Manufacturing Trends

WIRE JOURNAL OCTOBER 2014

®

INTERNATIONAL www.wirenet.org

Manufacturing

TRENDS 

IWCS 2014 preview

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE WIRE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL

LANRUOJ ERIW

Volume 47 | Number 10 | October 2014

LANOITANRETNI gro.teneriw.www

Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

F EATURES

Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Industry News. . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Asian Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 People. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Fiber Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Fastener Update . . . . . . . . . . 28

IWCS Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Chapter Corner . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Rhode Island Convention Center gnforiIWCS rureturns tcatofthe un aM the 63rd staging of its annual event, where retiring

WAI News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

IWCS CEO/Director John Barteld will introduce his replacement.

SDNERT

4102 SCWI  weiverp This feature looks at factors from regulations and

Technical Papers . . . . . . 62-77

Manufacturing Trends . . . . . . . . 42

Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

a strange (yet secure) new market focus to a tale of survival, healthcare challenges, and more.

Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

LANOITANRETNI NOITAICOSSA ERIW EHT FO NOITACILBUP LAICIFFO

Career Opportunities . . . . . . 89

T ECHNICAL PAPERS

Advertisers’ Index . . . . . . . . 91

Mordica Lecture, Part 2: Trends in drawing technology for bars and wires Motoo Asakawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Next issue November 2014 • Technical and industry information: where to find it • Wrapup: wire China

Speed optimization for cross-linked PE insulation (PE-Xa) at a horizontal CV line Wolfgang Menne and Dr. Horst Scheid . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Influence of the strain rate on the mechanical response of prestressing steel wires in cold drawing Francisco Gálvez, José Miguel Atienza and Manuel Elices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Cover: In some respects, wire and cable production is the easy part of the business for many manufacturers. This features touches on a few of the other areas that can demand attention.

OCTOBER 2014 | 3

CONTENTS

4102 REBOTCO

®

INSIDE THIS ISSUE CONTENTS

WORKING

THE GREENS

. . . . . . . . . 30

NO

SURPRISE HERE, BUT

... . . . . 6 & 36

Celebrating their win (which included a very impresIt’s hard to imagine a reader being shocked at hearing sive eagle) at the clubouse of the Ellington Ridge that regulations represent a burden to U.S. manufacturing, Country Club New England Chapter’s 20th Annual Golf yet one could experience a shudder or two while reading Tournament, from l-r, are: Dave Tobin, guest; John Bonk, a NAM report assessing the direct and indirect costs for TSI Motion Engineered Systems; Erik Macs, Progressive complying with regulations. There’s a reason why regulaMachinery, Inc.; and Craig Stiefel, P&R tions lead the list top concerns TotalSpecialty.

Cost of The Federal Regulations byof Type, 2012 cited by businesses in event was also a winner for the scholarship fund. the report.

(in Billions of 2014 Dollars)

OSHHS* $92 Tax Compliance $159 Environmental $330 Economic $1,448

Total Cost: $2.028 Trillion *OSHHS stands for occupational safety and health and homeland security regulations.

4 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

EDITORIAL WIRE JOURNAL ®

EDITORIAL

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Industry struggles in a snarling web of regulations The feature in this issue on Manufacturing Trends leads off with a short piece on an indirect topic: regulation. The topic could easily have filled the rest of the feature (and issue), and even then it would barely touch on how frustrating regulations can be.

Rules are needed, but passing regulations is far too easy in some respects. How else could the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations contain 175,496 pages as of the end of 2013? The index alone has 1,170 pages, but there’s another measure for regulation that is even more troubling, and that’s the annual reporting in The Federal Register. This daily updating of Washington rules was 79,311 pages long last year. It covered 3,659 rules from 63 departments, agencies and commissions, with far-ranging rules that can effectively wipe out coal as a new power source or address the serving size of breath mints.

Writing for Forbes, Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr., pointed out that the White House’s Office of Management & Budget’s most recent report to Congress on the benefits and costs of federal regulation shows that only seven of the 3,659 rules had undergone a full cost-benefit analysis. Rules should not be passed without understanding the overall impact, he insisted, especially those in sensitive areas where a mistaken-but-popular-at-the-time consensus may prevail. “We can fix this. Politicians are transient, as can be their man-made rules.

Mistakes can be undone. ... And finally, every major regulation (that costs) more than $100 million a year, ought to be approved by Congress, rather than merely imposed by bureaucrats. No more regulation without representation.”

That sounds sensible enough to be turned into a regulation.

Publisher | Steven J. Fetteroll Editor-in-Chief | Mark Marselli Media Production Manager | Paul Streeto Director of Sales | Robert Xeller Advertising Sales | Anna Bzowski Director of Marketing & Corporate Communications | Janice E. Swindells Proofreader | Livia Jacobs Publications Committee Dane Armendariz | Chemetall Ferruccio Bellina | TKT Group/President ACIMAF, Italy Malcolm Michael | AWIA Australia Don Schollin | Q-S Technologies, USA Ralph Skalleberg | Skaltek USA Dave Stackpole | Nutmeg Wire, USA Giulio Properzi | Continuus Properzi, Italy Robert Wild | Niehoff Endex North America, USA Technical Advisors John Drummond | Scotia Group R. M. Shemenski | RMS Consulting, Inc.

Not in this issue but of note WAI recently completed its first industry report (Electrical Sector) for Platinum members. Featuring content from U.K.-based Integer Research and WAI staff, the report will be accompanied by an Oct. 21 webinar, Industry Outlook, North America, Electrical Sector, that provides further details. It will include a presentation by Radbourne as well as a panel discussion that includes Neville Crabbe of Leoni; Dave Hawker, Nexans; Patricio Murga, Viakable; and Bill Reichert, Champlain Cable.

For more about Platinum membership, contact WAI Executive Director Steve Fetteroll at 203-453-2777, ext. 115, sfetteroll@wirenet.org.

Mark Marselli Editor-in-chief

WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL (ISSN-0277-4275) published monthly by The Wire Journal, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Wire Association International, Inc., which is located at 1570 Boston Post Road, P.O. Box 578, Guilford, CT 06437-0578, USA, and can be contacted at tel. 203-453-2777; fax 203-453-8384; Internet wirenet.org; e-mail editorial@wirenet.org. Address all correspondence concerning advertising production, editorial and circulation to the above address. WJI is printed in USA. Subscription rates: $110 per year, USA; $120 per year, Canada and Mexico; other countries, $140 per year (includes air mail). Back copies: $10 WAI members, $15 non-members. Periodicals postage paid at Guilford, CT 06437, USA, and at additional offices.

Wire Journal International 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 the Wire Journal International, P.O. Box 578, Guilford, CT 06437-0578, USA. © 2014 by Wire Journal, Inc. All rights reserved. The Publisher of WJI assumes no responsibility for the validity of manufacturers’ claims made herein. Back issues of WJI are on microfilm and available from University Microfilm, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA. Phone: 313-761-4700.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wire Journal International, P.O. Box 578, Guilford, CT 06437-0578, USA.

6 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

www.sikora.net/purityscanner

»Your quality makes the difference.« Frederik Becker Business Development SIKORA AG

The PURITY SCANNER is a system for the 100% online inspection and sorting of plastic pellets used for the insulation of medium, high and extrahigh voltage cables, but as well for other applications such as the medical industry.

Contaminated pellets are separated and sorted out, assuring that only pure pellets get into the extrusion process. The pellet inspection allows the detection of organic and metallic contamination inside the pellet as well as on the pellet surface, using a special combination of X-ray technology and an optical system. The smallest detectable particle size is 2 mil (50 µm) at a flow rate of up to 4,400 lbs/h (2,000 kg/h).

• Dual inspection: X-ray and optical • Detection of contamination from 2 mil (50 µm) on the pellet surface and inside the pellet • Automatic sorting • Easy to integrate in existing feeding systems • Suitable for all kinds of transparent and colored pellets • Hermetically sealed system • Throughput of 1,100 / 2,200 / 4,400 lbs/h (500 / 1,000 / 2,000 kg/h)

See us at IWCS Conference 2014, Nov 9 - 12, Providence, RI, USA, Booth 413

CALENDAR

CALENDAR Oct. 28-30, 2014: Wire & Cable India Mumbai, India. To be held at the Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre. Contact: Messe Düsseldorf North America, tel. 312-781-5180, info@mdna.com, www.mdna.com.

Nov. 9-12, 2014: 63rd IWCS ConferenceTM Providence, Rhode Island, USA. To be held at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Contact: Pat Hudak, IWCS, tel. 717-993-9500, phudak@iwcs.org, www.iwcs.org.

Nov. 26-28, 2014: MFSH 2014 Shanghai, China. This event includes bar, wire, steel rope and more. Contact: Shanghai Aoya Exhibition Co., at 86-21-3351-8138, ayexpo@vip.163.com.

Dec. 2-4, 2014: 3rd Advanced Cable Asia Shanghai, China. This conference, sponsored by Integer Research Ltd., will examine key wire & cable market developments and business opportunities in the region to help Asia based cable makers determine their R&D and investment plans. Contact: Imam Quadir, tel. 4420-7503-1265, imam.quadir@integer-research.com, www.integer-research.com. tel. 44-20-7503-1265, www.integer-research.com.

April 27-30, 2015: Global Continuous Casting Forum Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This event, first staged in Atlanta in 2011, will be co-located with Interwire 2015. Contact: www.castingforum15.com.

April 28-30, 2015: Interwire 2015 & WAI’s 85th Annual Convention Atlanta, Georgia, USA. WAI returns to the Georgia World Congress Center to stage its biennial trade show, technical programs and 85th Annual Convention.

Contact: WAI, USA. Tel. 001-203-453-2777, www.wirenet.org.

June 21-25, 2015: Jicable 9th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables Paris, France. Held every four years, this international forum is an exchange of information in the fields of research, industrial development, installation, operation and diagnoses relating to insulated power cables and their accessories. Contact: Jicable, Tel. 33(0)1 56 90 37 04, jicable@see.asso.fr, www.jicable.org.

April 4-8, 2016: wire Düsseldorf Düsseldorf, Germany. This biennial event will be held at the Messe fairgrounds. Contact: Messe Düsseldorf North America, tel. 312-781-5180, info@mdna.com, www.mdna.com.

June 8-9, 2016: WAI Operations Summit & Wire Expo Uncasville, Connecticut, USA. This WAI event, which will be held at the Mohegan Sun Resort Center, will include its trade show, technical programs and WAI’s 86th Annual Convention. WAI, USA. Tel. 001-203-4532777, www.wirenet.org.

WIRE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL EVENTS For more information, contact the WAI, USA. Tel. 001-203-453-2777; fax 001-203-453-8384; www.wirenet.org.

Oct. 20, 2014: Western Chapter’s 14th Annual Golf Tournament Fontana, California, USA. The Western Chapter will return to the Sierra Lakes Golf Course. Contact: John Stevens, tel. 905-851-5633, jstevens@emc-wire.com.

April 28-30, 2015: Interwire 2015 & WAI’s 85th Annual Convention Atlanta, Georgia, USA. WAI returns to the Georgia World Congress Center to stage its biennial trade show, technical programs and 85th Annual Convention.

8 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

Contact: WAI, USA. Tel. 001-203-453-2777; fax 001-203-453-8384; www.wirenet.org.

June 8-9, 2016: WAI Operations Summit & Wire Expo Uncasville, Connecticut, USA. This WAI event, which will be held at the Mohegan Sun Resort Center, will include its trade show, technical programs and WAI’s 86th Annual Convention. WAI, USA. Tel. 001-203-453-2777, www.wirenet.org.

INDUSTRY NEWS

INDUSTRY NEWS Nexans to supply Denmark company with up to 1,750 km of submarine cables Nexans has entered into an agreement with DONG Energy to supply the Denmark company with up to 1,750 km of submarine cables for wind farms off the British coast.

A press release said that the cables, to be used for connecting turbines to each other and to the offshore transformer platforms, will be provided via a framework agreement that runs through 2020 and can be extended by two years. The energy company, it added, also has the option of expanding the scope of services to include the delivery and installation of cable accessories.

The contract represents a repeat order from a good customer as DONG Energy has already equipped a number of large-scale wind farms with Nexans cables, including among others West of Duddon Sands and Westermost Rough in the U.K., and Borkum Riffgrund and Gode Wind 1-2 in Germany, the release said.

“Our ongoing business relationship with DONG Energy is a testimony to our expertise in the area of offshore cables,” said Nexans Deutschland CEO Christof Barklage. “Concluding an agreement of this magnitude also provides a solid basis for the growth of our offshore cable business here in our Hanover plant.”

ABB raises the bar for high voltage direct current power cable transmission ABB recently announced that it has successfully developed and tested a 525 kilovolt (kV) extruded high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable system that it said rips up the record books for both capacity and distribution distance.

A press release said that the “breakthrough” advance in cable technology will be a major advantage for wind and solar power generators that need to send enormous amounts of power long distances. It noted the following about the new cable technology, which it said can provide more than double the power capacity, to about 2,600 megawatts (MW) from 1,000 MW. It will also expand the cable’s reach to distances of 1,500 km, up from less than 1,000 km, while keeping transmission losses under 5%. The new cable system offers savings in capital and operational expenses, and supports the development of DC grids via a technical advance by ABB in its hybrid HVDC breaker. As high-voltage DC can transmit 30 to 40% more energy than conventional overhead lines carrying alternating current, making it a better for bringing power from distant sources, the new cable system’s capability will be especially beneficial for renewable energy projects.

The cable system consists of cables using a new DC cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation material developed with Borealis, with termination and joints manufactured by ABB. The new cable system offers a 64% increase over 320 kV, currently the highest voltage deployed for this type of technology. It can be deployed in subsea and underground applications, making it ideal for efficient power delivery through densely populated or environmentally sensitive areas or coastal and opensea applications.

ABB has developed a 525 kV HVDC cable system.

ABB photo.

By enabling more power over greater distances with reduced losses, ABB’s new 525 kV cable technology offers solutions for countries and utilities seeking to enable their electricity transmission systems to integrate more renewable energy being generated by distant solar and wind installations. A single pair of 525 kV extruded HVDC cables could for example transmit enough power from giant offshore wind farms in to supply two million households.

