the company supplied approximately 18,000 kms of ACSRs to various State Electricity Boards and customers in 2011-12.

Sachin is optimistic about growth. The reasoning is simple: the power conductor industry is very likely to see impressive growth in the 12th Plan period (20122017), thanks to a much higher outlay for the power transmission sector. “With 25 per cent of the total cost of a typical power transmission project being towards conductors, the business opportunity size for power conductors would be Rs 60,000 crore. The total opportunity arena could be much higher than this considering that conductors also find minor application in power distribution (sub-transmission) projects,” Sachin said.|WB Contact: Sanjay Conductors & Cables G T Road, Khanna Punjab - 141 401 Tel.: +91-9815625617 E-mail: sanjayconductors@yahoo.com www.sanjayconductors.com

CORPORATE FOCUS-INTERNATIONAL General Cable Corp.: A global presence General Cable Corp. hits the headlines by setting up a truly ‘green’ manufacturing facility at Baddi in India. An overview of the parent company follows.

Kenny

General Cable’s India plant at Baddi.

It’s not just about manufacturing and selling products. It’s also about the manner in which a company integrates what it does by way of business with the world around it.

Nothing proves this better than what a conglomerate such as General Cable Corp. has done with its latest achievement—the setting up of a 100 per cent wholly-owned subsidiary in India that has been built ‘green’ from the ground up and meets all the standards of the Indian Green Building Council. Spread across 20 acres of land at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, General Cable India will manufacture a broad range of products that will include aerial transmission conductors, low-, medium-, and highvoltage power cables, building wire, as well as control, instrumentation and specialty cables. The offering will cater to the requirements of the USD 8 billion Indian wire and cable market.

At current installed capacity, the facility is capable of generating annual revenues in

the range of USD 100 to 120 million, complementing the company’s existing exports into the country. “Our new state-of-the-art facility at Baddi incorporates a flexible and agile approach to manufacturing which will ensure that it is future-ready and is able to respond to customer needs. Our key focus areas include people, the environment, lean manufacturing and operational excellence.

At General Cable we deliver innovation that matters and hence General Cable India is constantly working on the continuous refinement of the cables to ensure our customers have cables with better life-cycle cost and maximum productivity,” said Sandeep Sood, CEO & Country Head, India Operations.

General Cable, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Kentucky, is a global leader in the development, design, manufacture, marketing, and distribution of copper, aluminium and fiber optic wire and cable products for the energy, industrial, specialty and communications markets around the world. The company offers competitive strengths in such areas as breadth of product line, brand recognition, distribution and logistics, sales and service, and operating efficiency. Serving commercial, industrial, electric utility, telecommunications, OEM, military/government, retail, electrical and communications distributor customers worldwide, General Cable and

A General Cable stranding machine. its 12,000 associates conduct business in 48 manufacturing locations in 25 countries, with sales representation around the globe.

The company was originally incorporated in New Jersey in 1927. At that time it brought together the plant facilities and manufacturing experience of several older companies founded in the 1800s, including Phillips Wire and Safety Cable Company and Standard Underground Cable, founded

by George Westinghouse. In 1929 it produced the first 75,000 volt submarine cable in the United States for the Delaware River Crossing. It was manufactured in 4,050 foot lengths – the longest ever without joints.

Growing from strength to strength, General Cable has been at the forefront of pioneering technologies.

The first quarter financial results released

by General Cable in April this year show that the net sales for this period were USD 1,432.5 million, an increase of USD 93.4 million, or 7 per cent, compared to the first quarter of 2011 on a metal-adjusted basis. In a statement issued by the company, Gregory B. Kenny, President and CEO of General Cable, said: “We experienced broad-based improvement in a number of our businesses resulting in each segment reporting betterthan-expected operating results in the first quarter as volumes increased and the market metal prices were closer to inventory book values computed under average cost. In

A General Cable associate monitors an aluminium rod breakdown machine.

North America, the operating income in all businesses was ahead of expectation. In Europe, operating results improved as demand for medium and high voltage cables in France and the supply of offshore specialty cables and support services in Germany more than offset the ongoing weak operating environment in Iberia. Our businesses in the Americas, Africa and Asia remain a source of stability, collectively, with growth in the key markets.”

About what lies ahead, Kenny said, “Overall, our view of the global pricing environment remains unchanged in 2012 as industry capacity utilisation remains at relatively low levels, particularly in the construction-driven markets. While there are pockets of pricing and demand improvement around the world, we are cautious, as the visibility in our businesses is limited due to the economic uncertainty in Europe and to some extent, China and the ongoing volatility of raw material cost inputs as well as turnkey project timing. In 2012, we expect a flat to gradual improvement in most markets.”|WB Contact: General Cable Corp.

4 Tesseneer Drive Highland Heights, KY 41076 USA Tel.: (001) 859-572-8000 E-mail: info@generalcable.com www.generalcable.com

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JULY 2012 | 9

S

FEATURED CONCEPTS

Cabling in healthcare facilities: A growing need

tructured cabling is used in the healthcare sector in the United States, as described by Patrick McLaughlin. Should India follow suit?

It is not a secret that for the past several years a significant percentage of the structured cabling systems sold in North America are being deployed in data centre environments as opposed to commercial buildings.

Some people have opined that the data centre market has kept the structured cabling industry, as a whole, afloat amid the recession that some economists believe we are finally pulling out of. The rise and sustenance of the data centre market has had technological, business and regulatory drivers. From enterprises outsourcing information-technology (IT) operations, to the need for instantaneous business transactions and the keep-yourself-in-line requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the need to house and access massive amounts of data have been a boon to data centre IT systems, including their layer-one infrastructure.

The dynamics of IT systems in healthcare environments draws some parallels to those of the data centre space in that technological, business and regulatory drivers have combined to create the need for more robust IT and cabling systems. A recent research report from Compass Intelligence (www.compassintelligence.com) shows that the healthcare IT market is set to continue on a growth path over the next five years.

The researcher expects healthcare organisations–including hospitals, doctors’ offices, private practices, clinics and others–to spend an estimated USD 73.1 billion this year on IT products, services and solutions.

By 2014 expenditures are expected to climb to USD 85 billion. Compass says the spending is being driven by the government’s push for the market to adopt electronic health records (EHR) backed by stimulus dollars, investments in systems and networks to support new applications, and the adoption of mobile applications, hardware and other software to support patient care, patient records and next-generation medical diagnostics and imaging.

Image files generated by computed tomography (CT) scans such as this one can range from 150 to 1,000 megabytes in size. Storing, managing and transporting those files will push IT and cabling systems within healthcare facilities to, and perhaps beyond, their current capabilities.

“The federal stimulus funding in the HITECH Act has sparked the healthcare industry to invest in systems, software and network infrastructure to support EHR implementation,” says Stephanie Atkinson, managing partner and principal analyst at Compass Intelligence. “The push for compliance is uncovering pent up demand and giving light to delayed technology investments.” She adds that EHR is expected to impact the entire healthcare IT ecosystem, not just software. Atkinson also states that

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in addition to stimulus funding and EHR initiatives, healthcare IT is being buoyed by a few other drivers, some of which are bringing mobile applications to the forefront. “Wireless healthcare or mHealth is becoming a strong area of expenditure and focus for health IT. We expect this to be a significant driver over the next five years,” she says.

New or existing technology

Again drawing a parallel between healthcare facilities and data centres, one area in which the two environments differ is that in order to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth requirements within data centres seven to eight years ago, providers of structured cabling systems and components had to upgrade their offerings. While many factors and characteristics of data centres were at play, the single most visible driver was the 10-Gbit Ethernet application. Both unshielded twisted-pair copper and multimode fiber-optic cabling systems ratcheted up their levels of performance to support 10Gbit/sec payloads. Today, to a large extent, healthcare facilities undergoing IT upgrades benefit from that already-accomplished upratcheting.

By and large, structured cabling technologies that are readily available today have the ability to meet the high-speed needs of healthcare environments. Rest assured, however, that debate goes on and will continue to do so about which medium is the ideal for healthcare facilities, just as it goes on regarding data centres. FutureFlex’s manager of enterprise networks Kurt Templeman, comments, “There are very few new initiatives in healthcare infrastructure design that require the redesign of products to fulfill needs. What has changed in supporting systems such as nurse-call, MRI, medical imaging and others is how to get the cable to those services.”

He says that conversations with hospital chief executive officers and chief operating officers reveal a universal theme: “Patient safety and patient health,” he says. “They must be careful about infectious disease control. For them it even includes the space used in corridors. A lot of hospitals are looking at their patient-testing flow—where a patient enters the facility, where they have to go from there, how long they have to be there, how many people they need to move them across corridors, and so on. Those are all real considerations for hospitals today.

The cable pathway, then, is an issue.”

He says that as a result, network designers have had to re-look at how they create these pathways when they are working in a hospital environment. These designers must provide more pathway than they do in other environments, including more telecommunications room space and different entrance room space requirements. Scott Thompson, president of Oberon (www.oberonwireless.com), further makes the point that pathways in healthcare environments can be challenging for wireless networks as well as the wires and cables behind them. He says these environments often comprise “large, multi-level buildings constructed at different time periods over decades.”

Digital imaging system.

“A key component in healthcare installations is adherence to infection-control measures,” Thompson continues. “Procedures may restrict the number of ceiling tiles that can be removed, how long they are removed, and procedures for cleaning the air and personnel in the work area.” He further explains that using enclosures to mount wireless access points in a suspended ceiling can help system designers and owners reduce time and labour while meeting ICRA procedures. “The enclosure provides a means by which technicians can access wireless LAN access points from the room space, without exposing the air handling space during moves, adds and changes in the wireless deployment.”

Meeting high demands

Anthony Ursini, technical manager with General Cable (www.generalcable.com), has researched the healthcare system in depth to understand its impact on IT systems within healthcare facilities and the consequent requirements that are being placed on those IT systems’ structured cabling systems. The major healthcare-IT drivers of government-mandated EHR and the access-from-anywhere reality that Compass Intelligence pointed out, equate to enormous amounts of patient data having to be stored and managed, Ursini notes. “The adoption of electronic health records is a major technology trend impacting healthcare,” he says. “Governments and insurers are encouraging healthcare organisations to adopt more sophisticated strategies for protecting and storing data, replacing outdated processes such as scribbling prescriptions and patient records on paper, and storing and enhancing X-rays and other images.”

Case in point

An example is that of a hospital that recognised the need to upgrade its data centre and used available technology to do just that.

Fairview Health Services (www.fairview.org) [near Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA] includes 36 primary care clinics, 55 specialty clinics, six urgent-care facilities and a number of hospice, rehabilitation, counseling, home-care and retail pharmacy facilities. In all the system has more than 2,500 patient beds and employs more than 20,000 workers.

With the technology and regulatory requirements discussed in this article staring at them, Fairview was in need of a new data centre.

“Today’s equipment requires more power to accommodate the increased number and speed of processors and a greater amount of cooling to suppress the heat generated by the increased power,” says Mike Elton, IT program manager for Fairview’s new data centre. “Our existing data centre was at capacity for electrical services, cooling and raised floor space, and we were very close to exceeding the structural capacity.” The new 25,000 sq feet data centre was designed with a raised floor and the user decided to implement a network cabling infrastructure that could provide 10-Gbit Ethernet transmission performance. Dick Neubauer, tech-

nology consultant for Fairview, states, “When planning to support existing and future applications, we decided to go with a 10-Gig solution to protect our investment.