In response to questions from WJI, ABB provided the following further details. The diameter of the 525 kV extruded HVDC cable is about the same as for a 320 kV cable, which is comparable to a compact disc. The final design of the cable depends highly on the application and specific use. The 525 kV cable is somewhat heavier than a 320 kV extruded cable, but it has significantly higher power density, meaning that it can transmit much more power with the same weight. The 525 kV cable can be made with the same production equipment as the 320 kV cable, but the precision and quality requirements are higher, as is usual for any product with higher performance. In terms of production speed, the 525 kV cable has a somewhat thicker insulation so the line is somewhat slower, but as it can carry much more energy it is far more efficient.

Does your company have news that belongs here? E-mail it to the WJI at editorial@wirenet.org.

10 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

Malaysia’s Sarawak Cable Bhd has agreed to buy Universal Cable (M) Bhd and Leader Cable Industry Bhd from HNG Capital Sdn Bhd for approximately US$210 million.

The Borneo Post Online reports that Sarawak Cable said the deal was contingent following three months of due diligence, and an Oct. 13 date set for finalizing the deal. The company did not comment on the deal’s potential, but the story cited analysts at AmResearch Sdn Bhd as saying in an interview that the additions will make Sarawak Cable the leading cable player in Malaysia, in addition to being the only producer of 275kV underground cables in the Asean region.

The article also cited the AmResearch analysts as saying that HNG Capital will guarantee a total profit before tax of approximately US$21 million for the two companies for the financial year ending December 2014, paying any shortfall. “We understand that margins for the two companies could be lower than Sarawak Cable’s current cable business but there are plans to improve this, post-acquisitions.”

Per the story, Universal Cable has three factories in Nilai and one in Johor, while Leader Cable has one in Kedah. “We expect the group’s market share in Malaysia to grow to 50% with the acquisitions,” AmResearch concluded.

Frayed wire said likely to be cause of fatal Navy helicopter crash …

A Navy report cites a faulty wire as the likely cause for a helicopter that crashed Jan. 8 off the coast of Virginia, killing three sailors conducting a routine training exercise.

The report from Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic (CNAL) of the crash of an MH-53E Sea Dragon that was assigned to Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Fourteen (HM-14) found “that the crash occurred as a

INDUSTRY NEWS

Sarawak Cable Bhd reports it has agreed to buy 2 cable companies

An MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter performs mine countermeasure training using the MK-105 sled in the Persian Gulf on Nov. 12, 2007. result of a fire that erupted in the upper left side wall of the crew cabin, resulting in a thick smoke that filled the cabin and cockpit. This caused the aircrew to lose spatial awareness and become disoriented, resulting in the aircraft crashing into the ocean.”

“Chafing between insulation covering electrical wires and the surface of an aluminum fuel transfer tube had likely enabled an electrical arc from a wire to breach the transfer tube, igniting the fuel that was inside,” said Capt.

Todd Flannery, Commander, Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic (HSCWL).

A CNLA press release said that post-mishap analyses revealed two small holes in an aluminum fuel transfer tube. “It is likely that the chafing breached through the insulation of a conductive wire, allowing shorting/arcing to the aluminum surface.”

“The wire bundling near the breach was not recovered,” said Flannery. “While a short/arc event localized to the wiring within the bundle was possible, it could not be

OCTOBER 2014 | 11

INDUSTRY NEWS

conclusively determined.” In the weeks following the crash, the Navy directed a one-time inspection of all CH/MH-53 cabin fuel tubes and electrical wiring within 12 inches of each other for signs of chaffing.

An article by Mike Hixenbaugh in The Virginian-Pilot cited further details. It noted that in-flight fires have been a recurring problem in Sea Dragons, which have crashed at a rate three times higher than other Navy helicopters over the past 30 years, and that faulty wiring has been scrutinized over the years.

“In a report to Congress in 2012, the Navy listed old electrical wires, known commonly as Kapton wiring, as ‘the highest ranked safety risk’ to the remaining fleet of 28 Sea Dragons and the Marine Corps counterpart, the CH-53E Super Stallion. Since 2004, the Navy has spent $37 million replacing the most dangerous Kapton wiring in Sea Dragons and Super Stallions, but a majority of the helicopters still have at least some of the old wires, according to information provided by Naval Air Systems Command. Two Sea Dragons are still totally outfitted with Kapton wiring.”

The story said that the biggest threat from Kapton wiring is risk of fire resulting from electrical arcing, a problem the Navy first identified in 1987 while many of the Sea Dragons were still being built.

“The Vulcan 543 had undergone the first phase of repairs to remove the most critical Kapton wiring, but it was still partially outfitted with the obsolete wires,” reported the Navy, which noted that as the wiring bundle was not recovered, the “investigative report does not address whether Kapton wiring was a contributing factor.”

… and a stationary cable was cited as cause of 2nd fatal helicopter crash An Aug. 19 helicopter crash that killed the aircraft’s pilot and an Alabama Power employee appears to have been caused by a collision with one of the wires the duo was inspecting.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said that Matthew Wallace, a 51-year-old pilot working for a company in Atlanta, Georgia, and 63-year-old David Carson, a senior line specialist for Alabama Power, were inspecting a span of Alabama Power’s high-tension power lines for damage from a storm that had passed through the northern Tuscaloosa County the night before.

A half hour after their flight began all contact was lost, and shortly after the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Office’s sent out its own helicopter. The accident site was found in a shallow valley between two transmission towers.

Most of the wires and lines between the towers were undamaged, but a shield wire that spanned between them had been severed, presumably by the helicopter.

12 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

Shark-repellent cable being tested The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board (KZNSB) will soon begin testing an electronic shark repellent cable at Glencairn Beach in Cape Town as part of their efforts to prevent shark attacks.

Sharks are known to bite cables, but now a cable may be able to (electronically) fight back.

SABA News in South Africa reports that the cable would emit a low-frequency, pulsed electronic signal that was known to repel great white sharks. “If successful, it will provide the basis to develop a barrier system that can protect bathers without killing or harming sharks or any other marine animals,” KZNSB said.

The board will test a 100-meter-long cable that will be installed parallel to the shore in early October. The cable will be activated on certain days, during daylight hours, from November until March next year, using a video camera high above the beach and by shark spotters, who will track shark movements near the cable.

The story said that, in 2012, the Institute for Maritime Technology (IMT) in Simon’s Town was contracted to design and build a demonstrator cable. The engineering and technical team first built a short cable that was tested for sea-worthiness. After a medical evaluation showed the electronic pulse emitted was within “conservative” safety limits, a full-length demonstrator cable was constructed.

Based in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board notes that it is the only organization in the world whose mission is to actively protecting beach goers from shark attack.

As a biting footnote, sharks and cables received a splash of attention recently with an announcement by Google that it would wrap its underwater cables with Kevlar to prevent shark damage.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Joint venture to be formed to produce cold-heading steel wire in Mexico A joint venture is to be established between Shinsho Corporation and Kobe Steel, Metal One Corporation; Osaka Seiko Ltd.; Mexico’s Grupo Simec, S.A.B. de C.V.; and O&K American Corporation in the United States to produce cold heading steel wire.

A report in Steel Times International said that the new joint venture, to be called Kobelco CH Wire Mexicana, S.A. de C.V. (or KCHM), will process steel wire rod into cold-heading steel wire for sale to automotive parts manufacturers in Mexico. The cold-heading steel wire will be used to make automotive fasteners and cold-forged products.

KCHM will be based in a 40-year-old plant in the Santa Fe Industrial Park in Silao, Guanajuato, the report said. It added that it will be headed by Mitsufumi Konishi from Shinsho Corporation. The total investment is anticipated to reach approximately US$41 million, with Shinsho having a share of 40%; Metal One, 25%; Kobe Steel, 10%; Osaka Seiko, 10%; Simec, 10%, and O&k American, 5%. The plant will employ about 80 people when it is at full operation. It is expected to start production at the end of 2015.

The report said that Mexico’s car production of 1.5 million cars in 2009 rose to 2.93 million units in 2013, and “that solid growth is anticipated in the coming years

14 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

as many Japanese auto parts manufacturers are setting up operations in Mexico.” It also cited Kobe Steel as observing that, “KCHM will be able to quickly supply CH steel wire of outstanding surface quality and contribute to expanding the business of its customers.”

ArcelorMittal invests US$180 million for a new wire rod mill in Germany ArcelorMittal reports that it has invested around US$267 million in the past four years at its site in Duisburg, Germany, of which US$180 million was spent on a new wire rod mill.

A press release said that the new wire rod mill “can process high strength and ultra-high strength steels, using the latest technologies to enable thermo mechanical rolling processes.” A laboratory has been installed alongside the rod mill, to assure the quality of the products, it said.

The release said that the Duisburg site supplies semi-products for forging, as well as high-strength and ultra-high-strength wire rods for the automotive industry and renewable energy applications (such as offshore wind farms), for fastening elements and machine building.

“After construction of the new wire rod mill, this is the next step towards securing the future of jobs and steel production in Duisburg,” said ArcelorMittal Duisberg CEO Thorsten Brand.

INDUSTRY NEWS

JDR to supply inter-array cables for Dudgeon offshore wind farm U.K.-based JDR has won a contract with VBMS to supply more than 95 km of copper core inter-array cable as well as cable accessories for the Statoil/Statkraft Dudgeon offshore wind farm.

A press release said that the Dudgeon wind farm, located off the U.K.’s Norfolk coast, will supply two JDR designed inter-array cables; a 185-sq-mm copper conductor cable and a 500-sq mm copper conductor cable. Both cables, it said, will be XLPE insulated and type tested to IEC 60502-2 and CIGRE standards, and supplied in continuous lengths. The cables will be produced at the company’s plants in Cambridgeshire and Hartlepool.

The wind farm, the release said, is located 32 km off the coast in North Norfolk, at water depths of between 18 and 25 meters. With 67 x 6MW wind turbines, the farm is expected to create enough electricity to power more than 410,000 homes each year. JDR’s inter-array cables, it said, will collect and transmit the generated power, prior to its export to mainland U.K. Construction is expected to start in 2015.

“JDR has been involved right from the start with our work on the London Array and Greater Gabbard projects,” said JDR CEO Andrew Norman. “The U.K. has led the global market for offshore wind developments.

We are now delighted to have been selected as inter-array cable partner for Dudgeon.”

Australia’s OneSteel plans job cuts OneSteel, an Australian manufacturer of steel long products that also distributes products in Australia and New Zealand, expects to have some layoffs at its plant in Jindera as the company undergoes an organizational change.

Per a report in The Border Mail that cited pressure from low-price imports, a OneSteel spokesman said that it would be necessary to cut an unspecified number of jobs at some point to keep the business solvent.

“We’ve been going through a program of integrating our steel business from two businesses, manufacturing

16 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

and distribution, into a single steel business,” he said, adding that the company will focus on growth areas.

“Businesses are opened up and closed based on demand in different areas; that’s what happens when you run a national operation.”

The OneSteel website notes that the company, which is a business of Arrium Company, has some 200 sites across Australia. “In total OneSteel services more than 30,000 customers, offers more than 40,000 products and employs over 7,500 people. OneSteel is also a significant supplier of scrap metal to foundries, smelters and steel mills in Australia and internationally.”

South Korea’s LS Cable & System to be a key supplier to Norwegian company South Korea’s LS Cable & System has signed a priority supplier contract with Norway’s Aker Solutions to supply marine cables, a deal that it said could bring in more than $100 million over the next seven years.

A press release said that LS Cable & System will provide Aker Solutions some 500 cables for use in offshore construction and exploration, and that it offered to establish a warehouse in Norway to reduce delivery time. The products will come from the company’s marine cable plant it built in 2009 at a cost of $176 million.

Aker Solutions, an oil and gas plant engineering business founded in 1841, operates in more than 30 countries.

U.S. preliminary duties up to 110% set for certain steel wire rod from China The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) has set preliminary anti-dumping duties of up to 110 percent on imports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from China after finding that the products were being sold below cost in the U.S. market.

A Reuters article said that China-wide duties were set at 110.25%, although some companies (Rizhao Steel Wire Co.; Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron & Steel Co.; and Jiangsu Shagang International Trade Co., a

HP recalls more than 6 million power cords over potential to cause a fire In a story that cites “dodgy” Chinese-made wire, HP has recalled more than six million power leads after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned the kit was starting fires.

An online report in The A Register

by Iain Thomson said that the defective AC power cords were sold with HP and Compaq laptops and docking stations between September 2010 and June 2012, with 5,577,000 sold in the U.S. and 446,700 in Canada. The power cables, labeled LS-15, can be returned to HP and a safe cable will be dispatched.

The story cited a recall notice as saying that HP has had 29 reports of power cords overheating and melting or charring resulting in two claims of minor burns and 13 claims of minor property damage. “The problem appears to be down to dodgy wiring in the Chinese-manufactured cable, rather than the adapter itself,” it said.

The story said that the U.S. CPSC’s recall notice covers power cables sold in the U.S. and Canada, but that HP will replace those sold elsewhere.

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OCTOBER 2014 | 17

INDUSTRY NEWS

subsidiary of Jiangsu Shagang Group) face a slightly Amphenol Corporation agrees to lower duty rate of 106.19%. It noted that the Commerce buy a related automotive division Department had previously set preliminary anti-subsidy Amphenol Corporation reports that it has agreed to duties of 81.36% for Hebei Iron & Steel and 10.30% for acquire the Casco Automotive Group (CASCO), a Benxi Steel. division of Cap-Con Automotive Technologies Ltd. The story said that the initial complaint about imports (Cap-Con) for approximately $450 million. of hot-rolled carbon steel and alloy steel rod from A press release said that Casco, headquartered in China, which totaled $313 million in 2013, was made by MDA146D-Wire15-4137x7083-BW2.ai 1 16/9/14 3:32 pm Bridgeport, Connecticut, supplies highly engineered ArcelorMittal USA, Charter Steel, Evraz Pueblo, Gerdau Ameristeel, Keystone Consolidated Industries and Nucor Corporation.

It noted that the DoC is due to make its final decision by Nov. 12, ad that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will make its final decision in December.

Punitive duties would be imposed if both the DoC and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) made affirmative final rulings.

If the ITC makes a negative determination, the investigations will be terminated.

INDUSTRY NEWS

data connectivity, power, charging and sensor products to the worldwide automotive market, with annual sales of approximately $220 million. Casco has facilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia and employs approximately 1,300 people worldwide.

Amphenol President and CEO R. Adam Norwitt said the deal will broaden his company’s scope. “We believe that Casco’s product offerings are uniquely complementary to our existing offering and represent a significant

18 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

long-term expansion opportunity driven by the expansion of electronics across a broad set of applications in the automotive market.”

Irish billionaire proposes submarine cable to help small Pacific islands Denis O’Brien, who founded Digicel, a major telecom provider in the Caribbean, has proposed a new submarine cable that would connect a series of islands to Australia that are part of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that represent some 52 million island dwellers.

“This cable would lead to the ‘death of distance’ and bring this last geographic frontier into the global information age,” O’Brien said in an on-line article in the Tonga Daily News.

“There won’t be a real change in economic growth in most of the Pacific Islands until a submarine cable is built to these remote countries. Broadband is the umbilical cord for economic development. The Private Sector must partner with the World Bank, Asia Development Bank, IFC, The European Union and Pacific Governments to come together to build a submarine cable in order to close the digital divide that exists where Pacific Island nations do not have access to broadband.”

A report in The Fiji Times Online said that the proposed system would link Papua New Guinea (PNG), Palau through the Pacific and back into Sydney. Specific links cited included the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Cook Islands with Sydney. The goal, it said, was to increase connectivity by providing access to broadband services for all. He was also asking “for a new economic plan for heavily indebted Caribbean states.”

Speaking at the private sector forum of the UN SIDS conference in Apia, Samoa, O’Brien said that a new submarine cable would be a boon for both consumers and business customers as well as helping develop the economies of these island states. “Improved connectivity via a new submarine cable will save lives, jobs and also make communities recover faster when disasters happen,” O’Brien said.

INDUSTRY NEWS

The tide is literally coming in for this Nova Scotia cable project A multi-phase, tidal energy project is nearing initial completion in the Minas Passage in Novia Scotia as power cables were being prepared for laying.

A backhoe digs a trench for the cable for a tidal power project in the Minas Narrows. Herald Business photo.

An article by Patricia Brooks Arenburg in the Herald Business outlined the status of the project, citing Matthew Lumley, spokesman for the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, as saying that work was underway to lay power cables in the Minas Passage this fall. “It’s the final piece of the puzzle,” he said.

“It means that once those cables are laid, any turbine maker anywhere in the world can come and plug their device into that cable end and deliver power to you and I.” Per novascotia.ca, “The purpose of the proposed undertaking is to construct and operate a facility to demonstrate and test in-stream tidal devices and assess their potential to generate electricity. The marine demonstration site will consist of three underwater berths for turbines located in the Minas Passage just west of Black Rock, with power cables from the berths to an onshore facility located off West Bay Road, between the communities of Black Rock and West Bay, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.”

The project requires four cables, each two to three km in length and about 15 centimeters in diameter. They have two layers of galvanized steel armor and plastic for protection and contain three copper cords that will conduct the electrical power, plus copper control cables so turbine operators can move and adjust their equipment and 24 fiber optic cables to transmit data from the machine to shore.

Tidal power offers great potential but is notoriously difficult to manage as it is so harsh on equipment. An attempt in 2009 saw a $10-million turbine prototype destroyed, but there are high hopes in 2015 for four companies seeking to give it a go: OpenHydro (owned by DCNS Group of France), Black Rock Tidal Power Inc. (owned by Schottel of Germany), the Minas Energy group and the Atlantis Resources Ltd. Group.

An underwater platform will be mounted to the seabed and connected to a three-km subsea data cable that was installed last year.

The platform, which contains equipment that will allow researchers to measure conditions in the Minas Passage in real time, is expected to be in place by the end of 2014, Lumley said.

After the power cables and subsea platform are installed, the group will move to Phase 2 of the sensor program with a larger, more robust version of the platform that is recoverable and can be used in other parts of the Bay of Fundy. n OCTOBER 2014 | 19

ASIAN FOCUS

ASIAN FOCUS Integer Research to stage 3rd event this December in Shanghai The Asian market continues to lead the world in cable production, but Integer Research – which will stage the third holding of Advanced Cable Asia 2014 Dec. 2-4 in Shanghai, China – observes that the growth will be uneven and the pace not as torrid the next few years. Below, the U.K.-based company provides a brief overview of the Asian market and what the event will cover.

Asia’s economic situation remains robust, with moderate growth forecast to continue in China and India and a stable outlook across the South-East Asian region. The wire and cable industry are keen to understand how the current macro-economic environment will impact demand and what strategies they should be implementing to take advantage of future development opportunities.

China makes up a quarter of the global wire and cable demand and continues to have the largest cable production market in the world. As the region’s largest economy, ongoing projects such as the West–East Electricity Transfer and the expanding high-voltage power grid network have been driving a growth in demand for advanced power cables, while highend fiber optic cables are increasingly required for the 12th Five Year’ projects like ‘Broadband China’ and IT data center infrastructure.

However, Integer Research has lowered its projection for growth in Chinese wire and cable demand slightly to 3.5% year on year through 2018, which reflects the Chinese government’s policy on market consolidation and sustainable growth. It is believed that the Chinese wire and cable market will need to have a new round of market reshuffling in the next few years in order to clean up the overcapacity and poor quality production. To survive and stand out in this extremely competitive market place, many Chinese wire and cable producers recognize the need to implement more effective

Attendees at Advanced Cable Asia 2013.

22 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

Panelists at the 2013 staging of Advanced Cable Asia. strategies to differentiate and standout including expansion into high-skilled sectors, stricter quality control schemes, and advanced automation of manufacturing processes.

The South-East Asia market, as a whole, is expected to be one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, but the situation does vary country by country. Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia are leading the way, while opportunities are also being seen in Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore. Indonesia and Thailand, in particular, have been making largescale investment into the sophisticated power transmission and telecommunication network infrastructure, which will trigger a huge demand for advanced power cables, telecom cables and fiber optic products. We expect to see production of 6.5% CAGR in both Indonesia and Thailand by 2018. It is vital for any cable industry stakeholders who are currently or soon will be in these markets to plan in advance for these emerging opportunities.

More developed markets such as Japan and South Korea are experiencing a recovery to their pre-crisis levels. In the year 2013/2014, Japan consumed over 700,000 metric tons of copper for the wire and cable industry and the market almost leveled out. The major challenge for market players there is to understand the fragmentation of both the global and Asian wire and cable markets and to maintain their leading positions in the industry.

The 3rd conference will provide the one-stop knowledge-sharing and networking platform for both global and Asian wire and cable executives to discuss the strategies and technologies needed to succeed in the advanced cable markets. The dedicated streams in advanced power cable and fiber optic sectors will identify the key market developments and growth areas for the wire and cable manufacturers, while uncovering the potential opportunities and technology-related demand for suppliers and solution providers.

For more details about Advanced Cable Asia 2014, go to www.integer-research.com/aca-2014.

Moody’s has adjusted its outlook for the Asian steel industry from negative to stable, citing expectations for the next year that should improve market conditions.

A report in the Taipei Times said that the ratings agency indicated that it would even consider changing the outlook to positive if the average profitability of major Asian steelmakers climbs 15% over the coming year. It cited Moody’s as saying, “We believe the profitability of Asian steel manufacturers bottomed out early this year and will increase moderately MoM in the next 12 months. The improvement will come as demand growth outpaces net capacity increases in China and drives higher utilization rates, and also as raw material costs continue to decline.”

Moody’s said that China’s steel production capacity would likely be flat this year and the next, mainly due to the slower addition of new capacity by steel mills and Beijing’s bid to accelerate the weeding out of inefficient capacity and retirement of old mills. This will be the key driver of the expected increase in capacity utilization and profitability.

The agency’s remark came as steel mills in the region have gradually increased their production at a time

when prices of major steel products have fallen 2% since the middle of last month, while iron ore prices remained relatively stable at about US$95 per metric ton. Global steel supply remains relatively abundant compared with demand, but China’s determination to rein in its market’s oversupply problem could be the wild card next year.

Asian Development Bank considering submarine cable system for Palau

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reports that it and the World Bank are considering a project that involves the construction of a submarine cable system between Palau – an island country in the western Pacific Ocean that has a population of 21,000 across 250 islands forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands – and Guam, with a spur to the Federated States of Micronesia.

The report said that the proposed cable project will aim to reduce the cost of and increase access to broadband and mobile communications to support social and economic development. ADB recently opened a new office in Palau. It noted that ADB has provided a range of development assistance to Palau, including loans and technical assistance. 

OCTOBER 2014 | 23

ASIAN FOCUS

Moody’s about outlook for the Asian steel industry is somewhat less moody

PEOPLE

PEOPLE Tom Giglia, who had been president and COO of Ambrell, has been promoted to president and CEO of the company, which he joined in 1994. He has held an array of leadership positions, being promoted to president and COO in 2007. He holds a B.S. degree in electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and an MBA in manufacturing management from Giglia Rochester Institute of Technology.

He replaces Richard Rosenbloom, former CEO and co-founder of Ambrell, who is retiring but will become a senior advisor and remain on the board of directors.

A business of Ameritherm Company, Ambrell provides induction heating solutions to sectors that include wire and cable.

Mount Joy Wire Corporation reports that Jackson T. Edwards, who joined the company18 years ago, has been promoted to director of technical services and sales, responsible for working and collaborating with customers on quality, R&D and new products develop-

ment. He has worked in various positions at the company, including in production, in the lab performing physical and chemical tests and as quality manager. He was named manager of process engineering in 2007 with additional responsibility for managing the company’s environmental services and safety programs. He holds a degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Based in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, USA, Mount Joy Wire Corporation manufactures a range of spring wire, Edwards oil-tempered wire and specialty wire.

Ann Marie Denero has joined the sales team at Allied Wire & Cable, working in the New York state area, and serving the Northeastern region of the U.S. She has more than 30 years of wire and cable experience working in purchasing, sales, inventory and management. Her career began at Simcona Electronics, where she spent 22 years in purchasing, sales and inventory work. She then worked for 11 years at Anixter, most recently as a sales manager, before joining Allied Wire & Cable. She holds a B.A.

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Maguire Products, Inc., has named Frank Kavanagh as the company’s vice president of global sales, responsible for overseeing worldwide sales ® of all Maguire auxiliary equipment systems, including gravimetric blenders, vacuum dryers, loading systems, feeders, liquid color pumps, granulators, and related equipment and software. He joined the company in 2001 and has more than 25 years of experiKavanagh ence in plastics equipment sales. For 13 years he worked for Jomar Corp., and was its national sales manager when he left to join Maguire in 2001 as a regional sales manager. Subsequently he became national sales manager and then vice president in charge of U.S. and Latin American sales. He holds a degree in business administration from Ocean County (New Jersey) College.

He is assuming responsibilities previously held by vice president B. Patrick (Pat) Smith, who will continue to be in charge of global marketing and product development.

Based in Aston, Pennsylvania, USA, Maguire Products,

Inc., supplies gravimetric blenders and liquid color pumps, and related equipment and software.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has named Kevin J. Cosgriff, a former vice admiral in the U.S. Navy, as the organization’s president and CEO. Most recently he served from 2010 to 2013 as senior vice president of international business and government for Textron Systems Corporation, but he is best known for his naval career. He graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and began active duty with the Navy directly thereafter.

As a vice admiral, he commanded the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, overseeing roughly 30,000 sailors throughout a region encompassing 22 countries, and Cosgriff the U.S. Fifth Fleet, directing naval forces in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and off the coast of East Africa. He holds an M.S. degree in science in strategic intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College. He replaces Evan Gaddis, who has retired. Based in Rossyln, Virginia, NEMA is the association of electrical equipment and medical imaging manufacturers.

OCTOBER 2014 | 25

PEOPLE

degree from Nazareth College of Rochester. Based in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, USA, Allied Wire & Cable is a family owned and operated specialty manufacturer and distributor of wire and cable.

FIBER WATCH

FIBER WATCH Fiber optics, a data must, makes quality control utterly essential The below article, provided by Germany’s Sikora AG, provides an overview of why fiber optic technology must be verified to extremely high requirements, especially when they are to be deployed in subsea cables.

Subsea cables, which can lie in water several thousand meters deep, must be especially robust as well as made to a high-quality standard. Breakdowns from contaminated material can cost millions of dollars as such cables are made in long lengths so that fewer joints are needed under water. Quality demands start at the initial production process of optical fibers to be used in subsea cables for data communication. It is at this stage where any faults need to be found.

Continuous quality control of optical fiber starts in the drawing tower, where Sikora offers innovative measuring and control technologies at different production International stages. The first step is the preform, which is created by means of chemical vapor deposition and is available as a glass rod (30–200 mm). The preform is heated up to 2,100°C in the drawing tower, at the lower end. From the melted glass, the optical fiber is drawn, typically to 125 µm.

Once cooled, the optical fiber is coated with a protective acrylate layer and hardened under UV light, and wound onto reels. SIKORA measuring devices, in connection with display and control devices, are used at points in the fiber creation process, as cited below.

Gauge heads before/after the preform. Typically, a gauge head, the FIBER LASER 6003, is installed below the draw furnace to measure the diameter and position of the uncoated fiber. It calculates the tension from the vibration of the fiber with Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT). The single values of the fiber position are graphically visualized by the processor system FIBER ECOCONTROL in the form of a scatter plot and are available by ETHERNET. The LASER measuring process ensures measuring accuracy of 0.05 µm at a repeatability of 0.02 µm. 2,500 measurements per second, with high single value precision and a short exposure time of 1.2 µs, guarantee constant accuracy at the highest level.

A second LASER-gauge head measures the cold diameter of the optical fiber and the spinning after cooling and before coating, the control by either the hot- or coldgauge head. Additional devices detect airlines in the optical fiber and the temperature of the optical fiber.