While we may not need 10-Gig speeds immediately, more and more applications will eventually require this bandwidth.”

Fairview chose a Category 6A unshielded twisted-pair cabling system including General Cable’s GenSpeed 10MTP cable and connectivity hardware from Panduit (www.panduit.com). The end user also deployed multimode fiber-optic cable and connectivity from General Cable and Panduit, respectively, in its data centre. The GenSpeed 10MTP cable includes a technology called Mosaic Crossblock to shield cable from alien crosstalk noise that comes from external cable sources. Not a conventional shield or foil found in some twistedpair cable constructions, the Mosaic Crossblock is designed with individual overlapping metallic blocks separated by an insulating layer of polyester film. Because the insulating layer prevents metal-to-metal contact, there is no path for current to flow longitudinally along the cable, which minimises electromagnetic interference and eliminates the need to ground the cable during termination.

Fairview was the first major installation of this cable technology, which was introduced shortly before the Fairview project got underway. Neubauer recalls, “We were all set to go with the standard 10-Gig copper cable, but the design of the Mosaic Twisted Pair and the way the cable was built provided more reliability and flexibility. You only get one chance to build a data centre, and we wanted to get it right the first time. By switching to the Mosaic technology, it will keep us from having to swap out cable as the application requirements continue to grow.” General Cable explains that sometimes in twisted-pair based high-speed applications such as 10-Gbit Ethernet, shorter links can add significant noise contribution from pairs that are transmitting at the same end of a link. This noise contribution, known as near-end crosstalk, requires precise workmanship when terminating connectors on a short link to avoid performance issues.

Adrian Young, senior customer support engineer for Fluke Networks’ technical assistance centre, explains the short-link phenomenon. “When two connectors are in close proximity to one another, they can contribute significantly to near-end crosstalk and return loss in that link. Fortunately, many connector manufacturers have improved their designs, but these shorter links still require quality connector terminations every time.” Fluke Networks offered to assist in the Fairview project by performing alien-crosstalk testing. The shorter links in the Fairview data centre range from 8 to 29 meters. Young recalls, “I was expecting to see several issues due to the shorter link lengths in the Fairview data centre, but that wasn’t the case. All of the links passed, and more than 99 percent showed significant margin. It was really quite an achievement.”

In that case, it may be an example for hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country to follow as they prepare for what is shaping up to be an avalanche of information storage, management and transmission.|WB Patrick McLaughlin is chief editor of Cabling Installation & Maintenance (www.cablinginstall.com).

Copyright Courtesy: PennWell Corporation

H

FEATURED CONCEPTS

New dimensions with multicore cables

ybrid cables suit multiple applications in a single construction, saving space, weight, and expense.

Wadeley Selecting the correct combinations of signal, power, and control cables is a common challenge facing today’s cable/system designers. Balancing the unique needs of the application in terms of performance and space/weight concerns can be daunting.

While they are created to simplify the selection of the proper cable for a given set of mechanical, electrical and environmental requirements, cable specifications also limit flexibility by a certain rigidity of focus.

Typically, cable specifications are written around a narrow range of designs with specific functionality loosely classified as signal, power, and control.

A multicore cable often provides a better alternative in saving space, simplifying the cabling system, and supporting power, control, and signals in a single construction.

Multiple applications—Ethernet, USB, DVI, or MIL-STD-1553Bdata bus—can be accommodated by a single cable supporting all the needs of the system in one hybrid design. The challenge is how to integrate these types of cables into industry standards.

Multicore/hybrid cables can also provide internal shielding between sensitive signal lines and noisy power lines to allow both functions to operate successfully within the same cable. The use of multicore/hybrid cables often significantly reduces the weight and volume that the cabling occupies.

These savings, in turn, lead to easier installation, clamping, and maintenance of the cable in the available space, while providing greater choice in routings and system functionality.

One additional trend driving interest in multicore cables is its close association with advanced material science that yields thin-wall insulations and jackets. These products can reduce cable diameters in the range of 30 to 40 per cent, while maintaining the mechanical toughness, electrical characteristics and environmental performance of these products when compared to standard-wall cables. The smaller size is often accompanied by reduced weight and improved system functionality.

The environment

Choosing the correct cable for the environment to ensure correct fit, form and function is essential. Parameters such as temperature rating, fluid resistance, mechanical strength, ease of use and installation all need to be considered carefully.

Cable failure normally leads to systems failure, which can be catastrophic. The primary role of the specification has to be to

ensure the correct use of products that satisfy the needs of the application and also exclude products that would be unsuitable.

Custom-designed multicore/hybrid cables, when offered with a wide range of wellproven insulation and jacketing materials, allow the cable design to be optimized to provide the best solution for the environment and application.

Specifications

Specifications should clearly define the attributes of the cables in key performance areas, but today’s reality is that the approach to achieving this is often feature-driven. The cable is defined by such parameters as wire gauge, materials, stranding, and insulation material/thickness. While such physical attributes loosely relate to electrical and environmental performance, they also limit the possibilities and flexibility of cabling choices. Cable specifications serve the purpose of ensuring the right level of performance - the downside is that these requirements are also quite rigid. By often excluding the use of the optimum designs in multicore/hybrid cables, they limit a designer’s flexibility.

Connector compatibility

A multicore/hybrid cable must be terminated but the connector world has already embraced the multiconductor cable by making contacts available to fit most cable types. System or hardware requirements may dictate that the multicore/hybrid cable is terminated according to certain breakouts, such as separate connectors for power and control. The parts required for such breakouts, including heat-shrinkable moulded parts, are available in a range of performance grades to match the environment and offer compatibility with the cable jacket materials.

Multicore cables support signals, control, and power in a single compact cable.

Moving from specifications to performance requirements

Globally and for every market, there are many specifications attempting to describe the required performance of cables exposed to very similar environments e.g., military ground vehicles. This approach fails to unify the industry using different tests methods and specifying unique properties to achieve perceived suitability. This activity in turn leads to myriad product families driving up manufacturing costs and reducing availability of the products in the supporting manufacturing industry.|WB

Biographical information

John Wadeley is Senior Global Product Manager for TE Connectivity’s global aerospace, defense and marine business unit.

Contact John at jwadeley@te.com.

JULY 2012 | 11

GLOBAL NEWS BRAZIL—General Cable Corp. has acquired Delphia Produtos Eletricos Ltda, a Brazilian automotive parts manufacturer.

Delphia, a manufacturer of automotive ignition wire harnesses sold into the Brazilian market, reported revenues of about USD 20 million in 2011. General Cable had net sales of USD 5.9 billion in 2011.

FRANCE—Nexans has won a contract worth

more than Euro 50 million to supply a total of 57 km of high-voltage subsea power export cables to Northwind NV in the North Sea. The project comprises 14 km of cable to connect Belwind Phase 2 to the Northwind wind farm (formerly known as Eldepasco), together with a further 43 km of cable that will transfer a total of 381 MW produced by both wind farms to the onshore grid connection at Zeebrugge. In addition to the design, type-testing and supply of the XLPE subsea cables, Nexans will also supply mechanical and electrical accessories. This includes the onshore transition joints to connect the subsea cables to the land cables, the accessories for the two platforms, comprising hangoff and gas insulated switchgear terminations and four repair joints.

GERMANY—The wire and tube trade fairs, organized by Messe Düsseldorf, will return to the Düsseldorf Exhibition Center April 7-11, 2014.

IRAQ—Tratos has been awarded a Euro 1 mil-

lion contract to supply Iraq’s state-owned Midland Refineries Company (MRC) with cables for installation at the Daura Refinery in Baghdad. A range of power cables, high temperature cables and fire-resistant cables have been supplied to MRC, a new customer for Tratos, as part of the modernisation process of the refinery.

IRAQ—Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the

Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, has landed the first subsea cable in Iraq. With broadband penetration in Iraq currently less than 3 per cent, GBI expects the connection to mark a significant milestone for the nation’s telecom sector.

JAPAN—SMS Meer, a worldwide producer of machinery and plants for steel, copper and aluminium forming has opened a subsidiary in

12 | WIRE BULLETIN

Japan. SMS Meer KK was officially launched with a technical symposium and a reception at the German embassy in Tokyo on April 12, 2012. SMS Meer has a long history in Japan.

The company’s first order was for a seamless tube plant in the 1930s.

LIBYA—Prysmian Group is set to play an

important role in the reconstruction of Libya’s infrastructure and networks for energy and telecommunications. It has announced the acquisition of a contract worth over Euro 50 million to supply 203 km of high-voltage 220 kV AC cables and related network components for the upgrade of the electricity grids operated by General Electric Company of Libya (GECOL) in Tripoli and Benghazi. The contract, due to be carried out on behalf of Public Works Electric Company (PEWCO), also includes the supply of optical cables for grid monitoring.

NORWAY—ABB, a leading power and automa-

tion technology group, has won an order worth around USD 25 million from Statoil to supply AC subsea power cables to the world’s largest offshore gas platform, Troll A, about 70 kilometers off the west coast of Norway. ABB’s scope of supply includes 69 kilometers of three-core cable with integrated fiber optics, accessories, and joints. The cables will provide a clean and energy-efficient source of power for operating and safety systems on the platform. The project is scheduled for completion in 2014.

PORTUGAL—Huntstar Trading Ltd., a manu-

facturers’ agent and cable raw material supplier, announced cooperation with Somapla Lda of Portugal to promote and develop the UK market for Somapla’s PVC compound products. For a similar period, Somapla has been engaged in transforming PVC and thermoplastic rubber polymers into high-quality, yet cost-effective, filled compounds as used for insulation and sheathing materials in the cable industry.

ROMANIA—Romanian aluminium producer Alro, owned by Vimetco, plans to add a new mill to increase capacity for aluminium wire production in response to higher demand in the US market. “Estimations for 2012 are based on the entry into production of a Properzi mill to increase wire production, given the higher demand

from Europe and the US, as the wire is the most profitable product made by the Primary Aluminum Division,” a company note said.

SAUDI ARABIA—Riyadh-based Middle East

Specialized Cables Company (MESC), a leading manufacturer of all instrumentation and control cables in the MENA region, recently inaugurated a new plant for producing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products to meet the requirements of all MESC plants and to have a steady supply of raw material that is up to the international standards.

SINGAPORE—Eutex Global Electrical Solutions, Singapore’s provider of IEC cables and electrical products, announced its partnership with global cable manufacturer Nexans AmerCable. The distribution agreement has been formulated for the Asia Pacific and associated markets and includes the full range of Type P cables for the offshore, marine, and OEM markets.

SOUTH KOREA—LS Cable & System an-

nounced that the company has won large projects totaling USD 110 million from Kuwait, USD 1.44 million from Saudi Arabia and USD 1.36 million from Qatar. The company will supply 101.8 km of 400 kV cables and connectors for the extra high-voltage cable construction projects being carried out by the Kuwait Ministry of Electricity & Water and Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation to meet the rapidly increasing demands for electricity and build national infrastructures in the region.

SOUTH KOREA—Taihan Electric Wire Co.,

South Korea’s second-largest cable maker, said it has clinched a combined USD 92 million in orders to build high-voltage power lines in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Under a USD 48 million turnkey deal, Taihan Electric Wire will replace a 158-kilometer-long, 132-kilovolt electricity line in the Middle Eastern country’s capital.

TAIWAN—Asia Pacific Wire & Cable, a manufacturer of wire and cable products for the telecommunications and electric-power industries in selected Asia-Pacific markets, announced that it has been awarded several new supply contracts in Singapore valued at approximately USD 87 million. A total of three new supply contracts have been awarded to Sigma

Cable, one of APWC’s Singapore subsidiaries,

by Singapore Power, one of the main energy utility companies in Singapore. These contracts are for the supply of low and medium voltage cables, and a separate turnkey supply project which Sigma has successfully been awarded.

Delivery on the contracts is expected to occur between September 2012 and August 2014.

UAE—The Abu Dhabi Transmission and Dispatch Company (Transco) has inked a deal with Prysmian Cables and Systems for a USD 250 million cable installation project in the UAE capital. The 230 km, 400 kV project will see extrahigh voltage power cables manufactured for the Bahia and Saadiyat grids, and will form a significant part of the infrastructure development within the city. The cables will replace the existing overhead power lines and will run underground.

UK—JDR Cables, the leading provider of spe-

cialist high performance subsea cables and umbilical systems for the offshore oil, gas and renewables market, has completed investment of £ 30 million in its Hartlepool plant, bringing the company into a new phase of growth.

USA—Houston Wire & Cable Company, a provider of electrical and mechanical wire and cable, has been honoured with Forbes’ prestigious ‘Most Trustworthy Company Award for 2012.’ The company stocks continuous and interlocked armor, instrumentation, medium voltage, high temperature, portable cord, power cables, and private branded products.

USA—USA Wire and Cable has announced the

immediate availability of aluminium photovoltaic wire in sizes for DC feeder cable runs between combiner box and inverter station. The company has also created the USA Solar Solutions Group to provide industry-leading solutions and service with the goal of lowering cost per watt for contractors, developers and owners. The cable is constructed with sunlight-resistant RHH/RHW-2 cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation, and compact stranded 8030 aluminium alloy conductor. It is UL 4703 listed, direct burial, CT rated, 90°C wet or dry and VW-1 flame test-compliant.|WB

PRODUCTS, MEDIA, & TECHNOLOGY Products

KEI Industries Ltd. launches mining cables

New spark-tester from Sikora

During the extrusion of cables the insulation is inspected by high-voltage sparktesters and possible insulation faults are detected and documented. The quality management system assures that only faultless cables are delivered. Sikora offers for diverse applications high-frequency (HF), direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) spark-testers. For the test, dry cable runs through the sturdy electrode of the spark-tester that is installed after the cooling section. Here the cable insulation is exposed to the selected test voltage and faults in the insulation are reliably detected. The test voltage is continuously adjustable. All spark-testers conform to approved test standards (AS, BS, CS, CENELEC, EN, UL, VDE) and safety regulations (as demanded

by DIN/VDE 0800, IEC 479-1).

The new SPARK 6030 HF is a high-frequency high-voltage spark-tester designed for the detection of faults in the insulation of cables from 0.02 to 1.18" (0.5 to 30 mm).

Additionally, the system reliably detects bare patches. Its sturdy electrode and the electronic box form one integral unit. Optionally integrated in the device is a display that shows the number of high-voltage breakdowns. The display is combined with a control panel for entering the test voltage.

According to European standards, openly operated measuring and testing equipment has to be checked regularly. Accordingly, spark-testers are tested with regard to highvoltage, short-circuit current and function (sensitivity). While in the past cable manufacturers had to use an external testing device, the SPARK 6030 HF integrates a three-step self-test and calibration system: • The spark-tester tests the displayed high voltage of the device for correctness. The high voltage has to be within a tolerance of 5 per cent.

• In addition to the high-voltage test, the spark-tester automatically checks the maximum short-circuit current.

• The spark-tester automatically performs a function test (sensitivity test).

Therefore, 20 artificial faults (breakdowns) are initiated that are detected and reported.

The SPARK 6030 HF has common interfaces as well as a W-LAN interface. Via WLAN it can be directly connected to a smartphone or laptop. Sikora also offers a free app for diagnosis and quality control with smartphones. The operator can easily log in via the W-LAN interface and immediately receive production data such as number of breakdowns or the high voltage.

It is also possible to control the high voltage and to start the self-test via the app.

For further details contact: Sikora International Corp., 215 Prospect Park, Ste. C Peachtree City, GA 30269, USA, Tel.: +1 770-486-1233, Fax: +1 770-4861201, E-mail: sales@sikora-usa.com, www.sikora.net.

KEI Industries Ltd. recently unveiled its range of mining cables. The company manufactures a variety of elastomeric (rubber) cables up to 11 KV which are used where flexible cables are required for repeated flexing or winding and rewinding. These cables can be used with hand-held or portable machines, cranes, material handling equipments, mining machines, marine applications, and more. According to a company press release, KEI’s mining cables offer high durability as they are manufactured in modern manufacturing lines, which consist of highly flexible copper conductors, high quality EPR insulation and superior rubber and tough rubber sheaths thus making the cables robust.

The specially formulated rubber-insulated and tough rubber-sheathed cables of 1.1, 3.3, 5, 6.6 and 11 KV grade are manufactured as per both Indian and international standards. These cables are as per the IS 14494 Type FT7, FTD3 which are certified by the Director General of Mining Service for underground coal mines. KEI’s in-house rubber compounding plant and CCV lines are appropriate for various rubber compounds and cable sizes, have modern extruders and also high-quality braiding and taping machines to produce robust and quality cables. Additionally, it offers flexibility in design and large capacity.

On this occasion, Anil Gupta, CMD, KEI Industries Ltd., said, “I take immense pride in unveiling our special range of mining cables. Our products are engineered with reliability and operational excellence, thus making them suitable for use in a range of industrial and mining environments, where high degree of mechanical stress is always expected...We at KEI are focused on meeting the demands from the expansion, modernisation and replacement markets and thus benefit from it.”

KEI Industries Ltd. is one of the leading manufacturers of electrical cables and wires in India. It enjoys a dominant position in the market backed by a vast product portfolio consisting of EHV cables (up to 220 kV), MV/HT cables, control and instrumentation cables, rubber cables, thermocouple cables, zero halogen cables, braided cables, single and multi-core flexible cables, house wires and stainless steel wires. In 2010, KEI entered into a strategic alliance with Brugg Kabel AG, a Swiss cable giant, to manufacture EHV cables up to 220 kV in India. KEI carries out stringent quality control measures for all its products and is the first cable manufacturing company to get a certification from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), under the aegis of the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology.

For further details visit: www.kei-ind.com.

Leoni cables enlarges solar portfolio

Leoni, a leading provider of cables and cable systems to the automotive sector and other industries, has enhanced its offering

with a range of products and related services for concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, also called solar thermal energy plants. A further step has thereby been taken toward a strategic objective: the company wants to become the most innovative and leading producer of cables for environmental technologies. The new product group comprises instrumentation cables, low voltage cables, bus cables, optical cables and hybrid cables, which are all geared to the particular demands of solar power plants.

Engineering services, which contribute to the cost optimisation of the whole construction during the planning phase, are also part of the offering. Thereby, Leoni has considerably enlarged its solar portfolio. Previously, it encompassed installation cables for connecting solar modules and inverters in photovoltaic plants, solar flat wires for interlinking the cells and strings of individual modules, as well as fiber optic cables for controlling parabolic reflectors. Most of the new products for CSP plants are available as assembled cable systems, which are ready for plug and play.

They can be quickly installed without the help of any experts and consequently reduce construction time and associated costs. The majority of the new product developments are designed for transmitting analogue and digital signals for measuring and control equipment inside the complex reflector systems, which are thus best possibly aligned toward the sun. The cables thereby make a key contribution to the plant reaching its maximum power generation. They are suited for use in parabolic trough, tower, and paraboloid power plants. The extended range also contains cables for power transmission in the plants’ high voltage area.

For further details contact: Sven Schmidt, Tel.: +49 (0) 911-2023-467, presse@leoni.com.

New compound to help reduce carbon footprints

Teknor Apex Company has developed flexible vinyl compounds with plasticizers based on renewable resources for applications as diverse as automotive window encapsulation, medical tubing, and footwear, and it is prepared to supply the compounds to manufacturers seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of their products, the company announced at NPE 2012. The new BioVinyl™ flexible vinyl compounds have already found commercial uses. Three of these are a line of fashionable ‘flip-flop’ sandals produced in the US by Okabashi Brands, Inc., a range of shoe welting manufactured by custom extrusion processor Barbour Plastics, Inc. and a new series of Tuff-Seal interlocking floor tile from Flooring Adventures.

BioVinyl compounds incorporate phthalate-free Dow Ecolibrium™ bio-based plasticizers, which are manufactured using

plant byproducts by Dow Electrical and Telecommunications (Dow E&T), a unit of The Dow Chemical Company. Under a recently announced joint collaboration agreement, Teknor Apex has been granted the exclusive right to market in North America flexible vinyl compounds containing Dow Ecolibrium™ bio-based olasticizers in certain applications. Life cycle analysis tests conducted by Dow and reviewed by a third party indicate that every ton of vinyl compound made flexible with Dow Ecolibrium™ bio-based plasticizer helps the industry reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 0.7 tonne, or 41 per cent.

“BioVinyl compounds possess a lower global-warming potential than conventional flexible vinyl, and their carbon footprint reduction is even greater in comparison with non-vinyl plastics,” said Louis R. Cappucci, vice president in charge of the Vinyl Division of Teknor Apex. “Our tests of diverse BioVinyl grades indicate that customers can gain these environmental advantages without sacrificing product performance, and at a cost that is competitive with flexible vinyl containing non-phthalate plasticizers.”

Development work continues on compounds for other applications, such as blood bags and wire and cable jacketing, according to business development manager Michael Roberts. “Because half of the PVC polymer is derived from sea water and typical plasticizer loadings are 33 per cent, the substitution of the new plasticizers for conventional phthalates makes the carbon footprint of BioVinyl compounds dramatically smaller than that of many plastics,” said Roberts. “Teknor Apex has compiled comparative data indicating that the global warming potential of BioVinyl compounds, in terms of CO2 emission equivalents, is half that of polyolefin resins and is even lower than that of PLA bioplastic. The cumulative energy demand of BioVinyl compounds, including feedstock and processing, is the lowest in comparison with a wide range of plastics.”

Another advantage of BioVinyl compounds cited by Roberts stems from the fact that Dow Ecolibrium™ bio-based plasticizers are derived from naturally occurring vegetable substances that are not used for food and so are unaffected by supply/demand forces impacting other bio-derived plastics feedstocks such as corn starch. In work on formulations incorporating Dow Ecolibrium™, Teknor Apex researchers developed and tested BioVinyl grades for a number of standard flexible vinyl applications, such as building and construction seals and gaskets and irrigation tubing. The company’s researchers also found that the Dow bio-based plasticizer exhibited greater plasticizing efficiency than most common phthalates.

For further details visit: www.dow.com/ecolibrium.