Gauge heads for “airlines” detection of airlines and measurement of optical fiber temperature. If air is trapped in the preform during production, it can create stretched air pockets when drawn that can damage the quality of the optical fiber. Conventional diameter mea-

surement devices can only detect the outer contour of the fiber but not the airlines inside. This is why SIKORA developed the FIBER LASER 6003 AIRLINE. With 2,500 measurements per second, this device reliably detects airlines in the fiber as small as 0.5 µm. Before the acrylate layers are applied onto the fiber during the coating process, the exact measurement of the optical fiber temperature is important. For an optimal bond, the fiber temperature should be between 40°C and 75°C. Manufacturers use helium, an expensive inert gas, for cooling, with the amount calculated by means of experience. Often, more helium is used than needed to ensure the fiber is not too hot. For this, SIKORA offers the FIBER LASER 6003 TEMP, which precisely and reliably measures the temperature of the optical fiber after cooling, allowing the optical fiber manufacturer to use the exact amount of helium that is needed.

Gauge head after coating. After the fiber has been coated and gone through the UV drying process, a second FIBER LASER 6003 measures the optical fiber, which at Corporation this stage usually measures about 250 µm.

Lump detection at end of drawing process. Lump detectors are also used for a continuous quality control in drawing towers. After the coating and at the end of the drawing process, the three-axis FIBER LUMP 6003 reliably measures lumps as small as 500 µm. Due to the growing quality requirements, SIKORA also offers the FIBER LUMP 6003 MICRO, which via six measuring axes can detect faults from a length of 50 µm on the optical fiber surface up to 100%. Both gauge heads detect faults from a height of 5 µm. Lumps are analyzed in regards to height, length, amount and position. All lump detectors feature outstanding double-sensor technology that ensures highest detection reliability.

Visualizing and controlling production data. With the display and control system FIBER ECOCONTROL, the data of the connected gauge heads and lump detectors are graphically displayed on a 15 in. TFT monitor. A special control module ensures the continuous control of the diameter by controlling the line speed. Alternatively, a hot- or cold-gauge head is used for controlling (before or after cooling). After the drawn fiber has been proof tested and wound onto reels, the fiber is colored in a separate step, then processed to an optical cable in a loose tubing or tight buffering line.

SIKORA

26 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

Conclusion

Integration of SIKORA measuring, control and testing technology in the optical fiber drawing process ensures a constant high quality of optical fibers. At different production stages the technology monitors and controls the entire drawing process and optimizes the efficiency of the production. For more details, go to www.sikora.com. n

FASTENER UPDATE

FASTENER UPDATE Taiwan’s Tycoons Group inaugurates UA$100 million plant in Thailand The Taiwan-based Tycoons Group International Co., a major maker of fasteners, has started up the electric arc furnaces in its new plant in Thailand.

A report on the inauguration cited Tycoons Chairman W.S. Huang as saying that his group spent US$100 million and 10 years building the new plant, “making it the world’s only fastener maker” at this time with an independent supply chain from steel billets through wire rods to fasteners.

The new plant, the report said, has annual capacity of 720,000 tons. That, it said, will allow the company “to explore the lucrative business opportunities brought not just by the Thai government’s infrastructure development plan, which will surely trigger a huge demand for steel and fasteners in the years to come, but also by the upcoming expansion of ASEAN’s economic integration next year.”

Micro screws could be used for opportunites made by 3D printers To help Taiwanese fastener manufacturers tap opportunities from 3D printers, Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC), a government-funded R&D institute, reports that it has worked out the world’s first

continuous thermal treatment equipment specifically for micro fasteners with a sub-2 mm outer diameter.

MIRDC said that it spent four years to design and develop a continuous heat treatment system that can help solve the above-mentioned problem to optimize production processes, enhance efficiency, and especially reduce dependence on imports to cut equipment purchase costs by over 50%.

The equipment, a report said, was developed with modular designs to meet manufacturers’ different requirements. MIRDC said that the machine and workpiece collecting module will soon be patented, helping out problems that Taiwanese manufacturers have. Often, it said, the micro screws underperform in torque, cracking and hydrogen embrittlement, and are lower in quality and performance mainly due to lacking suitable heat treating equipment and knowledge of needed processing parameters.

“The technology is still at an experimental stage, but Airbus is keen to develop it,” the report said. It added that the group has also been working with a bicycle manufacturer to provide fasteners to attach seat-post rails to the upper skin of a bicycle saddle using the system. Such pins, typically are around 1 mm wide and 3–4 mm tall, and if they are 3D-printed, they can also be designed for use with different structures, it said. n

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CHAPTER CORNER

CHAPTER CORNER Chalk up another great golf outing for WAI’s New England Chapter The golfing gods looked kindly upon the New England Chapter, which had a picture-perfect day for its 20th annual golf tournament, held Sept. 8 at the Ellington Ridge Country Club.

With a low score of 62, bragging rights went to the winning team (see p. 4) of John Bonk, TSI Motion Engineered Systems; Craig Stiefel, P&R Specialty; Erik Macs, Progressive Machinery, and Dave Tobin, guest. Two teams tallied a score of 64, with a scorecard match awarding second to Rick Amaral, Amaral Automation Associates, Doug Bower, Comptran; Jim Cragg, Judd Wire; and Paul Grant, TE Madison. Third place went to the team of Mark and Mike Mathiasen, Mathiasen Machinery; Michael Weiss, Whitmor/Wirenetics; and Paul Gemelli, Gem Gravure Co. However, the big winner of the day—due to the generosity of the sponsoring companies and those who sprung for the raffle—was the chapter’s scholarship fund.

“You couldn’t ask for a better day,” said Derek Olson, Gem Gravure, who co-chaired the event along with Jim Stocking, Hitachi Cable, the two of them conducting the raffle along with Mike McKee, Lloyd & Bouvier. Olson thanked sponsors for making the event a success on multiple levels. Speaking later, he said that golfers know how to enjoy the day, and combining it with a good cause makes it that much better. “This is our industry, and we’re all part of it, so sharing this experience connects us all beyond what happens on the green. It also makes it easier to dig deep for the raffle, which raised $2,750. Whether your play was good or not, everyone enjoyed the day and the company.”

The event also saw the final participation for McKee, who has been a staple go-to person for New England Chapter golf outings, annual meetings and educational events for the past dozen years. He plans to retire, making this his last golf outing. “I’ve been privileged to help over the years,” he said. “When I first joined Lloyd & Bouvier in 2000, Brian Bouvier encouraged me to get active in the

It was a picture-perfect day and golf course.

30 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

From l-r, Gem Gravure’s Derek Olson, Lloyd & Bouvier’s Mike McKee and Hitachi Cable’s Jim Stocking ably ran the raffle, a source of many laughs, a few razzes and lots of money for the scholarship fund.

Wire Association’s NE Chapter, and I did. My time on the chapter’s board of directors has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my 40 years in wire and cable.

I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to give a little back to the industry that has been my profession for most of my adult life. It’s been a fun ride.”

Sponsors for the event include the (unclaimed) Holein-One, Commission Brokers; Carts, James Monroe Wire & Cable Corp., Driving Range, Fluorogistx; Putting Contest, Wire & Plastic Machinery; Chipping Contest, Chase/NEPTCO; Long Putt, Whitmor/WIREnetics; Teeoff Breakfast, Amacoil and Fluoropolymer Resources; Accurate Drive, Betal LaserMike and Gem Gravure; Long Drive, Lloyd & Bouvier and Sikora; Closest-to-the Pin, W. Gillies, Zumbach Electronics and Progressive Machinery; Lunch, James Monroe Wire & Cable Corp., T&T Marketing, Teknikor Contracting and Whitmor/ WIREnetics; Snacks & Beverages, Amaral Automation, Carris Reels, DuPont, Fluoropolymer Resurces, Multi/ Cable Corporation and RSCC; 19th Hole Reception, 3M, Accel International, Breen Color, Carris Reels, DavisStandard, IWG Bare Wire Division, Mossberg, Multi/Cable Corporation and Quirk Wire Co. Hole Sponsors included: AlphaGary, Amacoil, Arkema Inc., Carris Reels, Chromatics, DeWal Industries, Inc., James Monroe Wire & Cable Co., Hitachi, IWG High Performance Conductors, Joe Snee Associates, Fluopolymer Resources, Leoni Wire, Lloyd & Bouvier, Mantec, Millard Wire & Specialty Strip, P&R Specialty, Plasticolor, Premier Wire Die, Q-S Technologies, Quirk Wire, T&T Marketing, Teknor Contracting, WCMA and Whitmor/WIREnetics.

The chapter’s next event will be its annual meeting, to be held in January 2015.

WAI NEWS

Oct. 2014

WAI

Jean Patton National Service Manager Gem Gravure Co., Inc.

MEMBERSHIP

Q: What does your company do?

A: Gem Gravure provides a variety of coding and marking services for the wire & cable industry, including contact inks, inkjet inks, Gravure wheels, contact and ink jet printers, spare parts and technical service.

Over the years we’ve been proud to be a leading supplier to the industry.

This section introduces a new WAI member each issue.

Q: What is your role there?

A: I started working for Gem in 2005, as the regulatory documentation specialist, writing material safety data sheets, and making sure we were in compliance with environmental regulations. In 2006, I accepted the position of quality manager, and worked toward getting Gem Gravure ISO 9000 certified. We have been certified since 2007. I have been the national service manager since 2012. Quality and service go hand in hand.

SPOTLIGHT

Q: What do you like best about your position?

A: This may sound trite, but the best part of my job is making the customer happy. That’s always been the GEM philosophy and now I play a major role in it.

Q: How has the industry most changed?

A: Wire and cable manufacturers are under increasing pressure to maximize quality and reduce downtime. Our duty is to be a consistent, reliable partner to our customers. A company that they can call and expect us to help in any way possible.

Q: How does your company remain competitive?

A: Gem Gravure has always hired the best to fill the various roles and positions needed to get the job done.

Those individuals work as a team to solve problems, create new products, and keep Gem on the cutting edge of the marking and coding industry.

Q: Why did you recently join WAI? A: The Wire Association is the premier organization in the industry. Also, since I’m in the habit of removing pages and highlighting sections of borrowed issues of Wire Journal, I decided I needed my own copy.

32 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

Al Bolden Sls Rep Bolden Machinery

Paul Streeto Media Prod Mgr Wire Association International Inc

Robbin L Burton Dir Sls & Mkt Toner Plastics Inc

George L Perry II Mchn Eng Dsgn Bartell Machinery Systems LLC Daniel Jean DeLisle Gen Mgr AlphaGary

Michael L Flo Dir Eng Light Connection Silvia Angelica Patino Conductores Electricos Pama Sa De CV Theo Andry Plt Mgr CAP Technologies LLC

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WAI Platinum Membership Companies Industry leaders can contact WAI Executive Director Steve Fetteroll at sfetteroll@wirenet.org or 203-453-2777, ext. 115, to learn more about this special membership program.

Such organizations actively support the Association by participating as exhibitors, advertisers, sponsors or content providers for WAIorganized events, publications and educational programs.

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OCTOBER 2014 | 33

WAI NEWS

Jean Patton Ntl Svc Mgr Gem Gravure Co Inc

MEET YOUR PEERS. ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS. JOIN WAI TODAY.

The following individuals either recently joined WAI or became Platinum Members through their companies.

WIRE & CABLE MAKING MACHINERY PLANT OPERATIONS SESSIONS SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES NEW TRENDS & PRODUCTS SUPPLIES & EQUIPMENT GLOBAL NETWORKING SPONSORSHIPS

SAVE THE DATE EXPOSITION: APRIL 28-30, 2015 CONVENTION: APRIL 27-30, 2015

INTERWIRE 2015 | THE LARGEST WIRE AND CABLE MARKETPLACE IN THE AMERICAS. GEORGIA WORLD CONGRESS CENTER | ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA Also with WAI’s 2

nd

Global Continuous Casting Forum

www.interwire15.com C

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PLATINUM | Sonoco Reels and Spools • Wire & Plastic Machinery Corp.

SILVER | Carris Reels Inc. • Gem Gravure Co. Inc. • Nexans • Sikora International Corp.

BRONZE | RichardsApex Inc.

SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Baum’s Castorine Co. • Chemson • Commission Brokers Inc. • Heritage Wire Die • Lloyd & Bouvier Inc. •

The Wire Association International, Inc. 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

PARTICIPATING EXHIBITORS Ace Metal Inc. ADVARIS GmbH Agape Industry Inc. AIM Inc. All Forming Machinery Inc. Amacoil Inc. American & Efird Inc. American Kuhne Inc. Anbao Wire & Mesh Co. Ltd. Assomac Machines Ltd. AW Machinery LLC Aztech Lubricants LLC B & H Tool Co. Inc. B & Z Galvanized Wire Ind. Balloffet Die Corp.

Baum’s Castorine Co. Inc. Bechem Lubrication Technology LLC Beijing Orient PengSheng Tech Co. Ltd. Bekaert Bergandi Machinery Co. Beta LaserMike Beta Steel Blachford Corp.

BLM Group USA Corp.

Bloom Engineering Co. Inc. Boockmann GmbH/The Slover Group Breen Color Concentrates Inc. Brookfield Wire Co. Butt Welders USA Caballe SA Cable Consultants Corp.

Calmec Precision Inc. Canterbury Engineering Co. Inc. Carris Reels Inc. Ceeco Bartell Products, Bartell Machinery Systems Cemanco LC Central Wire Industries Ltd. CERSA-MCI Chase Wire & Cable Materials Chemetall Chengdu Centran Industrial Co. Ltd. Cimteq Clinton Instrument Co. CM Furnaces Inc CMEC International Exhibition Ltd. CN Wire Corp.

Collins & Jewell Co. Inc. Commission Brokers Inc. Condat Conneaut Industries Inc. Davis-Standard LLC Die Quip Corp.

Domeks Makine Ltd. Sti Dynamex Corp.

Ebner Furnaces Inc. Electron Beam Technologies Inc. Enercon Industries Engineered Machinery Group Inc. Enkotec Co. Inc. ERA Wire Inc. Esteves Group USA Etna Products Inc. Eurobend SA Eurolls Group Srl George Evans Corp.

EVG Inc. Evolution Products Fabritex Inc. Fenn LLC Fil-Tec Inc. Filtertech Inc. Fine International Corp.

Fisk Alloy Wire Inc. Flymca & Flyro FMS USA Inc. Foerster Instruments Inc. Fort Wayne Wire Die Inc. Frigeco USA Inc./ MFL USA Service Corp.

Frontier Composites & Castings Inc. FSP-One Fuhr GmbH & Co. Kg

Gavlick Machinery Corp.

GCR Eurodraw SpA Gem Gravure Co Inc. W. Gillies Technologies LLC GIMAX GMP Slovakia s.r.o Granite Falls Furnace Guill Tool & Engineering Co. Hafner & Krullmann GmbH Hangzhou JR Exhibition Co. Ltd. Heany Industries Inc. Heatbath Corp.

Henrich Maschinenfabrik GmbH Heritage Wire Die Inc. Holland Colours Americas Inc. Houghton International Inc. Howar Equipment Inc. Huestis Industrial ICE Wire Line Equipment Inc. IDEAL Welding Systems INHOL LLC InnoVites International Wire & Cable Machinery Association Isotek Corp.

IWG High Performance Conductors Inc. Joe Snee Associates, Inc. Joe-Tools Jouhsen-Bundgens Inc. Kablosan Turkey-FBC Yayincilik Ltd. sti Kalmark Intergrated Systems Ltd. KEIR Manufacturing Inc. Keystone Steel & Wire Co. King Steel Corp.

Kinrei of America Lamnea Bruk AB LaserLinc Inc. Leggett & Platt Wire Group Leoni Wire Inc. Lesmo Machinery America Inc. Lloyd & Bouvier Inc. LUKAS Anlagenbau GmbH Madison Steel Inc. Magnetic Technologies Ltd. Maillefer Extrusion Oy Mathiasen Machinery Inc. Messe Düsseldorf North America Metal Resource Solutions Inc. Metallurgical Council of China MFL USA Service Corp.

MGS Manufacturing Inc. Micro Products Co. Microdia USA Mid-South Wire Morgan-Koch Corp.

Mossberg Associates Inc. Mossberg Industries Inc. Niagara Composites Int’l.Inc. Niehoff Endex North America Inc. Nimsco LLC / SB2C Numalliance North America Inc. Oklahoma Steel & Wire OMCG North America Inc. Ozyasar Tel Ve Galvanizleme P & R Specialty Inc. Paramount Die Co. Parkway-Kew Corp.

Troester Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG Pentre Group Ltd.-Hearl Heaton Phifer Wire Inc. Pittsfield Plastics Eng. Inc. PKG Equipment Inc. Plas-Ties Co. Plastic Equip LLC Pneumatic Power Tool & Co. Polytec Inc. Pourtier & Setic of America Precision Die Technologies Inc. Premier Wire Die PrintSafe Process Control Corp.

Progressive Machinery Inc. Promostar srl

Properzi International Inc. QED Wire Lines Inc. Queins Machines GmbH Raajratna Stainless Wire Inc. RAD-CON Inc. Radyne Corp.

Rainbow Rubber & Plastics Rautomead Ltd. Reel-O-Matic Inc. Refractron Technologies Corp.

RichardsApex Inc. Rockford Manufacturing Group Inc. Roloil Rosendahl Nextrom Technologies Roteq Machinery Inc. RSD Group USA S&E Specialty Polymers Saint-Gobain SAMP USA Inc. Sarkuysan SA Schlatter Inc. Shanghai Pudong International Exhibition Co. Sikora International Corp.

SIMPACKS Sivaco Wire Group Sjogren Industries Inc. Sonoco Reels Starrett-Bytewise Measurement Systems Stolberger Inc DBA Wardwell Braiding Subec AB Sylvin Technologies Inc. T & T Marketing Inc. Tapeformers Ltd. Taubensee Steel & Wire Co. Taymer International Inc. Tecnofil SA Teknikor Teknor Apex Tensor Machinery Ltd. TMS-Specialties Manufacturing Co. Inc. Traxit North America LLC Tubular Products Co. Tulsa Power Inc. United Wire Co. Inc. UPCAST OY Vandor Corp.

VINSTON US Corp.

Vollmer America Inc. Vom Hagen & Funke GmbH W3 Ultrasonics LLC WAFIOS Machinery Corp.

Weber & Scher Mfg. Co. Inc. Welding Wire Machineries Windak Inc. Wire & Cable Technology International Wire & Plastic Machinery Corp.

Wire Association International, Inc. Wire Journal International Wire Lab Co. Wire Machine Systems (WMS) Wire World Witels Albert USA Ltd. Woodburn Diamond Die Inc. Worth Steel & Machinery Inc. Yield Management Corp.

Zumbach Electronics Corp.

WAI NEWS

Platinum Member webinar set for October A webinar that serves as a companion piece to a special report going to WAI Platinum members will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

The webinar, Industry Outlook, North America, Electrical Sector, will include a presentation by Philip Radbourne, Integer Research, who contributed to the Platinum members report. The event will also include a panel discussion with Neville Crabbe, Leoni; Dave Hawker, Nexans; Patricio Murga, Viakable; and Bill Reichert, Champlain Cable. The program will start at 11 am (Eastern U.S.).

Interwire 2015 tech program firming up The ferrous and nonferrous groups of WAI’s Conference Programming Committee have begun meetings to plan the conference program for Interwire 2015 and WAI’s 85th Annual Convention in Atlanta, April 28-30, 2015. While still in the planning phase, they report plans to develop technical and practical program elements that will appeal to a wide audience across industry segments.

As part of its efforts, the WAI is seeking technical papers and operational presentations at large to be presented at Interwire, with Monday, Nov. 3, the date for abstract submission. More details can be found at http://www.wirenet. org/images/pdfs/callforpapers/HAIW15CallForPapers.pdf.

On the technical side, the group hopes to compile a program on dust control that will consider all factors contributing to related plant hazards. They will consider not just lubricant-generated dust, but also scale dust and general plant dust. The program will consider methods for mitigation, collection, and evacuation, as well as managing contributing factors such as dies, die angles, and melting point.

On the electrical side, another day-long program will trace the development of final products from raw materials to applications. Each stage will be presented consecutively throughout the day so attendees can participate in any segment they choose without schedule conflicts. The three main, consecutive segments are: 1) raw materials, 2) processing, and 3) applications. These stages will be fur-

36 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

ther subdivided into specialized groups looking at copper, compounds, and different approaches to the use of thermoplastics and thermosets.

One of the operational topics under consideration is approval of capital expenditures. It is designed to be a discussion among CFOs, engineers, and equipment suppliers to consider how new equipment purchases are really approved, and what factors and conditions are most important to sealing the deal.

Another program track will examine recruiting and retention strategies. The committee hopes to examine topics such as incentive programs, including individual or plantwide performance-based, pay-for-skills and cross-training, and variable pay. This could also include third-party hiring and retention programs.

Aluminum to join copper for WAI’s 2nd Global Continuous Casting Form in 2015 WAI will host its second Global Continuous Casting Forum (GCCF), concurrently with Interwire 2015 and its 85th Annual Convention, April 27-30, 2015, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Major continuous casting rod processes will be represented—including: Properzi, SCR, Rautomead, UPCAST® and Contirod®—with updated information from each of the equipment suppliers.

Much like the inaugural GCCF in 2011, the 2015 program will trace the continuous casting process from raw material through finished product, product testing, and quality measures. The format will include panel discussions, operational and technical presentations, and time built into the schedule to explore and network on the Interwire exhibit floor. Casting practitioners, raw material suppliers, and equipment manufacturers are invited to participate.

To date four platinum level sponsors have backed the program including: Continuus-Properzi SpA, RichardsApex, Inc., SMS Meer GmbH, and Southwire SCR. Rautomead Ltd. and UPCAST OY are gold level sponsors. Hazelett Strip-Casting Corp., Houghton

opportunities, and process fundamentals. The program also includes separate copper and aluminum educational tracks as follows.

Copper Sessions: FRHC, ETP, and OF coppers; combustion options; refractory materials; filtration concepts; ASTM Standards; and wire break analysis in 3-D. Aluminum Sessions: molten metal management, refractory selection for aluminum casthouses, benefits of regenerative combustion systems; furnace efficiency improvements; in-line aluminum degassing; ultrasonic degassing; metal flow improvement in the Properzi caster lower tundish; and continuous improvement at Alma rod mill.

Details about the 2015 casting event will be posted as they develop on www.castingforum15.com. For more information contact WAI at tel. (001) 203-453-2777.

Anand Bhagwat webinar covered the essentials of ferrous metallurgy On Sept. 9, industry veteran Anand Bhagwat, Orica USA Inc. (formerly Minova), presented a WAI webinar on ferrous metallurgy that covered a wide range of topics.

A past WAI president (2005), Bhagwat presented Fundamentals of Ferrous Metallurgy, which provided a general understanding of ferrous metallurgical concepts, including phase equilibrium, transformation, strengthening mechanisms, heat treatment, and an overview of steelmaking, and their relevance to the wire technology. It also covered crystallography and defects; terminology for phases and structures in steels; and substitutional solid solutions.

The discussion of heat treatment included austenitization; selection of temperature; pearlite formation; hardening; formation and tempering of martensite; and annealing.

Bhagwat, who previously was plant manager at FENIX, LLC, holds six patents in wire and tire reinforcement technology. His presentation got good reviews.

Commented one attendee, “the seminar was an excellent

A slide from the Bhagwat webinar.

overview of the key items covered; enough detail for the metallurgists and also well presented for the non-metallurgists. This would have been an excellent overview for many of my customers.” Added another, “It was nice to have a chance to bounce technical questions off others in the industry. While the material wasn’t new, it did spur a few questions and thoughts on our part.”

Below is a list of questions that Bhagwat addressed during the webinar: Q: Would you consider dislocations as a 2D or 3D defect?

Q: It should be noted that the phase diagram is an equillibrium phase diagram (i.e. very slow cooling) Q: If matensite is cryogenically treated to the Martensite finish line (typically -100° F) will it be stable at room temperature?

Q: Given the same tensile strength of the wire, is there a difference between thermal or mechanical strengthening mechanisms?

Q: Will large amounts of cold work refine the grain structure?

Q: Can you briefly talk about stress relieving and the difference between that and annealing?

Q: Can you add elements such as aluminum or vanadium to pin grain boundaries and create finer grain sizes.

Q: What are typical causes of aluminum killed fine grain steels to cause austentic grain growth?

Q: What mechanisms are used to control grain size?

Q: What are the advantages of bainite structures?

Association members receive free access to all WAI webinars, including the most recent one by Bhagwat. The non-member price is $55 per webinar. Check back at WAI’s website www.wirenet.org for information on registering.

OCTOBER 2014 | 37

WAI NEWS

International Inc., and Saint Gobain are silver level sponsors.

Observed program steward Gary Spence, Encore Wire, who was the driving force behind WAI’s organization of the 2011 event, “The 2015 forum is a not to be missed event if you are truly committed to improving your knowledge base, and reducing your operating costs. The face-toface networking of our industries’ top professionals from around the world in copper and aluminum rod manufacture is an opportunity you cannot miss. The 2011 participants asked for another forum, so here it is even bigger and better. I also encourage participants to inquire about visiting other rod manufacturers while in North America.”

Both copper and aluminum topics will be covered over the course of the four-day forum. Shared sessions are planned that will cover global markets, cost-saving

INDUSTRY EVENT

PREVIEW IWCS returns to Providence to stage its 63rd annual event Over a thousand attendees are expected by organizers to attend the 2014 staging of the IWCS International Cable • Connectivity Symposium (IWCS), which will feature more than a hundred technical papers and 120 companies represented at tabletop exhibits as well as networking opportunities from Nov. 9-12 at the Providence Convention Center in the Rhode Island Convention Center.

“We have an excellent response to the 2014 Call for Papers,” said IWCS CEO/Director John Barteld. “This year’s event promises to be among the strongest technology events of the year for our industry (as the IWCS Symposium normally is).”

The event begins Sunday, Nov. 9, with Professional Development Courses, including (for the 10th time) IWCS core courses in three categories: Copper 101, Fiber 101 and Materials 101. Morning sessions include: Fundamentals of Copper Conductors & Metallic Cable Design and Applications; Fundamentals of Optical Fibers and FO Cable Design & Application; The Art

and Science of Extrusion for Wire and Cable - Part I; Connectors and Connectorization: Fiber; and Field Measurements of Copper Cabling Including Cables.

Afternoon sessions include: Connectors, Permanent Links, and Channels; Copper Cabling Technology Advanced Transmission Line Theory and Measurements; Selection & Use of Materials in Wire & Cable; The Art and Science of Extrusion for Wire and Cable – Part II; The Reliability of Optical Fibers and Passive Fiber Components in Long and Short Communication Networks; and Electronic Connector Fundamentals.

The full program begins Monday, Nov. 10, and concludes Wednesday, Nov. 12, featuring a total of 16 sessions that collectively will cover a wide range of industry focuses on copper, fiber optic, connectors and more. The individual sessions are Session 1: Executive Track; Session 2: Optical Development; Session 3: Fiber & Cable Reliability; Session 4: Commercial Applications for Materials; Session 5: Copper Cabling Applications; Session 6: Wire &

At the 2014 staging of IWCS, the Executive Panel, moderated by RSCC’s Robert Canny, l, included panelists (l-r) Eddie Edwards, CommScope; Clark Kinlin, Corning; Patrice DuBois, OFS Fitel; Steve Szymanski, Prysmian Group; and Bob Kenny, General Cable.

38 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

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OCTOBER 2014 | 39

INDUSTRY EVENT

Cisco Systems, Cable Processing; Inc., on Monday Session 7: Data from noon to 1:45 Center & Multimode pm; New Product Fibers; Session Introductions, 8: Fiber Design; which will be preSession 9: Industry sented on the show Regulation & Safety floor on Monday, Development; Nov. 11, from 2:30 Session 10: pm to 5:30 pm; and Wireless; Session the Poster Session, 11: Fiber Cable with 21 papers to be Design/Installation; displayed Tuesday Session 12: Copper from 4 pm to 6 pm.

Cable Design & Also on Monday will Measurement; be a 6 pm reception Session 13: Special honoring retiring Cable Applications; CEO/Director John Session 14: FTTX; Barteld and the Session 15: Fiber introduction of his Measurement; Attendees at a technical session at IWCS 2013. The event included successor. and Session 16: 105 technical papers as well as Professional Development Courses The tabletop disCable Insulation & presented over two days. plays will be open on Jacketing Materials.