DCM releases new broadband telecom cable

DCM Industries, a leading worldwide producer of cable test and measurement solutions, has released its new 3S-PCX broadband telecom cable test system and new CATS-3000 shielding effectiveness test system. Using DCM’s solid-state-switching platform, the company has introduced a new generation of test systems for telecom cables. The new Model 3S-PCX covers the complete range of applications for telecom cables, from 100 kHz to 100 MHz. The feature-rich 3S-PCX includes 26-pair/ 52-pair/104-pair test fixture options, dual continued on p. 14

JULY 2012 | 13

PRODUCTS, MEDIA, & TECHNOLOGY impedance features, and updated test reporting. The new Model CATS-3000 from DCM provides a tri-axial test fixture and test automation software enabling the testing of all three of the standard shielding effectiveness test parameters required for data cables.

3S-PCX broadband telecom cable test system.

Cable producers and test laboratories can quickly and efficiently perform shielding effectiveness tests using the CATS-3000 test solution, combined with a suitable vector network analyzer. Since 1971, DCM Industries has been developing and producing high-quality test and measurement solutions such as highly sophisticated switching and automation systems for a broad range of wire and cable applications. “The world’s leading producers of LAN cable, telecom cable and coaxial cable use DCM cable test systems for quality testing of finished cables.

For further details visit: www.dcmindustries.com.

highest detection accuracy and identification of lumps and neckdowns in the micrometer range. Product highlights include: • Complex optics that allow for minimum detectable fault height of 0.01 mm; • Full digital signal processing (DSP); and • Compact design.

For further details contact: Bruno Mühlheim, Technical Editor, Zumbach Electronic AG, CH-2552 Orpund, Switzerland, Tel.: +41 (0)32 356 04 00, E-mail: bmuehlheim@zumbach.ch, www.zumbach.com.

Rosendahl unveils SZ technology

Rosendahl Maschinen GmbH, an international manufacturing solutions provider for the wire and cable industry, has developed a technology that helps the merger of power SZ stranding and the sheathing process in one line. “Getting from single insulated conductors to a finished power cable offers a lot of advantages for the manufacturer. This challenge had to be taken by Rosendahl and led to the development of this technology,” a company press release said. The equipment serves the solution for low voltage cable up to 1 kV with a cross section up to 240 mm² of each single conductor. The perfect result of the finished power cable can be observed on the take-up reel.

Zumbach’s new line of detectors

The new line of KW 13TRIO detectors launched by Zumbach Electronics capture with the highest accuracy, reliability and velocity even the smallest lumps and neck downs in wires, conductors, optical fibres, cables, tubes, and hoses. “Thanks to the separate operating and display unit BAE 2-KW, the KW 13TRIO can be fully operated and configured at the device. This unit features an illuminated graphic module to display values and messages, tolerance indicators for signalling operating states, a keyboard with function keys, and a numeric keypad for manual instrument setting. The BAE 2-KW can be fixed at the operator station by means of the included wall mounting bracket or on the table,” a company note states.

The company claims that due to its very compact design, the KW 13TRIO can easily be integrated in any extrusion line or rewinding process. The measuring field is dimensioned in such a way that during the start-up, even extremely big lumps pass smoothly through. Its open design enables quick and easy threading of the product without stopping production. “A powerful micro processor as well as full digital signal processing makes this lump and neckdown detector an essential tool for faultless quality control. This detector is, in addition to other versions, also available as a standalone device,” the note adds.

A unique measuring principle and complex optics solution ensure immunity to stray and intense light while providing the

14 | WIRE BULLETIN

ample, manufacturer/fabrication number/ die-material/die-geometry/initial bore size/ delivery date/start of using the die/tonnages of drawn wire achieved/refurbishments/renewed use with a new bore size/additional remarks, etc.) then can be stored as needed, easily written into this special software, read-out, and accessed at any time.

“Thanks to the SZ technology, where no heavy mass is in rotation, the working principle is the same as of the conventional helical stranding systems. The pay-offs and take-ups stands in the line are stationary reelers which need no special foundation.

The non-rotating reeler also helps to improve the line efficiency due to a very fast and simple reel loading and unloading cycle. As the reel does not need to be transferred between the stranding and the sheathing process, time and space saving is guaranteed. There is also no limitation for the size of take-up which helps to get a long product length on bigger take-up reels. The advantage of non-rotating machinery allows a very safe working area for the operators and reduces the maintenance efforts,” the note adds.

For further details visit: www.rosendahlaustria.com

Eder Engineering showcases EDDS-2 system

Eder Engineering-Austria has developed the ‘EDDS-2’ system, which was recently demonstrated at the wire 2012 show held in Düsseldorf. “It is a unique and practical invention for replacing the present number digit engraving and to end the hitherto necessary circumstantial and mainly manually done registration of important property and performance die-tool data,” a company press release said. The new EDDS-2 system allows a small, specific, and continuously individual numeric alpha DataMatrix code to be marked firmly and precisely onto the steel casings of the relevant die-tools in seconds.

This individual DataMatrix code can easily get scanned, read-out, and transferred to a special software. All property and performance data of the relevant die (for ex-

“The entire system comprises the specially developed software that runs on modern standard PCs and hardware components like the DotPeening marking unit with the electrically-driven marking head with a high precision long-living tungsten carbide stylus, a separate control board and the special take-up slide device for fixing the dietools to be marked,” the note adds.

For more further details contact: Eder Engineering GmbH, Saarplatz 8, 1190 Vienna, Austria, E-mail: office@edereng.com, www.eder-eng.com.

DCM introduces CATS-3000

materials, paper, plastic, wire and cable, fiber optics, pipe and tube, primary metals, and dimensional metrology.

For further details contact: DCM, Tel.: 1-510-670-7200, www.dcmindustries.com.

Cerro Wire offers improved SLiPWire® THHN cable

Cerro Wire LLC, a leading manufacturer of copper electrical building wire and cable, offers SLiPWire®, a thermoplastic high heat-resistant nylon-coated (THHN) cable jacketed with a self-lubricating polymer that provides an improved, lower co-efficient of friction. SLiPWire reduces the time, labour and cost for installation, eliminates the materials and labour needed for lubricating the wire, and avoids messy clean-up.

Intertek Testing Services, an independent testing laboratory, observed a test pull conducted at Cerro Wire’s Ogden, Utah, manufacturing facility, comparing SLiPWire with competing pre-lubricated THHN products. Intertek verified that the methodology and set-up for the test was very well-designed to replicate a typical installation and that SLiPWire is every bit the equal if not better than other contenders in the industry.

SLiPWire also uses Cerro Wire’s True Sequential Footage™ technology that provides accurate wire length with each cut.

True Sequential Footage prevents the need to carry excess cable inventory, providing precision length, accurate footage, and cost control. It also uses Cerro Wire’s Max Print® identification system to quickly identify the size of the cable, which aids in selection, inspection, and prevents costly errors. “Our operating philosophy focuses on customer service, low-cost operations, simplification and innovation,” a company note said.

For further details contact: Dale Crawford, Tel.: (001) 256-773-2522, E-mail: dcrawford@cerrowire.com, www.cerrowire.com.

Chemical wire stripping pots from Eraser

DCM, now a part of Beta LaserMike and a leading worldwide provider of cable test and measurement solutions, has released its new CATS-3000 Shielding Effectiveness Test System. DCM’s CATS-3000 provides cable producers and test laboratories with a test solution for the automatic measurement of coupling attenuation, screening attenuation, and transfer impedance. The CATS-3000 provides full compliance to TIA-568-C.2 and IEC requirements for the testing of shielded/screened twisted-pair category data cables.

The CATS-3000 uses a tri-axial test to test over a frequency range from 30 MHz to 1 GHz. “The test software enables complete test automation, is simple to use and provides complete test reporting and data storage,” a company note said. Since 1971, DCM cable testing and measurement solutions have earned a reputation for delivering performance and value to manufacturers worldwide. Its solutions include highly sophisticated switching and automation systems for a broad range of wire and cable applications.

Beta LaserMike is a global organisation committed to the innovation, design, manufacture and service of precision measurement and control systems for a wide range of non-contact measurement applications, including building products, non-woven

New from the US-based Eraser are the DSP Series chemical wire stripping pots that are designed specifically for use with the company’s Dip Strip product to chemically remove the insulation from virtually all magnet and enamel wires of all sizes and insulation types, without damage to the wire. When heated in the specially designed stripping pots, the Dip Strip melts, and wires are immersed in the Dip Strip to strip their insulation. The stripped wires are then rinsed in water, and the company’s Dip Clean 2 Metal Cleaner is used to remove oxides and residue. According to the company, the Dip Strip does not corrode conductors, as do acid strippers.

The Eraser Model DSP1 chemical wire stripping pot has a variable temperature control with a reference scale. The DSP2 features an advanced feedback temperature controller while the DSP3 has a 600 watt heating element to increase throughput by 10x. According to a company statement, the Model C100S rotary wire stripper and

PRODUCTS, MEDIA, & TECHNOLOGY twister will process insulations from solid and stranded wires such as Teflon, P.T.F.E., PVC, Nylon, KEL-F, and others. Strip length and blade depth adjustments are easily made while the machine is running. The C100S removes wire insulation while twisting the stranded conductors at the same time. With the strip length stop, the C100S can strip lengths from 3/16" up to 1 1/2" depending on the material and can strip wire from .031" up to .228" in diameter measuring over the insulation.

For further details visit: www.eraser.com.

Media Websites to assist MSMEs

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can now protect their innovations and at the same time comply with the laws set by the government authorities with the help of newly launched online portals. Legasis Services Pvt. Ltd., with support from the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries & Agriculture (MCCIA), recently launched www.theflute.in and www.complwyrs.in, specifically developed for MSMEs that will facilitate online intellectual property registration support and compliance solution for the MSMEs. “The first of their kind portals in the Indian market will be of great help to MSMEs.” said Suhas Tuljapurkar, founder and director of Legasis Services. MSMEs have been the backbone of growth in India as they contribute about 39 per cent of the manufacturing output, 33 per cent of the total export and 50 per cent of private sector employment of the country.

Report on counterfeit cables

L-com, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of wired and wireless connectivity products, has taken a public stance on the hot-button issue of counterfeit cables, posting an extensive article on its website. The article both educates and alerts cable buyers to the many ways unscrupulous manufacturers and distributors have flooded the market with substandard connectivity equipment. The issue of counterfeit cables has plagued the connectivity industry for years, but has greatly expanded in the past 12 months. Several other major cable manufacturers and industry publications have already come out with information, articles and alerts on the subject. L-com’s post—is their first publicly posted alert, though they have been advising customers about it for years.

It comes with detailed information on the types of counterfeiting that L-com has encountered and the dangers of using sub-standard cables. It also includes a link to a 14-page independent report to qualify the exact characteristics and problems. “I think the base of the problem is education,” said David Gallagher, L-com Product Manager.

“When buyers know and understand the consequences for buying just the cheapest cable without checking the actual construction, they are spared the enormous expenses and damages that could occur.”

For further details contact: Dave Fallon, Internet Marketing Strategist, E-mail: newsletters@l-com.com.