Monday from 2 pm Three other event to 6 pm, and on Tuesday from 10 am through 6 pm. sessions that traditionally get a lot of attention include For more information on attending and/or exhibiting, go the Plenary Session, featuring a keynote luncheon preto iwcs.org. sentation by Clifford J. Thomas, managing director,

INDUSTRY EVENT

Last IWCS for CEO/Director

the IWCS conference and annual business operations. By working closely with global leaders in the wire and cable The 2014 staging of IWCS will be the final one for supply chain who serve on the IWCS committee and board CEO/Director John Barteld, who has served in that post of directors, he implemented new systems and processsince 2005. His successor will be introduced at IWCS, es consistent with the evolution in electronic and social which was founded in 1952 and long run by the late Elmer media to enhance the business model. “John led IWCS “Ace” Godwin. While Barteld’s legacy was much shorter away from a precarious financial position to one of health than Ace’s, it has been quite notable. and sustainability ... and expanded its annual Two longtime key IWCS volunteers, Dave scholarship contributions to deserving stuKiddoo of AlphGary, and Rob Wessels of dents at several prominent universities.”

CommScope, agreed that Barteld has made They added that Barteld was “a genuine a big difference. “Traversing through the friend” and a pleasure to be with. “Along with rough economic climate of the past six his wife, Gwenn, John consistently knew how years, in light of reduced resources and marto be the consummate host and facilitator of keting budgets, John has been very effective important gatherings, making our European, in promoting and positioning IWCS as the South American, Japanese or Australasian premier global technical forum for the wire guests feel welcomed and at ease.” and cable industry. His focus on providOperations Manager Pat Hudak—who ing a strong educational and networking joined IWCS in 1991 and has been the day-in, opportunity for technical staff, industry day-out, go-to contact person, working in an executives and procurement managers in untraditional office situation largely based on the supply chain has enabled IWCS to emails and phone calls—described Barteld as actually grow in relevance, as measured an empowering team builder. She said he has John Barteld visiting WAI’s by the increase in the number of presenbeen a plus both for the organization, where booth at a past IWCS event. tations and participation, even during the he excelled as fostering partnering relationrecent tough economic times.” ships with sponsors, and for staff, as he readily Kidddo and Wessels said that Barteld effectively restrucrecognizes individuals for their contributions. “It has been great working with John,” she said. n tured and created a more cost-effective governance of

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40 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

CALL FOR PAPERS

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

In order for the Wire Association’s Conference Programming Committee to properly assess the scope and content of your proposed technical article, please submit a 75 word abstract.

PAPERS

Accepted speakers will receive an Author’s Guide with details about manuscript and presentation preparation via e-mail. Only original papers not previously published will be accepted for Wire Association International paper awards and possible publication in Wire Journal International.

Please complete the following information.

Send to: Marc Murray, Director of Education & Member Services, The Wire Association International, Inc., 1570 Boston Post Rd., P.O. Box 578, Guilford, CT 06437-0578 USA, Tel.: (001) 203-453-2777, Fax: (001) 203-453-8384, E-mail: mmurray@wirenet.org.

Check your area of interest: ❏ Operational Presentation ❏ Technical Paper Presentation Check your category: ❏ Ferrous ❏ Nonferrous ❏ Electrical ❏ Fiber Optic ❏ General Author(s) Contact Author (designate one only) Title of Paper Company (affiliations for each author) Address City

State/Prov.

Postal Code

Country Telephone (include country and area code) E-mail [

Fax (include country and area code) ]

Abstract (75 word maximum) Please type your abstract in English on this form. If you need additional space, please use a separate page.

INTERWIRE 2015 The Conference Programming Committee reserves the right to screen all abstracts and reject those abstracts deemed unsuitable or inappropriate for presentation or publication. Everyone who submits an abstract will be notified whether the abstract has been accepted.

The best way to deliver an encore is to add to the cast.

Aluminum joins copper for WAI’s second Global Continuous Casting Forum April 27 - 30, 2015 | Atlanta, Georgia, USA | With Interwire 2015 Join a renowned ensemble of continuous casting practitioners, raw material suppliers, and equipment manufacturers on an educational journey from ore to more at WAI’s second Global Continuous Casting Forum.

Shared sessions. Independent technical tracks. Unalloyed networking. All focused on saving money through performance-based casting technologies. www.castingforum15.com.

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Platinum: Continuus-Pro roPPerzi sPA | riChArdsAPex, inC. | sMs-Meer GMbh | southwire sCr teChnoloGies Gold: rAuto AutoMeA eAd eA Ad ltd. | uPCAst oY | Silver: hAzelett A -striPP CAstinGG | houGhton internA nternAtion AtionA tionAl Al inC. | sAint A -GobA obAin Ain The Wire Association International, Inc. 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

FEATURE

Manufacturing trends Manufacturing trends cover a lot of turf for any field, but one common challenge that companies face is the one that they have little control over: regulations. This feature, which starts with a perspective from NAM on such conditions, also includes comments from the president of the last U.S. wire hanger manufacturer, one cable manufacturer finding success by doing more than supply cables, and more.

NAM study: fed regulations cost manufacturers up to $2 trillion a year The most expensive regulations cited for manufacturers in the report were related to labor (economic) and environmental, with some others including from tax compliance, energy and transportation. The largest billings were for attorneys, accountants and consultants and advisors for labor/OSHA/monitoring issues. The estimated tab for direct expenditures related to regulation in 2012 was $138.6 billion, it said.

A further concern is that the report results “do not capture the total cost of regulations on a sector, or on the economy as a whole.” The authors note that it does not include estimates for other factors cited by study respondents, which included “inefficient planning as a consequence of uncertainty, federal regulation in the production location calculus, R&D and capital investment consequences, and reductions in employment and in competitiveness,” among other responses. With those numbers factored in, the actual direct and indirect costs sould be as much as $215 billion, which raises the (in Billions of 2014 Dollars) total by about 37 percent.

The study showed that the top cited OSHHS* concern

by NAM survey respondents $92 (88%), was regulatory compliance. Not growing the customer base. Not finding Tax Compliance and keeping well-qualified employees. $159 Not cash-flow generation.

“Manufacturers have long cited more Environmental and more complex regulations as a bar$330 rier to their growth, and today, we have new data demonstrating the true burdens Economic shouldered by manufacturers throughout $1,448 the supply chain, particularly the smallest firms, in complying with growing federal mandates,” said NAM President Total Cost: $2.028 Trillion and CEO Jay Timmons. He said that there is a need for a regulatory system *OSHHS stands for occupational safety and health and homeland security regulations. that balances benefits and costs.

To read the complete report, go to Breakdown of various regulation expenses for 2012 for manufacturers www.nam.org/CostofRegulation. (in 2014 dollars).

Just how much does regulation cost U.S. manufacturing? Per The Cost of Federal Regulation to the U.S. Economy, Manufacturing and Small Business—a recent report from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)—it was upwards of $2 trillion for 2012, a staggering sum that was equivalent to 12% of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Economists Nicole V. and W. Mark Crain note in their report that their research does not discuss whether “regulations are good or bad, desirable or undesirable.” Instead, the focus was to judge how they affect manufacturing.

The authors say that they discovered that manufacturing businesses face a disproportionate share of the burden—$19,564 per employee per year, nearly double what the average U.S. business pays—to comply with federal rules. Further, small manufacturers pay $34,671 per employee per year, more than three times as much as the average U.S. Total Cost of firm.

Federal Regulations by Type, 2012

44 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

WJI: How did Belden come to expand beyond wire and cable ?

Ehlers: The change started in 2005 when President and CEO John Stroup and his executive team created a strategic plan to change Belden into an end-to-end solutions provider to accelerate the company’s ability to capitalize on new market opportunities by bringing innovative solutions to a growing customer base. Belden’s first acquisition came in 2007, when it acquired Hirschmann and expanded its product portfolio in industrial automation and networking systems, and the acquisition of Lumberg, a leading maker of connectors for the Ehlers automation space. Several more acquisitions in the industrial, broadcast and enterprise space followed.

FEATURE

Belden recently reported that it is teaming with Tripwire Inc., a supplier of advanced threat, security and compliance solutions, to improve critical infrastructure cyber security in manufacturing organizations. WJI posed several questions about the announcement to Eric Ehlers, director – corporate marketing and global marketing information systems, and Frank Williams, senior product manager for security at Belden.

FEATURE

Security in (and as) a growth market

WJI: As a new innovation focus, what’s different about cyber security?

Williams: Cyber security is more than placing firewalls around one’s network, it’s about understanding how to protect mission-critical assets, and then monitoring the real-time security health of the operation. Making sure that these networks and communications systems are secure and reliable requires a broad range of cyber security solutions and services. It has expanded the scope of our Industrial IT Division, which offers the market the most dependable network and communications system performance in tough and mission-critical environments.

WJI: Why Tripwire?

Williams: We elected to partner with best-inclass service providers such as Tripwire for threat intelligence and change management solutions.

We have also added other partners that provide focused services, such as vulnerability and risk assessment; cyber security design best practices, and maintenance training. Our strong industrial domain experience, market size and hardware/ software options coupled with top suppliers of cyber security services ensure our clients have access to the very best overall network solutions.

Williams

WJI: Do you see cyber security continuing to be a growth area?

Williams: Cyber security in today’s business will continue to grow as more employees bring their own devices to work and as business connectivity on a global basis more of a reality. The unintended consequence of these dynamics is that most devices are insecure by design.

While manufacturers are moving to harden their designs, the billions of devices already deployed must have protection. This is where Belden adds great value and therefore sees industrial infrastructure with mission-critical operations an area of significant growth opportunity.

OCTOBER 2014 | 45

FEATURE

How a single U.S. wire hanger maker saved the sector ... made, and this information was provided to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The flow, however, continued, and even increased as Chinese hanger companies relocated operations offshore, so we went back to the ITC and DoC, and won anti-dumping rulings against Taiwan and Vietnam. You could call that a win, but then the illegal shipments began coming from Malaysia and Laos, and now we hear they are also coming through Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

How did we survive? One advantage we have is that we M&B Hangers, which once had six domestic commanufacture our own equipment, and have a lot of control petitors, for a period was the sole U.S. manufacturer. over how it performs. We feel this gives us an edge. Most This did not happen because of lack of demand for wire of our competitors purchase equipment from Asia, which hangers. Plastics, thankfully, have not replaced them. Our may be good, but for our process, we know that our equipcustomers still include thousands of dry cleaners as well ment is better. That helped a lot, but it wasn’t as shops that rent work clothes. The marenough. We made cuts where we needed to, ket size has decreased some over the years we held firm on prices where we had to and due to a poor job market, casual workwear we all worked extremely hard to survive. and more reuse of hangers, but I have no We built a facility that manufactures steel doubt that it imports nearly killed the U.S. wire hangers in Mexico, and those hangers hanger industry. are sold both in Mexico and the U.S. The Our business, based in Leeds, Alabama, is idea was not to replace U.S. production but family-owned, so we’ve always been able to to complement it. We maintain the same focus on our motto: Integrity To Hang Onto. equipment and processes in both plants so The trouble began when low-price imported we can ensure consistency. We definitesteel hangers from China began trickling in ly have more turnover in Mexico, and a around 2000. In 2002, we were one of three trained employee is more productive than an U.S. companies that filed a Section 421 untrained employee, but still it helped.

Trade Case. We got a favorable ruling from The fight, which at times appeared won the U.S. International Trade Commission Milton Magnus then lost, is not going to end anytime soon.

(ITC), but then-President George W. Bush Five years from now, I expect we’ll still decided not to impose duties. That non-acbe fighting with illegally shipped imports into our countion proved to be devastating to the U.S. steel wire hanger try. When I became president in the late 1980s, I never industry. By 2004, 774 million hangers were shipped from thought so much of my time would be devoted to fightChina to the U.S., and two years later that number was 1.8 ing illegal trade, but it is. I feel like my second home is billion, 63% of the U.S. market. We were the only compain Washington, DC. ny that did not collapse, although we were about as close as It is very frustrating to win an expensive, time-conyou could get. We had to close one of our two U.S. plants, suming anti-dumping case, and then find out that it is putting 85 people out of work. not being enforced at our borders. I hope that in the As conditions worsened, we knew we had to act. A future, we can put this behind us, and more of my time chance discussion (see next page) proved to be the catacan be directed to growing our business, and diversifylyst. In July 2007, we filed an anti-dumping case, one that ing. We are constantly looking at better ways of doing would not require White House action. Again, we got a things, processes that improve the product as well as the favorable ruling, but it was not till 2008 that the Department cost structure. Our goal is to become so automated that of Commerce (DoC) imposed duties on the Chinese imports. imports can’t compete here.

At that point, we thought we had won, and we began hiring.

Only we realized that our win was on paper, because the Editor’s note: In a published article, Kimberly Korbel, flow of illegal imports continued as the Chinese companies executive director of the American Wire Producers would ship hangers through Vietnam and Taiwan. We were Association, observed that “Milton has been a leading cheated, as was the U.S. government, which never received member of a coalition of companies soliciting the U.S. the millions of dollars in duties it was owed. government to stop this illegal practice of transshipOur company sent a private investigator to Taiwan and ment. His leadership on the issue has been invaluable. ...

Vietnam to inspect new facilities that were “making” Without the efforts of Milton Magnus, there would be no steel wire hangers, but those plants did not exist. He did, steel wire hanger industry in the U.S.” however, find evidence that illegal shipments were being Founded in 1943, M&B Hangers at one low point was the sole U.S. hanger manufacturer. The company’s story continues—and the market now has at least two more U.S. competitors—because it recognized that for it to compete with unfairly-priced imports, a key to the answer would be found not on the shop floor but in a federal hearing room. Below, company President Milton Magnus, who also serves as president of AWPA, shares two stories: his company’s, and on the next page, his link to AWPA.

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If it were not for the American Wire Producers Association, M&B Hangers would not be manufacturing hangers in the U.S. today. I was ready at one point to join the masses, close my U.S. plant, move that equipment to China and become an importer. At an AWPA conference, I was speaking with a fellow member in another field, discussing the challenges of competing not with a company but a country (China). He told me he was filing an anti-dumping case. We did the same thing a couple of months later, and seven years later we are still producing in the U.S. Without the contacts I made at AWPA, including its attorneys, my company would not be what it is today. I owe a great deal to my membership in AWPA, and I feel that it is right to give back, which is why when I was asked to serve as its president I was pleased to agree.

Trade actions don’t just dominate the AWPA agenda.

Since the emergence of China, they consume it. Most of our members are in the middle of trade. We depend on free access to wire rod, and at the same time we are trying to compete with companies that are basically run by a foreign government. Trade takes up a huge amount of AWPA’s resources, but it also provides excellent operational information. We have at least one Operations Managers Meeting every year, where best practices, not trade, are

discussed, as well as regulations that we all must live with.

Such elements are also an important part of AWPA’s DNA. Members of AWPA that have active anti-dumping cases continue to see duty evasion by way of transshipping, circumventing, mislabeling, misclassifying, and a variety of other tactics. Because of this, some AWPA members formed a coalition that helped craft legislation to address this issue.

The legislation, ENFORCE, had 49 co-sponsors of the bill in the House of Representatives, both Democrats and Republicans, and it was approved by the Senate Finance Committee. ENFORCE places accountability where there is none. It places time-lines for investigations, where there are none, and brings about more transparency. We have and will continue to work hard to get this legislation passed. AWPA has been very passionate about this subject. We will continue to urge solutions that will help not only American wire drawers but all American manufacturers.

In terms of lobbying, at times it seems like we are hitting our heads against a wall, but sometimes that wall gives a little. If we don’t tell our story, our lawmakers are only going to listen to someone else’s, and their story may be far different from ours. Although progress sometimes is seen in tiny steps, we do see some, and that’s why I hope to continue with AWPA’s efforts in this battle.

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FEATURE

... and why its president now serves as AWPA president

FEATURE

The trends behind the news: Gladding Braided Products Many industry news stories reflect direct and/or indirect trends. One such story was the recent announcement by U.S.-based Gladding Braided Products—which specializes in textile braiding but added wire braiding (copper, steel and bronze) in 2009—that it had bought the assets of Eaton Filtration LLC’s braiding operations in Belgium.

The company (www.gladdingbraid.com) notes that the business, founded in 1816, has braided products for the Yankee Clipper ships of the 1800s to the first manned Apollo space flight. Today, its customers range from the largest (the U.S. Department of Defense) to some of the smallest (the Cosmic Goose, Morty the Knife Man). WJI posed questions to company President DH Sparky Christakos about the deal.

about 15% of our revenues. However, our textile business has grown 60% in five years, so the wire portion has also grown 60% to keep pace. We expect wire related braiding to become a larger percentage of our overall business in the years ahead.

WJI: How much equipment was shipped back to your plant? How many braiders do you now have?

Christakos: We shipped approximately 80,000 pounds of equipment, based on the freight bill! We have 2,000 braiders in operation, the majority for textile work but around 10% are wire related, which has continued to be

WJI: Does customers care if your are a U.S. company?

Christakos: Good question. I’m not sure. I hope so, but really, dependability and consistent quality are the key ingredients. And of course price. If pricing is non-competitive, you never get the chance to prove the quality and dependability parts.

WJI: Why did your company add wire braiding?

Christakos: Being small and nimble allows us to see the trends, evaluate our opportunities for improvement and then act on them instantly, even though investments may not be put to work for a year or two, or even longer. We invest when we see opportunities in the market or gaps in our capabilities.

Wire braiding offered plenty of synergies to complement our existing textile braiding WJI: Regarding your purbusiness. Not only did we chase, was that strictly an have the technical braid equipment acquisition? expertise, we could also build Sparky Christakos by one of his newly acquired braiders. the wire braiding machines.

Christakos: Yes, but we These abilities gave us the also gained some excellent confidence to steadily invest industry knowledge of some in braiding wire raw materials. We added warehouse space of their unique processes. The folks in Belgium were onto our 100,000 sq. ft. building and converted prior wareextremely helpful in educating us on their “secrets” of house space into a wire-braiding production department. running the equipment. Turnaround time is critical in this So far, we have grown at the pace we expected and look to industry, and the new equipment we have will enable us double in volume over the next three to five years. to both offer one-week turnaround time if needed. It also expands our ability to process larger size cables, which WJI: Have you looked to government (city/state/federal) will bolster our capacity to further sub-contract for others to help your growth efforts? in the cable industry.

Christakos: We do not use government sponsored WJI: Did you consider re-opening the plant? opportunities, but that is not to say others shouldn’t if they make sense. The idea of a “quick and nimble government” Christakos: It was merging with another operation, but we strikes us as the greatest oxymoron of all time. We find we did not plan on operating over there. We are not a “tax inveroperate most efficiently with them out of our way. sion” type of company. We keep it here in the USA. We find that operating in one location, with experienced and great WJI: Are there any issues you are following that could management, allows the best control of quality and dependimpact your company in future years? able delivery. That is what the customers want the most, so we don’t gamble on those critical criteria. We love our little Christakos: Healthcare is always a dilemma. We have town and are an important part of the fabric of this rural spent too much time on it already, only to have the legishamlet, so operating offshore never was of any interest. lation change so all our work was for naught.

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FEATURE

CommScope: going beyond traditional customer support levels Just about any supplier can be expected to talk about how their company is committed to working closely with its customers, but the scope of what that can mean, and the physical resources that can be offered to back it up, can be a different story.

For CommScope, the company’s ability to provide both logistical support and system design advice likely was a big factor in its landing a contract from the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), which is built, owned and operated by MCNC, a private non-profit organization. In 2010, MCNC undertook a $144 million broadband infrastructure expansion to deliver affordable high-speed broadband to more than 1,500 community anchor institutions and 180,000 businesses, and reach more than 300,000 underserved families in North Carolina. The below CommScope report spells out how it approached the all-fiber project.

Phase one involved running fiber from strategically-located areas within the state’s interior to rural nodes closer to the periphery. Phase two consisted of connecting the outer nodes with a 1,300-mile fiber loop. The first phase, lasting 20 months from September 2010 to April 2012, called for 442 miles of fiber and conduit, 600 hand holds, 10,000 couplers, 100 splice cases, 750 marking posts and 100 grounding rods.

While some competitors for the project could supply the demand, CommScope offered a unique advantage: the ability to distribute materials to multiple job sites across the state. CommScope can leverage its Cable Transport division (one of the only in-house trucking fleets in the industry). With most of the trailers equipped with on-board cranes, materials could be off-loaded directly at the job site, offering significant savings in construction time and money. CommScope was able to manufacture and deliver its solutions to individual MCNCs. “Once we got the order from the job site, we were usually able to

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deliver product within 48 hours,” said Eric Edwards, who coordinated the project for CommScope.

Phase two called for 1,300 miles of new broadband infrastructure. MCNC’s plans dictated the use of a single, two-inch-diameter conduit. Within eight weeks, a CommScope design team engineered and tested an innovative triduct solution. It consisted of three, .750 in.

(HDPE) conduits under one common jacket. Each con-

A worksite picture of cable deployment at an MCNC job site. CommScope photo. ®

duit could accommodate CommScope’s TeraSpeed 144count, singlemode non-armored fiber, each strand able to deliver more than 100 Gigabits of data per second. Just one of the conduits could meet MCNC’s current capacity needs, leaving two for future growth and expansion.

This project was one of the largest such investments in the state’s history. Not only did CommScope provide the preferred engineering solution, it had the capacity to produce the 1,300 miles of conduit and fiber for phase two at its North Carolina plants. Over the 30-month course of phase two, these two facilities produced an average of 150,000 feet of finished product per month.

WJI: Why didn’t CommScope just submit a bid based on the specs?

Wells: CommScope looked at overall cost of the project, but we also looked at the overall lifecycle cost of the network. That’s where we made recommendations based on long-term benefit to the network’s operator.

WJI: Why do you think MCNC agreed to the CommScope suggestion to deploy a tri-duct design?

Wells: Due to projections for future growth on their fiber path, MCNC needed an underground network that easily accommodated the pulling in of additional cables.

Normally, the options are to use large, single conduits with sufficient spare capacity above that needed for a single cable. The downside is large, single conduits are often more difficult to install because of their size and limited flexibility. Also, the installation of a second or third cable is often a slower and more costly process. Care needed to be taken so that exiting cables in the duct were not damaged. A more flexible solution was to deploy smaller, multiple duct paths within a single unit. The tri-duct design recommended by CommScope deployed like a single duct, and the sub-chambers will make future installation of additional cables faster and more economical.

WJI: How did that proposal affect costs?

Wells: From a total cost of installation, the sub-duct design is less expensive than the cost of installing multiple single ducts. The savings comes from not having to set up and manage multiple reel payoffs during a single trenching or plowing operation.

WJI: Was this a single person’s concept or did it stem from the company’s general approach to preparing for a proposed project?

Wells: CommScope used a product-team approach to solutions and to offer project management. In situations like this, the team would include product engineering and design, manufacturing engineering, logistics and transportation, sales and product management. We try to bring a breadth of experience and knowledge to the Doug Wells table so that we’re providing a solution and a plan that is beneficial to our customer as well as achievable for the CommScope team.

OCTOBER 2014 | 51

FEATURE

Below, Doug Wells, VP, Outside Plant Solutions, Broadband, responds to WJI questions on the project.

FEATURE

Self-insurance helps some businesses tame healthcare cost woes Rising health costs are a vexing issue for any sized company as policies have changed, both in terms of premiums and higher deductibles. Are larger companies better off? WJI contacted Southwire, one of the largest wire and cable companies in the world, to ask about how its self-insurance system has worked out, especially in the current market. Below, Lisa Evans, Southwire’s director of benefits, provides an update.

WJI: How long has Southwire been self-insured, and what exactly does that mean? (do you carry some kind of “umbrella” policy that comes into play for catastrophic cases)?

Evans: Southwire has been self-insured for most of the 60 years we’ve been around. We do carry what is called “Stop Loss” coverage to help in catastrophic cases. Since health plans must provide unlimited dollar coverage, it makes sense for a company our size to carry “stop-loss” coverage.

WJI: Does a company need to have a certain size to effectively be self-insured? If Southwire had half as many employees, would self-insurance still be possible? If it were twice as large, would that make it work even better?

Evans: The more people you have in your insured group, the greater the chance to spread the risk around more evenly. As your group gets smaller, you have fewer people to spread risk over so employers often consider other methods. In addition, some geographic areas (like California, Florida or New York), provide robust fully-insured plans that can be more effective in managing costs than in self-insured plans. We have a group in California, it is less costly for them to have a fully-insured HMO product than our regular PPO option.

WJI: If Southwire instead had a typical carrier, can you estimate how much more it would cost for the same coverage you now provide?

Evans: Southwire uses Anthem (Blue Cross Blue Shield) to pay our claims based on discounts they have with providers. We are charged an administration fee for this service/use. If we were to fully-insure all of Southwire’s medical plans, we would see typically 8-10% higher cost and little flexibility in the plan design (state regulates what is offered) changes.

Lisa Evans

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WJI: Has the impact of the Affordable Care Act been felt in some manner at Southwire?

Evans: Health reform has increased our costs…there is no doubt. It began with covering dependents until age 26 (with expanded relationship guidelines), next came unlimited coverage requirements and this year we will pay a reinsurance fee totaling $800,000. While some of these changes buy our employees and their families additional coverage, the reinsurance fee does not provide any added value to our plan.

Our current deductible is $500 (doubled from $250 two years ago). We have been able to keep our costs lower due to many things that we’ve done in past. For instance, we have had an onsite medical center and pharmacy, along with a fitness center for over 20 years.

In the more recent past, we work to directly contract for services, such as pharmacy, with WalMart. Our leadership has supported our “Living Well” efforts around health and wellness through onsite biometrics along with weight loss challenges to help employees improve their health.

It takes a full view of health care to manage costs.

WJI: Southwire is a very large employer (for the wire industry, anyway): does that status come with challenges?

Evans: Southwire is considered a mid-sized group by most medical vendors. With our recent acquisition of Coleman Cable, we will be expanding our headcount to include another 1100 employees. With these new members, we have created a new footprint that we will evaluate to ensure the best buying power. We are always evaluating the market and looking for ways to reduce costs through integration, new plan designs, etc.

WJI: Has the amount that Southwire employees pay for their share of health care costs been able to be held in check? To what degree has your company been able to hold back massive rate hikes?

Evans: Employees costs go up when Southwire costs go up (we share in those costs). We do benchmark our costs through Towers Watson and it has continuously showed we are below our benchmark. Our employees pay less than most employees, on average, and our plan design is excellent. Since we are self-insured, our claims drive our costs.

Many smaller companies that got notice of major changes in their health care plans because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), looked elsewhere after receiving notice that their basic plan no longer existed.

Per a draft report by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), there has been considerable interest in self-insurance from small companies in many states. Self-insurance has long been used by large companies. Per the Kaiser Family Foundation, only about 15% of firms with fewer than 200 workers were self-insured in 2012, compared with 81% of larger firms.

The NIAC warns that there are multiple reasons why small employers may find it difficult to implement such a program. Factors from estimating expenses to processing claims (if not turned over to a third party) can pose challenges, but a major stumbling block has do with “shock claims,” such as an organ transplant, which is where “stop loss” coverage comes in.

The Self-Insurance Institute of America, Inc. (SIIA) notes that most self-insured employers purchase stop-loss insurance to reimburse them for claims above a specified dollar level. “This is an insurance contract between the stop-loss carrier and the employer, and is not deemed to be a health insurance policy covering individual plan

participants.” Such a plan can work, but it is not practical for all companies, it said. “Since a self-insured employer assumes the risk for paying the health care claim costs for its employees, it must have the financial resources (cash flow) to meet this obligation, which can be unpredictable.

Therefore, small employers and other employers with poor cash flow may find that self-insurance is not a viable option. It should be noted, however, that there are companies with as few as 25 employees that do maintain viable self-insured health plans.”

Some states have come out against the use of stoploss plans, citing disagreement with the coverage level amounts and the potential for such plans to undermine the ACA act by allowing small companies with young, healthy employees to avoid the network.