Technology The future of wire harness production

By Patrick Boyer, Komax Corporation

For several years, bench-top and semi-automatic crimping machines have been the tools of choice for the production of wire harnesses. Many factors, inside and outside the industry, have combined to merit a comparison of current crimping processes to newer, fully-automated and significantly less labour-intensive harness assembly technology. For many, the very basic concepts on how to get the most out of automatic crimping machines are no longer enough.

These points are: 1. Reducing down-time by: maximising the run time by planning and grouping jobs in terms of the longest changeover time for the application or terminal type; decreasing wait time by staging all the material for the next job at the machine, before it needs to be run; designating a dedicated tooling area in which the applicators are calibrated and inspected prior to use on a job; calibrating all the presses, automatic and benchtop, to a standard shut height. The most common press shut height is 5.346" (135.78 mm); and networking your machines and going paperless. It will eliminate the need for programming jobs into the machine. They will be created off-line and sent to the appropriate machines. Operators only have to call up the job, quickly verify the set-up, and run production.

2. Increasing up-time by: improving the material quality and packaging. Automatic machines are designed around the assumption that the wire will be relatively straight and concentric; performing regular maintenance (PM) on the machines and tooling will keep them efficient and in top performance. Periodic reviews and calibrations by qualified technicians will also keep machines and tools as reliable as when they were new; ongoing operator and service training will reduce the learning curve and considerably increase machine up-time; and eliminating the time required to either walk over to the quality assurance (QA) station or the QA inspector by installing integrated QA devices directly at each machine.

Today companies and industries are facing circumstances that make the full automation of wire harness processing more advantageous. Specifically, what are these situations?

• Harness assemblies are becoming more complex and therefore manual insertion processes result in higher scrap rates. The increased complexity and handling of wires also causes additional quality control issues.

• To save cost and weight, the automotive and white goods industries have sought smaller components with pitch as small as 0.05" and wire sizes down to 26AWG, making it more difficult to process manually.

• Many companies that outsourced their production to low-wage countries are now facing rising labour costs, up to a 78 per cent increase over a five-year period.

• Companies are also facing variable costs that are out of their control, such as fuel surcharges, customs duties, and taxes. For many other industries, leaving the US for production is not an option.

ASSOCIAZIONE COSTRUTTORI ITALIANI MACCHINE PER FILO ITALIAN WIRE MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION Its aims are: to improve the knowledge and culture of new generations in a highly specialised field with roots in Italy that date back through the Italian Renaissance as far as the iron age by sponsorship of university research, scholarships, seminars and conferences; to encourage and assist engineers and technicians of its member companies in the search for new innovative techniques, seen as victories in the battle for continuous improvement and a job well done; to promote the diffusion of a responsible and professional attitude to the community, the environment and customers; the compliance of all member companies with a set of regulations to govern after sales procedures and prices that will guarantee high standards of quality and good value for money for each and every customer.

MEMBERS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

A. APPIANI AEROEL ANGELI ATOMAT A.W.M. BOBBIO BOXY CARLO SALVI CEA COSTRUZIONI ELETTROMECCANICHE COMAPAC WIRE MACHINERY COMETO CONTINUUS-PROPERZI CORTINOVIS MACHINERY DANIELI & C. OFF. MECC. DELISI EFAF ELMECC-WTS EME ELETTROMECCANICA ERBESE ESSEBI EUROALPHA EUROTEK FEDERICO DICK FROMA GCR EURODRAW

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

GHISLANZONI UMBERTO HENKEL ITALIA I.LE.S. KONER KONER DIES LUBRIMETAL M+E MACCHINE + ENGINEERING MARIO DI MAIO MARIO FRIGERIO M.E.P. MONTORFANO MORONI & C. O.C.N. OFFICINE MECCANICA TRINCA OFFICINE MECCANICHE DI LESMO O.M.A. OMAS O.M.C. O.M.SA. O.R.I. MARTIN OTOMEC PRAXAIR SURFACE TECNOLOGIES PROMOSTAR PS COSTRUZIONI MECCANICHE REDIES RIGON INSTRUMENTS

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

RTP PAGANONI SACMA LIMBIATE SAMP SAS ENGINEERING & PLANNING SCHNELL SIB SICME ITALIA IMPIANTI SICTRA SIF SIMPLEX RAPID S.M.E.I. TEAM MECCANICA TECNOFIL TECNO IMPIANTI TECNOSIDER TECNOVO TEKNODIAM TENOVA T.L.M. TRAFCO TRAMEV VAN DIES VIDA VITARI WELDING WIRE MACHINERIES W.T.M.

Corso Italia, 45 • I 20122 Milano • Italy • www.acimaf.com • Lengthy transit times from foreign production often cause Work-In-Progress (WIP), inventory, and engineering rework costs due to the time lag involved.

For these reasons, companies are evaluating and investing in fully automated wire harness assembly systems in both high- and low-wage countries, according to figures from Komax Corporation.

The main advantages of fully automated wire harness production compared to the cut-and-crimp process are: • Increased repeatability and accuracy of full automation results in guaranteed quality of products.

• Integrated quality checks can be traced and completed throughout the process.

• The cost of full automation is more manageable and the profitability shifts from labour to material costs.

• Manual labor may be moved to less repetitive tasks, thereby eliminating inherent fatigue risks.

• Product lead times are reduced significantly by placing fully automatic machines near or at the final assembly plants.

• WIP, physical production, and inventory space requirements are also reduced.

This will permit the implementation of high-mix, low-volume inventory with JIT and Kanban production, increasing productivity while decreasing logistical requirements.

fully automatic harness machines in this illustration. Fully automatic wire harness assembly systems, like this Zeta 633/656 from Komax, maximize productivity while controlling costs. The Zeta 633/656 is capable of producing the harness shown below, which is made with seven connectors (four different types), 47 wire (six different types), and a total of 94 insertions, in less than three minutes.|WB

Patrick Boyer is a 17-year veteran of the wire processing industry and currently works for Komax Corporation as harness machine product manager and automation project manager. For more information E-mail: patrick.boyer@komaxgroup.com.

These factors apply to fully automated equipment installed anywhere in the world, regardless of whether it involves a high- or low-wage country. The manual assembly process using conventional bench-top or semi-automatic machines is compared with

JULY 2012 | 15

PRODUCTION TIPS High quality tooling or rock-bottom cost?

Frequently supervisors are pressured to keep tooling expenses down so they continue production with what they have.

Often, the production and engineering staff know they are using tooling that is substantially worn or damaged, but live with the resulting inefficiencies. For most manufacturers, not only are these costs hidden, they are never calculated.

When the management team is aware of the impact of these hidden costs, they can make better decisions to improve productivity, reduce operating costs, and increase gross profit.

The use of substandard tooling increases many operating costs, some of which are clearly visible, such as scrap and the extra labor costs required for frequent cleanings.

Other hidden costs—including excess material, inspection, work-arounds, troubleshooting, reduced productivity/capacity due to slow line speed, downtime, and lost business due to inferior product quality— require investigation.

Excess material is a major hidden cost resulting from using worn or damaged tooling. When tooling begins to wear or is cleaned with abrasive material, the OD of the tip is reduced, and/or the ID of the die increases. In this case, operators often run on the high side of OD tolerance because it is easier to overcome extrusion problems.

Since most tolerance specs have a reasonably wide range, a manufacturer’s ability to hold tight tolerances on the low end can significantly reduce material cost.

In this case, the raw material savings alone often justifies an investment in optimal tooling, particularly for those making large quantities or extruding high-priced material, such as PFA or FEP.

16 | WIRE BULLETIN

Burned material is discharged into the product wall creating a material defect.

Product quality is the most visible problem caused by worn or damaged tooling.

When a tool set is worn, dented, nicked or scratched, it will hold material that will burn over time, eventually slip out, and create black spots in the insulation. These spots are often problematic enough to require extra inspection. In virtually every case, the result is added labor cost and scrap.

One solution might be to clean more often. However, it means you have to stop the machine, dismantle the crosshead, clean the tooling, reassemble it, and restart. You save by not replacing the damaged tool set but the costs associated with extruder downtime each time it needs cleaning can be staggering. Eventually, the avoidable costs of downtime will substantially exceed the cost of new tooling.

For jacketing and sleeving applications, another hidden cost comes from using an unbalanced tool set.

Due to management pressure to reduce costs, operators often fill orders using tooling that is readily available in-house. They presume that with an unbalanced tip and die set they can get a drawdown ratio that is “close enough.” However, this thinking has unintended consequences.

Typically, the material flow will not be uniform, resulting in product quality problems such as tears in the insulation, pin-

Improper tooling maintenance leads to excessive cleaning and downtime. holes, shrinkback, poor adhesion, ID/OD variation, and poor surface finish. Depending on the degree of material stress, not all of these problems may show up immediately, but they are a time bomb.

One final issue that senior management often fails to consider is the affect of worn or damaged tooling on a company’s extrusion capacity.

“Hidden operating costs are the enemy of profit.”

Most manufacturers want to run their extrusion lines faster. However, the extrusion process is simply too unstable at high line speeds to achieve required product dimensions with sub-optimal tooling. Consequently, line operators use “work-arounds” including reducing speed, holding a thicker wall, and cleaning the tooling more often.

Companies in this category are inefficient and their capacity is significantly impacted.

Some manufacturers believe they need to add an additional extrusion line to meet demand. In actuality, the required capacity can

A worn or damaged tip can impact product quality, reduce productivity, and create hidden costs that include material wastage, troubleshooting and inspection.

be generated by replacing worn or damaged tooling with new tooling that is optimized for the extrusion process, which results in substantial savings.

In summary, the right tooling eliminates improper size issues, does away with burned spots, enables optimum production speed, minimizes inspections, and eliminates most product quality issues. The best advice is to uncover your hidden costs and determine the savings.

The cost of a high temp tip and die set might save you ten times that amount in total direct costs over a year’s time, giving it the fastest ROI of anything in your shop. Be sure to consider all costs that can be significantly reduced or eliminated with high quality tooling that is optimized for your extrusion process: scrap, excess material, cleaning labor, inspection labor, time spent troubleshooting, downtime, and lost productivity.

Hidden operating costs are the enemy of profit, and most companies mask them, rather than fix them. Take the time to expose these excess costs. In most cases, it is far less costly to replace worn, damaged tooling with new tooling that provides superior product quality and production efficiency.|WB Excerpt from: “High Quality Tooling or Rock-Bottom Cost?,”

By Walter Freischlad, consultant to B&H Tool Company, San Marcos, California, USA. For a copy of the full article visit: www.bhtool.com/pdfs/high-quality-tooling.pdf

ASK THE EXPERT ASK THE EXPERT

continued from p. 1

Q: Why does the slip on my intermedi-

ate drawing machine increase backward instead of being constant? Can I calculate the diameter of the capstans in case there is no slip? Can I increase the capstan diameters according to the slip percentage?

Moreover my drawing machine has four step cones and a final capstan (17 dies).

The four step cones are geared but the final capstan is driven by a belt. What is the advantage of using a belt? And why isn’t a gear used for the capstan?

A: There is nothing that says the dies in a

slip-type drawing are exactly on size and that they do not wear to a larger bore. Similarly there is nothing that says capstans do not groove or wear to a smaller diameter.

Consider the final die in the machine. Because of the above statements, more metal must be supplied to that die than is actually used by the die. The excess metal must therefore slip out of the machine and the only way this is possible is to send it right back, by slippage, to the entry wire.

This then happens at every die in the drawing machine and all excess is cumulative and all is slipped back to the entry wire.

Positively Engaged. Absorbed. Informed.

Zero slip machines are dry like a series of dry capstans, each with its own speedcontrolled or torque-controlled capstans.

Although capstan diameters could be varied to reduce slip, the diameters are generally of standard size or are identically stepped as in your machine. This means that they are easier and cheaper to manufacture and, of course, easier to repair or replace as a set.

Your dry capstan has no slip. If it did, the wire would slip and friction would burn the wire off the capstan.

We do not recommend you modify capstan diameters as there is no need.

It is easier and far cheaper to use a high capacity flat or cog (timing) belt to drive the dry capstan rather than extend the drive train gearing. Thus the cost of manufacturing the drawing machine is reduced. The drawing machine should also be a bit quieter with a belt drive.

Excerpts from the Supplies and Equipment section of the forums at the WAI website: www.wirenet.org.forum/index.htm.

WAI MEMBERSHIP

Align yourself with WAI members and be recognized in the company of the industry’s most dynamic leaders.

Join our network today at:

www.wirenet.org

The Wire Association International, Inc.

JULY 2012 | 17

TECHNICAL ARTICLE Cold coiling of pre-hardened wire for suspension springs The authors present the findings of an experimental and numerical investigation.

By Dr. Guido Berti and Dr. Manuel Monti, DTG - University of Padua

Introduction

The demand for weight reduction in automobiles to reduce fuel consumption pushed the spring manufacturer to choose higher-strength martensitic steels to reduce the resisting section of the wire, and for this reason the weight of the spring. The traditional approach in forming such materials is based on the hot coiling of the wire at high temperature to increase material formability and to reduce the required forming forces.

Another approach is the cold forming process wherein the wire is heat treated before the spring is formed to improve its formability. In both cases the coiled spring has to be hardened and tempered to reach the target strength. Energy and time consumption due to the final heat treatment slow production and increase the manufacturing cost of the spring.

The two-fold target of shortening the process cycle and reducing the weight of the spring was met successfully in cold forming the material in its final condition (hardened and tempered). In this case the coiling process becomes more critical because the formability of these high-strength martensitic steels is not very high. The trend of using high-strength steels (between 1800 and 2100 MPa) increases the difficulties in the cold forming of such wires and can lead to the failure of the coiled wire caused by the breakage of the spring.1-3 The forming forces required in the coiling of the wire increase with the high strength of the material causing the feeding force to also increase. The feeding rolls should provide enough force to avoid the slip of the wire between the rolls. For this reason the friction between the wire and the feeding rolls should be at a high level to provide enough tangential force to avoid any slip of the wire. On the other hand, high friction increases the required forming force due to the higher contribution of friction forces developing in the stationary dies where the wire slides as in the guiding plate, in the bending die and in the bar controlling the axial pitch of the spring. The contribution made by the bending die can be reduced using two bending rolls where the sliding friction is substituted by a prevalent rolling friction.

This solution has been successfully used by spring manufacturers, who still face the problem of friction in the remaining components of the coiling machine: in the feeding system the friction should be high and elsewhere should be low. The insertion of a lubricating station between feeding and forming can solve the problem, but can be difficult in the industrial application, generating a dirty area of the press and requiring a cleaning step after coiling to remove residual lubricant from the spring’s external surface.

For these reasons, the spring manufacturer asks for a wire with an external oxide, which should act as a thin solid lubricant layer. If this layer is too thin, it can be broken when the wire is passing between the feeding rolls, causing a possible slip of the wire and an increase of friction in the forming section of the press. Slipping in the feeding rolls can be eliminated by increasing the radial pressure of the rolls on the wire, but this action can introduce damage to the wire and eventually can lead to failure

18 | WIRE BULLETIN

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Sample 4

Sample 5

Sample 6

Oxide thickness (µm)

8.00

10.73

8.75

13.71

9.41

2.24

Vickers Microhardness (100 g)

681

654

680

669

656

656

Formability

Good

Good

Good

Good

Good

Poor

Optical micrographs of oxide layer

Optical micrographs of scratch test

Table 1. Optical micrographs of oxide layer and scratch test, measurements of oxide thickness and microhardness.

in the coiling of the spring. The investigation has been focused on the effect of friction as well as on the set-up of the coiling machine, and it is based on a preliminary experimental analysis of different wires.

Different samples of the same steel with different Fe-oxide layers have been tested in the coiling machine. Most of them allow the correct manufacture of the spring, but some result in the breakage of the spring during coiling. The samples have been characterized in the laboratory relative to mechanical properties, microstructure, thickness of the oxide layer and its morphology and type of oxide and its adherence to the steel underneath. Afterwards, a numerical model of the spring coiling process has been developed introducing the description of the Lemaitre damage model in the material properties.

Relative damage has been used as the index to estimate the risk of failure when different friction and process parameters are used.

The industrial case

The high-strength martensitic steel 54SiCr6 is cold formed in a helicoidal spring. In terms of inclusions or cracks, the wire is defect-free. The coiling is performed on the already strain-hardened material (UTS=1810-1940 MPa), which is black oxidized on its external surface as obtained by the heat treatment applied after the wiredrawing process. The heat treatment consists of heating in a continuous induction furnace, cold water quenching, and tempering. The spring presents a variable internal diameter of the coil, larger in the middle (85 mm) and smaller at both ends (60 mm). Additionally, the pitch is not constant (55 to 32 mm) and the wire diameter is 14.5 mm.

The manufacture of the spring consists of the coiling stage on a Wafios NC system equipped with two forming rolls and a simple setting stage without further heat treatments. The forming cycle of one spring is six seconds long, which corresponds to an average feed rate of the wire around 670 mmps.

The control of the forming roll’s position radially with respect to the center of the coil allows the modification of the coil diameter as well as the movement of the pitch bar, which allows varying the axial pitch of the spring according to the design requirements.

In the coiling stage, the spring manufacturer experienced some breakages in some production batches. The set-up of the coiling machine was almost the same (neglecting small adjustments performed on the shop floor relative to the pressure applied by the feeding rolls on the wire and the position of the stationary guide). However, the production batch of the wire was different,

as the composition of the steel was the same with the relevant ultimate tensile strength in a quite narrow range (1810 to 1940 MPa). The failure was on the external surface of the coil and consisted in a radial crack, which instantaneously grew to a complete fracture of the coil.

As the cause of the breakage seemed to arise to the wire, different production batches of it have been investigated. The following laboratory analyses were performed.

Inspection of the surface of the broken coils. Near the external bending radius, the surface presents a flattened area (4 to 5 mm wide) where the oxide appears to be removed and the crack seems to start very close to this area.

Mechanical properties (tensile test on a 8.01 mm diameter specimen). The different batches present an UTS in a quite narrow range (1845 to 1905 MPa ±35 MPa), Young modulus (191500 to 193000 MPa), yield strength (1620 to 1680 MPa) and the diameter after rupture (5.1 to 5.4 mm). Vickers microhardness tests (load of 100 g) were performed on the cross section of the drawn wires. All wires present a hardness in the range of 650 to 680 HV (reported in Table 1).

Microstructure analysis. The grain structure of the cross section of the drawn wires is almost the same for the different samples.

Fig. 1 shows the typical homogeneous microstructure of a tempered martensite.

Fig. 1. Micrograph of the tested material.

Microscope image analysis. The analysis of microscope images evidenced differences in the thickness of the oxide layer. Table 1 summarizes the optical micrographs in terms of oxide layer and relevant measurements.

X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The black oxide layer on the surface of the wire is a mix of Fe2O3, FeO, and Fe3O4, the latter is the most prevalent, which is less fragile and more deformable at high contact pressure.

The XRD analysis was performed to identify the presence of the Fe3O4.

The analysis of results evidences that Sample 6 presents the lowest quantity of

Fe3O4. The same analysis performed for the FeO indicates that this oxide is absent in the Sample 6.

Oxidized surface testing (nano scratch test). The surfaces of the oxidized wires were scratched using a nano indenter applying an increasing normal force. The tangential force was registered and the scratched surface observed. The wire with a small thickness of oxide layer showed a fragile behaviour of the layer, which can be easily broken and removed revealing the steel surface underneath. When the oxide is above 8 microns the layer is more adherent and compact being deformed during the scratch test. The results of the optical micrograph oxide layer and scratch tests are presented in Table 1.

Comparing the results of these laboratory analyses with the results of the coiling process, it has been concluded that the failure of the coiling process cannot be directly related to steel mechanical properties, coiling process parameters and configuration of forming rolls. The failure of the wire during the cold forming process can be related to the oxide layer and its interaction with feeding and forming rolls. To investigate these interactions, a numerical model based on Finite Element Method (FEM) has been developed. This numerical model introduces a continuous plastic damage criterion.

Numerical modelling of the coiling process. Simufact.Forming 10 FEM software was used to perform the 3D mechanical analysis of the coiling process. The wire was fed at a constant velocity of 670 mmps. A rotation axis in the Y direction was imposed to the forming rolls. Hexahedral elements were adopted to mesh the wire with an element edge size of 2.4 mm.

The adopted 3D model is shown in Fig. 2.

Different combinations of machine setup and friction, which are explained below, have been explored.

Friction condition.

• At the interface between wire and the parts of coiling machine where sliding contacts are present (guide, cover plate, pitch bar) the presence/absence of oxide is simulated adopting low/high friction conditions.

• At the interface between wire and rolls, low friction conditions are always adopted.

The Coulomb/Tresca combined law was used to model shear stress t at the interface between the wire and the different parts of the tooling system in the coiling machine: continued on p. 20

JULY 2012 | 19

TECHNICAL ARTICLE

Fig. 2. FE model of the forming process of automotive suspension springs.

Basic Material Constants

Plastic Material Constants

Sp. 6

Sp. 1

Young’s modulus

193 [GPa]

Minimum yield stress

1663 [MPa]

1690 [MPa]

Poisson’s ratio

0.28

Strength coefficient

2573 [MPa]

2573 [MPa]

Density

3

8.027 [kg/m ]

Strain hardening exponent 0.089

Table 2. Elasto-plastic constants of the material.

where t is the friction shear stress, m (0.03/0.18 for low/high friction coefficient) is the friction coefficient, p is the normal contact pressure at the interface, (0.05/0.3 for low/high friction factor) is the Tresca factor, and sO is the yield stress of the material.

The machine set-up. The variation of the coil’s diameter (from 85 to 60 mm) is simulated imparting to the upper forming roll a movement in x direction of 29 mm.

The effect of the feeding rolls pressure (which is applied in order to avoid slipping of the wire and causes the flattening of the wire) is simulated imparting to the feeders a movement in x direction of 0.3 mm when the wire is prone to slip. This condition is associated to the thinning and breaking of the oxide layer evidenced in the case of the breakage of the coil. When this phenomenon occurs, the steel of the wire is directly in contact with the tooling components and everywhere the wire slides on the tools the friction condition has to be considered at the high value.

The material properties. According to the results of tensile tests, the material behaviour can be correctly described by the true stress true strain curves, and derived from the nominal stress-nominal strain curves. The scattering of UTS as measured in the material tensile test of the specimens has been taken into account considering only two levels of UTS (these are the maximum: 1937 MPa and the most common: 1866 MPa). For these two specimens, the true strain at the UTS is the same as well as the true strain at breakage (0.89).

The material has been modelled as elastoplastic with isotropic hardening adopting the following power law: where e is the deformation (total strain), K is the strength coefficient, and n is the strain hardening exponent. K and n were obtained fitting the experimental data and resulting for the specimen 6 (UTS = 1866 MPa) K = 2573 MPa, n = 0.089 and for

20 | WIRE BULLETIN

0.077

specimen 1 (UTS = 1937 MPa) K = 2573 MPa, n = 0.077. The elasto-plastic constants of the material are summarised in Table 2.

The data obtained from tensile tests are also used to determine the parameters of the Lemaitre damage model4 according to the damage mechanics theory of Chaboche and Lemaitre.5-6 The damage parameters are summarised in Table 3.

Sp. 6

Sp. 1

Critical damage

0.427 0.447

Maximum stress tensile test [MPa]

1866 1937

Damage strength Equivalent plastic strain at maximum stress

12

12.52

0.035 0.035

Table 3. Parameters of the Lemaitre damage model.

FEM analysis of spring coiling process.

The relative damage is an index for the estimation of the risk of failure and can vary between 0 (no damage) and 1 (failure). The numerical model described above has been used to perform numerical simulations of the spring coiling process adopting different friction and process parameters. Numerical results detailed below were obtained with the parameters of the material concerning rheology and damage relevant to the specimen 6, which has a low UTS (1866 MPa) and experimentally evidenced a failure.

FEM analysis of a spring with 85 mm constant diameter. The first FEM analyses were performed to simulate the cold forming of a helicoidal spring presenting a constant diameter of the coils (85 mm) and a constant axial pitch (55 mm) in two different process conditions. The first one corresponded to the presence of an oxide thick and adherent, and the maximum relative damage is located at the extrados of the wire (0.240). The second case simulates the presence of thin oxide layer broken when the wire is passing between the feeding rolls, causing the slip of the wire and requiring an increase in the radial pressure of the rolls that flatten the wire. The maximum relative damage is located at the extrados of the wire and is higher (0.483). The results confirm that the radial pressure of rolls on the wire introduces a damage on the wire but the level of damage doesn’t indicate a risk of failure during the coiling process.

FEM analysis of spring with 60 mm constant diameter. The second FEM analyses simulate the cold forming of a helicoidal spring presenting a constant diameter of the coils (60 mm) and a constant axial pitch (55 mm) in the same process conditions described in the previous case.

The bending of the wire for the 60 mm coil is higher than the bending for the 85 mm coil and higher values of damage should be expected. As in the previous case, the maximum relative damage is located at the extrados of the wire and varies from 0.697 to 0.741, confirming that the damage level is higher with respect to the case of forming wire with a diameter of 85 mm. Even in this case, the level of damage doesn’t indicate a risk of failure during the coiling process.

FEM analysis of spring with varying diameter from 85 to 60 mm. The third FEM analyses simulate the cold forming of a helicoidal spring with a varying diameter between 85 and 60 mm and a varying axial pitch between 55 and 32 mm in the same conditions of the previous cases. Maximum relative damage is at the extrados of the wire and, depending on process conditions, varies from 0.709 to 0.981. With high pressure of the feeding rolls, damage level (0.981) is higher relative to the previous cases and very close to the limit indicating a risk of failure during the coiling process.

Therefore it is possible to conclude that the variation of diameter and axial pitch together with the presence of a thin and not adherent oxide layer can lead to failure during coiling of the wire. This result is confirmed by analysing the cracked springs.

The fracture is located in the zone where the variation of diameter takes place.

Among the different configurations of the coiling process, the last one is the heaviest as confirmed by the level of damage which is very close to the failure (0.981). For this reason this configuration has been adopted to investigate the experimental data corresponding to another production batch of the wire (specimen 1) presenting a higher UTS (1937 MPa), which was successful in the coiling of the spring.

Specimen 1 was characterised by a higher UTS with a good oxide layer where the three FE-oxides were present in a good thickness of 8 microns. The successful coiling of this wire is confirmed where the relative damage is around 0.710, quite far from the critical level. The results show that if the black oxide layer is poor, as can result after the heat treatment, the wire is still critical being the maximum relative damage (0.960) not so far from the failure; the base material is a little bit better compared with the specimen 6 (the damage is reduced from 0.981 to 0.960).

Conclusions

Spring manufacturing by cold forming of pre-hardened steel is critical when the material’s ultimate tensile strength is above 1800 MPa. The quality and the thickness of the oxide layer on the external surface of the wire affect the success/failure of the coiling process as the oxide acts as a sort of solid lubricant and its removal leads to an increase of friction phenomena. The higher friction forces increase the required forming force and the feeding force, which can introduce some damages in the wire and finally can cause the breakage of the coil.

The experimental characterisation of different production batches of the wire confirmed that the composition and mechanical properties of the steel are almost the same as for the different batches. Some differences were evidenced in the oxide layer as concerns the thickness and the morphology

of the oxide. It has been concluded that the oxide layer is the major cause for the successful coiling of the wire. The numerical model developed for the coiling process can take into account such effects and the implementation of ductile isotropic damage based on Lemaitre formulation, which allows the correct prediction of the failure during coiling. The extensive use of the model permits the exploration of different interactions between machine set-up and friction, determining the configuration and the wire properties more prone to increase the risk of failure, which must be avoided by the spring manufacturer.

References

1. Prawoto, Y., Ikeda, M., Manville, S.K., Nishikawa, A.: Design and failure modes of automotive suspension springs. Engineering failure analysis, 15 (2008) 20. 1155 - 1174.

2. Ardehali Barani, A., Li, F., Romano, P., Ponge, D., Raabe, D.: Design of highstrength steels by microalloying and thermomechanical treatment. Materials Science and Engineering, 463 (2007) 9. 138 - 146.

3. Wise, J.P., Spice, J., Davidson, S.G., Heitmann, W.E., Krauss, G.: Influence of short austenitizing times on the fracture behaviour of a microalloyed automotive spring steel.

Scripta mater., 44 (2001). 299-304.

4. Simufact Technical References: Crack prediction in massive forming via simulation, 2009.

5. Lemaitre, J., Chaboche, J. L.: Mechanics of Solid Materials. Cambridge University Press, 1990.

6. Lemaitre, J., A course on damage mechanics. Second edition, Springer, 1996.

Biographical information

Berti

Monti

Guido Berti holds a Ph.D. degree in mechanics from the Politecnico of Milan (1992) and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Padua (1985). He has been the Associate Professor of Industrial Manufacturing on the engineering faculty at the University of Padua since 1997. He is the author of more than 100 papers on research activities in the frame of international and national projects.

E-mail: guido.berti@unipd.it.

Manuel Monti holds a master’s degree in management engineering from the University of Padua (2001). In 2005 he recieved a Ph.D. degree in industrial manufacturing engineering. Since 2005 he has been a contract researcher at the DTG - University of Padua. He has experience in the FE simulation applied to the manufacturing process optimisation. He operates in the area of applied statistics (DoE tecniques applied to different forming processes). He is the author of about 40 papers published in scientific journals or presented at national and international conferences. E-mail: manuel.monti@unipd.it.

This article has been edited for length. Contact the autors for a copy of the complete manuscript and diagrams.

ECONOMIC NEWS US to India: Push bilateral investment treaty

Roemer

As Indo-US trade is poised to cross USD 100 billion, Washington has asked New Delhi to increase momentum on a bilateral investment treaty.

“The negotiations on the treaty should be pushed up,” former US Ambassador to India, Tim Roemer, has suggested, saying this would open the gates to a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries in the next five years. Declaring that the ties between the two countries have scaled new heights under the Obama administration, Roemer said that the thriving relationship was fundamentally anchored in shared values and common interest. “We have seen the India-US relationship expansion take place all over,” Roemer said in a roundtable discussion with a group of Indian journalists ahead of the third India-US Strategic Dialogue, co-chaired by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.

Policy paralysis may hit investment, growth

INTERWIRE 2013 | THE LARGEST WIRE AND CABLE MARKETPLACE IN THE AMERICAS.

The Indian economy is expected to grow 7.8 per cent in 2013 but continued policy uncertainty would weaken investment sen-

timent and result in softer near-term growth and an erosion of longer-run prospects, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its recent economic outlook. The latest report is optimistic about India’s growth prospects against the backdrop of a fragile and uneven global economic recovery. Several other think tanks and economists have cut India’s growth estimates due to the slowdown in industrial growth and stalled economic reforms.

The government expects the economy to expand 7.6 per cent in the current fiscal year which ends in March but economists say growth could be less due to the slowdown and the subdued business environment. “A moderate cyclical pick-up in investment is projected in the near term. Later this year and into the next, growth is set to pick up to around trend rates, supported by the delayed effects of the recent monetary policy easing,” OECD said in its 2012 Economic Outlook. However, continued high inflation will limit the room for significant further relaxation. The recent widening of the current account deficit will unwind as domestic demand remains relatively subdued and external demand strengthens, the report said.

Government to revive SEZs

The government will come out with new guidelines to revive export hubs and special economic zones (SEZs), which have lost sheen after the imposition of certain levies and a proposal to take away tax incentives.

The government had imposed Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) on SEZs in 2010-11, which were previously exempt from almost all levies. Admitting that due to imposition of MAT and DDT, there has been a “visible

S A V E

slowdown” in the growth of export from SEZs, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said that a new set of guidelines would be announced to make the SEZ policy more buoyant.

“We have undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the SEZ scheme to re-visit certain aspects of the policy and operational framework and after concluding the interministerial consultations, we will be able to come out with new guidelines to make the operation of the SEZ policy more buoyant,” he said, while announcing the supplementary Foreign Trade Policy. The Direct Tax Codes (DTC) being considered by the parliament proposes to do away with the income tax exemption given to them and instead link tax sops to investments made in them. The initial phase of the SEZ scheme, launched in 2006, saw developers lining up in big numbers for projects. It was also seen as a real estate opportunity. At present, over 100 developers are seeking more time from the government to execute their projects and over 50 developers have surrendered the projects.

ture stocks have gained. To begin with, analysts have little faith India can revive these stalled projects, which local media have estimated at around Rs 1.5 trillion (USD 27.08 billion), without first addressing the bottlenecks and hurdles that had slowed development in the first place. But even if India were to kick-start these projects, FX traders were left wondering how much of the presumed public-private partnerships would come from state coffers, and hence, how much it would risk aggravating a fiscal deficit that had been a key reason for the rupee’s recent decline to record lows.

Companies would also need cash to kickstart projects, under long-standing practice in which the private sector pays up first and later gets reimbursed from state coffers.

However, with local interest rates high and offshore borrowing difficult, the source of funding would become important. “Fresh projects would put more strain on the fiscal condition, so it’s rather a negative for the rupee. As for offshore funding, we need to keep a close watch on flows. Those are difficult to come, in the current environment,” said Ashtosh Raina, head of forex trading at HDFC Bank to Financial Express. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said that India aims to award 9,500 kms of road projects in the fiscal year to end-March 2013. His government also plans to commission three new airports, he added.|WB

India targets infrastructure

India’s latest effort to push ahead with major transport and power projects have yielded plenty of skepticism in the foreign exchange (FX) markets, although infrastruc-

T H E

D A T E

April 23-25, 2013 | Georgia World Congress Center | Atlanta, Georgia, USA

INTERWIRE 2013 LEADING WIRE BUSINESSES IN THE AMERICAS. WHY INTERWIRE? When industry professionals look for new wire and cable technology they choose Interwire, the benchmark for wire business in the Americas. Information is exchanged at Interwire. Machinery is debuted, reviewed, and sold at Interwire. And the promise of international networking on the Americas’ stage continues to excite visitors to this vital marketplace.

Location: Atlanta, Georgia.

Renewed energy.

Compact: 3 full days of exhibits.

Special industry theme days to be announced.

Learn more about exhibiting and speaking opportunities at

Operating equipment.

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1570 Boston Post Road | P.O. Box 578 | Guilford, CT 06437-0578 USA | Telephone: (001) 203-453-2777 | Fax: (001) 203-453-8384 | www.wirenet.org

JULY 2012 | 21

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Snee

Ramakrishnan

PWM appoints Joe Snee as distributor

Pressure Welding Machines (PWM) has announced the appointment of Joe Snee Associates as its exclusive distributor for the United States and Canada. According to Steve Mepsted, managing and sales director of PWM, “Joe Snee has been working in the North American wire and cable industry for over 15 years, during which time he has acquired a wealth of specialist knowledge about cold welding technology and its applications. His specialist product expertise and understanding of manufacturers’ requirements will ensure we continue to provide all our customers with the very best advice, support and service, and help us grow our market share within the US and Canada.” Commenting on this association, Snee said, “I have been associated with the PWM line for the past 12 years and I have found that their product and service are second to none. I look forward to working with Steve and the PWM team, and the opportunity to serve the industry.”

Ramakrishnan to steer Polycab Group

Polycab Wires & Cables has announced the appointment of R. Ramakrishnan as the Vice Chairman, Joint Managing Director and Group CEO, effective March 12, 2012.

Ramakrishnan was previously leading Bajaj Electricals Ltd. as its executive director and was responsible for its financial turnaround, organisational transformation and marketing success. Inder Jaisinghani, Chairman & Managing Director, Polycab Group, said, “Polycab is a fantastic entrepreneurial success story in the last four decades. We are at an inflection point and R. Ramakrishnan will enable us to drive change and transformation, build strong processes, focus on profitable growth, diversify into newer areas and enhance stakeholder value.”

Speaking on the occasion, Ramakrishnan said, “Polycab promises a great combination of business challenges, institution building opportunities and driving change management along with significant entrepreneurial opportunities. We intend to make Polycab a

Gakhar

Godrej

strong brand, a great organisation, a fantastic team of people and an excellent blend of professional management and entrepreneurial zeal. I hope to build a great future for Team Polycab, our vast dealer network and for all stakeholders.” Having previously worked with Asian Paints Ltd. for 17 years and with Bajaj Electricals Ltd. for 12 years, Ramakrishnan has more than 29 years of professional experience.

Ramakrishnan has a post-graduate degree in business management from XLRI Jamshedpur and serves as the vice president of Bombay Management Association, and is a member of the Executive Council of the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Customer Complaints Council of the Advertising Standards Council of India. He is also a member of the corporate governance and industry committees of the Indian Merchants Chamber and a recipient of the ‘Indira Super Achievers Award’ in 2004 from the Indira Group of Institutes and the ‘ITM Business Leadership Award’ in 2006.

Polycab Wires P Ltd. is one of India’s fastest growing companies in the cable industry with compounded growth of more than 30 per cent. It has crossed Rs 3,600 crore turnover during the year 2010-11 and is set to achieve Rs 4,000 crore turnover during the year 2011-12 with a market share of around 23 per cent in the organised sector in India. Polycab has 16 manufacturing plants and employs around 5,000 people. “Polycab’s customer satisfaction is a key objective, and has earned it a strong clientele and consultants, which include leaders in sectors like utilities, power generation, transmission and distribution, petroleum and oil refineries, OEMs, EPC contractors, steel and metal, cement, chemical, atomic energy, nuclear power, etc. and has export clients in over 25 countries,” a company note states.

New director general for IEEMA

The Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA)—the apex body for the Indian power equipment manufacturing industry—announced the

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22 | WIRE BULLETIN

Khullar

Cole

appointment of Vishal Gakhar as its Director General. Gakhar has varied experience of more than 17 years, having worked in a similar kind of organisation. Prior to IEEMA, he was working with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and was responsible for heading the Special Initiatives & Policy Department in the western region apart from handling sectors such as logistics, healthcare, infrastructure and verticals including sustainability, green business, climate change, and family business.

He has facilitated various policy matters with central and state governments as also trade and business across various industrial sectors. In the past he has handled verticals such as SMEs, trade fairs, international conferences, training and development, PR and communications, economic affairs and taxation, and international trade apart from handling activities related to sectors such as pharmaceuticals, information technology, telecom, textiles, energy, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, agro and food processing, automobiles, biotechnology, electricals andelectronics, among others.

Gakhar, during his tenure with the CII, strengthened its membership and established offices in Pune and Gujarat. He has taken various new initiatives and has been involved in successfully running the Pune Power Model which has contributed immensely to the growth of industries, especially in Pune. He has been involved in coordinating various activities of ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ since it’s inception in 2003 and was a member of the promotional delegation which visited the West Coast of the US and Canada which attracted large investors and visitors to the ‘Vibrant Gujarat 2011’ event.

Adi Godrej takes over as CII president

Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group, has been elected as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2012-13. He succeeds B. Muthuraman. Godrej is a director of numerous firms, including Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Godrej Household Products Ltd., Godrej Properties Ltd., Godrej Hershey Ltd., Keyline Brands Ltd. (UK) and Rapidol Pty. Ltd. (South Africa). He is also the chairman of the board of trustees of the Dadabhai Naoroji Memorial Prize Fund.

S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris), co-founder and executive co-chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited, is President Designate of the CII for the year 2012-13. Gopalakrishnan, along with N.R. Narayana Murthy and five others, founded Infosys in 1981. Kris served as Director (Technical) and his initial responsibilities included the management of design, development, implementation, and support of information systems for clients in the consumer products industry in the US. Recognised as a global business and technology thought leader, Kris was recently voted the top CEO (IT services category) in Institutional Investor’s inaugural ranking of Asia’s top executives and selected as one of the winners of the 2nd Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia. In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Kris the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian honour.

Fagerholm

Khullar to head TRAI

The Government of India has approved the appointment of Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar as the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Khullar, a 1975 batch IAS officer of Delhi cadre, will take over from J.S. Sarma whose tenure ended on May 13, 2012. Khullar will head TRAI at a time when the regulator is in the line of fire from telecom operators for its recommendations on the spectrum auction in which it has proposed a steep high base price for radio waves due for auction before August 31.

As commerce secretary, Khullar, 59, is credited with trade normalisation between India and Pakistan. He had been successful in implementing measures that helped exports cross the USD 300 billion mark in 2011-12. He has also negotiated well India’s stance at WTO and various other multilateral pacts.

Metalube appoints European sales manager

High-performance lubricant specialist Metalube has expanded its sales team with the appointment of David Cole as Sales Manager. He brings to the company more than 20 years of experience within the tube and wiredrawing lubricants industry and is responsible for Metalube’s European sales.

Commenting on the appointment, Douglas Hunt, Commercial Director, said: “David will be a valuable addition to our team.

Metalube is growing fast and high-calibre specialists like David will help us to achieve our ambitious goals.” Metalube specialises in tube and wiredrawing lubricants, protective greases for overhead conductors, and metal-cutting fluids. For further details contact: Torty Hunt, Tel.: 07551 235 389/01423 324040, E-mail: torty.doug@btinternet.com.

Fagerholm appointed Maillefer CEO

Maillefer, a provider of complete extrusion solutions for the wire, cable, pipe, and tube manufacturers worldwide, has appointed Lars Fagerholm as the CEO of the Maillefer Group as of April 12. Fagerholm succeeds Peter Roos, who departed the company at the end of June 2012. During his four years with Maillefer, Roos successfully completed a number of significant changes to ensure the group’s future competitiveness.

Fagerholm gained broad international experience from several management positions, specifically from his extensive career with Albany International, the leading global supplier of technical paper machine clothing products to the pulp and paper industry. His business background and experience in international business structures, technical, and manufacturing management will be a great asset in leading Maillefer to achieve its mission toward strengthened market leadership and in becoming a stronger value provider to the industry.|WB

JULY 2012 | 23

AD SHOWCASE

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Please contact authorised distributor (India): Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co. sales@ajexturner.com • info@ajexturner.com • Tel.: +0091-9810111137 www.ajexturner.com • www.unitek.at

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Ajex & Turner distributes a wide range of lubricants for copper and aluminium wire drawing. All products are manufactured by Batoyle Freedom Group, Huddersfield, UK and are recommended for RBD, multi-wire, enamelled and fine wire operations.

Batoyle lubricants are extremely costeffective in use, giving improved production efficiency, low consumption and extended service life. Stock is readily available in India.

Multi-wire and RBD lubricants of popular grades sold worldwide are DC-13 for RBD, CT-21 for multi-wire, A-2 for fine aluminium wire and A-5 for aluminium RBD.

WIRE BULLETIN Publisher | Steven J. Fetteroll • Editor | Huned Contractor • Contributing Writer | Mark Marselli • Director of Marketing & Corporate Communications | Janice E. Swindells Graphic Artist | Adrienne E. Simpson • Advertising Sales | Robert J. Xeller & Anna Bzowski Printed and published by Huned Contractor on behalf of WAI Wire and Cable Services Private Limited and printed at K. Joshi & Co., 1745/2, Sadashiv Peth, Near Bhikardas Maruti Temple, Pune-411 030.

Published at 501, Rainbow Plaza, S. No. 7, Pimple Saudagar Village, Rahatani, Pune-411017.

Editor: Huned Contractor. MAHENG11350.

WIRE BULLETIN is published quarterly by WAI Wire and Cable Services Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wire Association International, (WAI) Inc. Š2012 by WAI Wire and Cable Services Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this document or related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means (electronic, photocopying or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Address all correspondence concerning advertising production, editorial, and circulation to WIRE BULLETIN, E-402, Kumar Pragati, Off NIBM Road, Kondhwa, Pune - 411 048, India, Tel.: 9881084202. Individuals on the WIRE BULLETIN team may be contacted by e-mail using first inital and last name @wirenet.org.

The publisher of WIRE BULLETIN assumes no responsibility for the validity of manufacturers’ claims made herein and cannot attest to the accuracy of the included information. Subscription rates: Rs. 125 per year, India. Single copies: $6 in the US; all other countries $7. Periodicals postage paid at Guilford, CT 06437, USA. WIRE BULLETIN grants photocopy permission to libraries and others registered with Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), 21 Congress St., Salem, MA 01970, USA, for a fee of $0.50 per article. Payments should be sent directly to the CCC. Requests for bulk orders or reprints should be sent to WIRE BULLETIN, E-402, Kumar Pragati, Off NIBM Road, Kondhwa, Pune - 411 048, India, Tel.: 9881084202.

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24 | WIRE BULLETIN