“Unless the New York Legislature modifies a section of its insurance statute, the sale of stop-loss insurance will be prohibited to organizations with up to 100 workers effective as of Jan.1, 2016, effectively eliminating this segment of the self-insurance marketplace,” said SIIA, declaring that self-insurance is an increasingly attractive option for many employers due to the rising costs associated with health care and Workers’ Compensation commercial insurance.

OCTOBER 2014 | 53

FEATURE

Smaller companies may have trouble trying to self-insure

Wanted: U.S. firm seeks foreign firm for invert fun & overt profit FEATURE

The headline may be a bit much, but one trend that continues to get much attention is corporate “inversion,” which is portrayed in some quarters as nothing more than corporate tax evasion. With the top U.S. corporate rate at 35%, nearly triple Ireland’s 12.5% rate, it’s understandable why businesses would want to avoid that burden. It’s also understandable why President Obama supports new regulations proposed to end it. Below are excerpts from three editorials for consideration.

Outlawing moves by corporations is no different than saying a California family can’t move to Texas to escape the Golden State’s notoriously high tax rates, but somehow it’s different if it involves a corporation. ... “Economic patriotism” is bad economics. Corporate mobility is an essential check on government power and greed. If rates grow too high—as they are now—companies will just move away. The Washington Times.

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“Inversion,” of course, is a euphemism for “desertion.”

It happens when a U.S. corporation takes over a foreign company and then—for tax purposes only—pretends to be based in the taken-over company’s country. Inverters and would-be inverters say their U.S. tax rate will remain the same, which is true. What they don’t say is that inversion makes their taxable U.S. income lower than it would otherwise be. Inverted companies reduce their federal and state income tax bills by siphoning income out of the U.S. in a variety of ways, but they continue to be run from here and benefit from what our country has to offer: deep and liquid financial markets, rule of law, intellectual infrastructure, great places to live, and military protection. Repellent, at least to me. Allan Sloan, The Washington Post.

The recent wave of corporate inversions is the result of two factors that in combination make the U.S. tax policy uniquely destructive: the highest corporate tax rate in the free world plus an additional tax penalty when U.S. firms try to bring back money that has already been earned and taxed overseas. Ironically, moving the official home of the business to a foreign country allows companies to more efficiently invest in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal.

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FEATURE

Author: reshoring is more than a fad Below, Tim Hutzel, the author of Keeping Your Business in the USA: Profit Globally While Operating Locally, and his recent co-authored follow-up, Bringing Jobs Back to the USA: Rebuilding America’s Manufacturing Through Reshoring—with Dave Lippert, president of Hamilton Caster (www.hamiltoncaster.com)—shares his thoughts on the subject with WJI. For more details about Hutzel and the new book go to www.timhutzel.com.

WJI: When did reshoring first begin to take hold and why? How successful has this trend been?

Hutzel: Reshoring is one of those phenomenon that is beginning slowly. Our research shows that those companies who are talked about in the media and trade publications range from the unknown products and manufacturers to the well known. GE for example is bringing it manufacturing of water heaters back from China to Louisville where GE has its “Appliance Park.” Others less known are Chesapeake Bay Candles that are bringing its candles to the U.S. The motivation is not altruistic or patriotic at all, but practical. The issues cited by manufacturers are: control of manufacturing processes, quality, materials; flexibility of changing products, materials, processes, etc.; and cost of less inventory, transportation, etc.

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WJI: Do you see conditions in the U.S. continuing to favor reshoring in the coming years?

Hutzel: Reshoring has been gaining momentum in the news, as evidenced by the national news shows. The conditions here are conflicted regarding high tax structure, sometimes weak supply chains, lack of personnel who are trained to perform higher tech factory jobs, and worse of all a weak work ethic for young people willing to “get their hands dirty” accepting factory jobs.

FEATURE

WJI: Are any customers willing to pay more for a product because it is made in the U.S.?

Hutzel: It’s more than a willingness to pay a higher price for the label “Made in the USA.” It is the desire to have products that are made correctly and a place to make a phone call in the U.S. when a problem occurs with the product and having a voice that can be heard and acted upon when making recommendations to improve the product. For that, a premium can be had, but the premium must be incrementally small, and that is a wake-up call for reshoring candidates, that they must find ways to be more productive. Productivity comes from many fronts including applying Lean principals, using automation where possible, going to CADCAM in every possible place, implementing in-house apprenticeship programs, supporting their supply chain, just to name a few.

WJI: Do most companies that attempt to reshore find success?

Hutzel: Our research has shown that those companies that we know that have reshored have been successful because they have done their homework fully, and have a high desire to reshore, because of the control reasons and cost savings relating to the total cost of ownership. The issues they face were discussed in the previous questions.

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WJI: Is it possible that reshoring is a manufacturing fad? That U.S. companies made just turn more to other emerging countries outside of China?

Hutzel: Companies are obligated to find the most effective way to manufacture to support their customer base, supply chain, employees, and support systems (their community and country). Our book is to make manufacturers aware of the 360 degree approach of supporting all those elements, and not just the “apparent” low cost labor element.

Is reshoring a fad? Let's hope that it is a movement and the next generation of manufacturers will continue the movement, or fad, for many generations to come.

WJI: Are there some aspects (advantages) to reshoring not covered above that are worth noting?

Hutzel: I think the most unrecognized element manufacturers must begin to be aware of is that those who offshore are similar to the antagonists in the fable of “The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs.” In this case the manufacturers offshored to get all the eggs from the goose (low cost labor), but killed the goose (their supply chain, their community, their country) when they became too greedy. We must recognize that we are on a long term repair job to fix all those elements if we want to be the economic power we once were where jobs were plentiful, and other counties of the world admired us.

CHAPTER CORNER

FEATURE

CHAPTER CORNER

The role of FEA in subsea design and manufacturing challenging The below article, by Ali Shehab, CEO of Cimteq Ltd., www.cimteq.com, explains what Finite Element Analysis (FEA) plays a key role in subsea and umbilical cables, both high value-added products that are both technically and logistically challenging, require and the scope of concerns that need to be addressed.

Manufacturers of subsea and umbilical cables saw demand double in the last few years thanks to the emerging renewable energy sector that is gaining momentum in its growth. High oil prices and the uncertainty of oil and gas supplies have also lead to increased oil and gas production in harsher environments, usually under the sea.

Subsea cables and umbilical design and production is different than normal power cables. They are characterized by having extremely long lengths, and being designed and made to order. Each of these characteristics has its own challenges. The biggest challenges are the design and the logistics.

Umbilical cables supply power, signals and fluids to feed and control subsea wells. They are in continuous motion due to the dynamic nature of tide and waves. They also have to co-exist with marine life which may be affected by them, such as sharks.

Further, laying a subsea cable can be a multibillion dollar project, with possibly hundreds or even thousands of contractors. A delay of even a few days can escalate the cost of the project considerably. It is therefore essential that cable manufacturers get the design and the manufacture right first time: recovering and reprocessing a subsea cable is a very expensive and time-consuming procedure.

A cable is installed as part of a system. This implies the need to not just design the cables but to also design the connectors to hook the cable up to instruments, generators, pumps, etc. The design of subsea and umbilical cable requires a high level of investment in a team of people with high skills and experience to make sure that all factors are considered to producing a long lasting cable at the best possible price.

Very often when designing a traditional power or communication cable the manufacturer tests the cable either on long term tests or destructive tests to find out the limitations of the cable. This knowledge is then used to design other cables in that product family. Subsea and umbilical cables live in a dynamic environment which is very difficult to replicate in the laboratory. Even if one can test these cables, then the knowledge gained from one design does not transfer to the next design because the constructions would be vastly different.

The short design lead time demanded by the customer and the complex interaction between the elements of the cable, coupled with the continuous motion means the only way to test the cable performance is through

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JUNE 2014 | 35

SEPTEMBER 2014 | 53 OCTOBER 2014 | 61

FEATURE PRODUCTS & MEDIA

changed; it is still divided into two parts: the conversion in a range of particle size distributions, tailored for the tracted. It application, is not alwaysprocess practical manufacture every computer simulation models using Finite Elementon top. layer providing the unique surface and the lubricant particular andtodiameter of wire component to the finished cable length, normally due to Analysis (FEA).

With this innovative technology, Chemetall has being drawn. machine capabilities or transportation.

Components may Finite Element Analysis is not a quick method.

Models responded to the market requirement for an environAnother lubricant of note is VICAFIL TFH 1167, an be joined, but joining components is time consuming take weeks or months to construct, and days to simumentally-sound, cold-forming technology that provides oil-based lubricant for aluminum and aluminum-alloy anddies expensive.

Joints canquality also late. They require a team of high-forming performance. wiredrawing that preserve and draws high interfere with each other and can engineers using very expensive Contact: Dane Armendariz, Chemetall U.S., wires without compromising simplicity of use and long weaken the cable.

All this leads software.

There are however, a dane.armendariz@chemetall.com, www.chemetall.com. service life. The low-viscosity base oil improves cooling to abycomplex set ofthe compromises number of specialized software and reduces consumption minimizing amount thatwhile have its to be considered packages that have recentof residue on drawn wire, additives limit and proCondat the most effective chosen. ly been able to speed up the duction of sludge, thus reducing machine maintenance France’s Condat reportsThese that VICAFIL SUMAC 5, the OnceNothe cable additives is manufactured model building process. and extending lubricant life. further are company’s new powdered lubricant, represents the latest it is normally coiled directly on a packages determine the relarequired, so VICAFIL TFH 1167 reduces bath maintedevelopment of the cable laying ship.

The capacity of tive performance of SUMAC a design family, which is designed nance costs. It suits most drawing operations and diamefor the ship will also need to be conbut high-speed they do notwiredrawing generally applications. ters, and can be used in either immersed or sprayed type sidered when planning producgive an absolute guarantee of drawing machines, without damaging equipment. tion and costing the cable.

A relperformance. This means the Contact: Condat, www.condat.fr, atively small increase in length, experience of designing subsea www.condat-lubricants.com. or weight, may mean doubling and umbilical cables is still the transportation cost because a paramount, but using the tools Etna Products, second Inc. ship is needed. the design lead time is reduced. products from the Simulating Etna Products, Inc., are each are value-added the design through Once the design is validated, Subsea cables and umbillicalsTwo designed to provide superior for a range of versatile providing high and products. therandlubricity challenging JD Cable photo.

Finite performance Element Analysis has been it A then has toproduct be industrialized drawing processes. mal stability, VICAFIL SUMAC 5 is suitable for use available for years. Cimteq has and “costed.”

The biggest ® MASTERDRAW 5129 was to manufacturprovide a on a wide to variety of steel types and applications.

This developed a tool (see p. 86) to developed simulate the challenge manufacturing the cable is the number and low-viscosity aluminum rodmanufactures breakdown and wiredrawincludes stainless/nickel-based alloys types and high carbonare ing of the product to allow of subsea and the position of joints required. These of cables ing productcables with superior lubrication for bothprocess, EC and steels forindemanding productsand such as spring wire, tire traditional to optimize the production ordered very long lengths contain components magnesium-alloyed rod incosting. low- andnhigh-speed operbead wire and steel cord Thesites, product is available and provide length-based that are manufactured in wire. different or even sub-con-

TECHNICAL PAPERS

MORDICA LECTURE Part 2: Trends in drawing technology for bars and wires Part 1 (August) reviewed drawing processes used for drawing bar and wire. Part 2 furthers that discussion and introduces a very flexible, nonslip continuous method of wet drawing.

By Motoo Asakawa

g. 16. According toPickling the FEMtreatment simulation,has the been diameter thickening , and replaced by aratio, simple sticity deformation of the die +mechanical undershoot  2 (b → c), 1(a → b), the pollution-free descaler for −the manufacture → d), and elasticity recovery + 4 (d → e).because The mostpickling effective is factor is the by of cold-forging wire, regulated by eb. This phenomenon was experimentally confirmed under severe severe pollution control regulations. An inline treatoach angle, as shown in Fig. 17 [12–13].

ment technology to continuously conduct phosphate reaction soap treatment and wiredrawing was developed for application in the drawing plants of manufacturers.

Previously, this technology was considered to be imposor drawing e ng drawing sible because of the complicated chemical reactions and shape d severe demands for the necessary coating film and life of forging dies. See Fig. 18. The author’s research group boundary R l /mm has succeeded in concluding domestic and overseas plant sales of this treatment technology (including operation 10 15 guidance), and expect that a demand for this technology m) will arise from other related industries. ：+0.03 % (+3.6 m) To conduct the pretreatment shown in Fig. 19, one- or recovery：+0.025 % (+3.0 m) two-ton coils are hung on a C-hook, dipped in a tank, moved through a pickling tank, by two ns of thickening and ratio consecutively Fig. 17 Phenomenon of undershoot confirmed meters AISIzinc 1010; reduction: water cleaningexperiment tanks, a (material: phosphoric tank, another approach semiangle: 13 degrees) water cleaning10%; tank, a reaction-type soap tank and a drying furnace. To improve some defects in the batch wing process, a study was made of inline pretreatment (desction soap treatment technology

been replaced ree mechanical cture of cold pickling is lution control e treatment usly conduct treatment and eveloped for Fig. 18 Necessary coating for cold forged wire ng plants of this technology sible, because of reactions and cessary coating es, as shown in arch group has domestic and this treatment ation guidance), this technology ndustries.

19 Batch process for cold forged wire Fig. 19.Fig. Batch process for cold-forged wire. ment shown in oils are hung on a C-hook, dipped in a tank, and consecutively moved o water cleaning tanks, a phosphoric zinc tank, another water cleaning tank, 62 | To WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL nd a drying furnace. improve some defects in the batch process, a study tment (descaling, phosphoric zinc treatment, reaction-type soap treatment, avoid pickling pollution, shot-blasting was adopted. Conventional inline

caling, phosphoric zinc treatment, reaction-type soap treatment, drying, and drawing). To avoid pickling pollution, shot-blasting was adopted. Conventional inline phosphoric zinc reaction-type soap treatment technology has not been completed. It was difficult to find treatment conditions to secure the necessary coating for cold-forged wire to obtain a phosphoric zinc coating of more than 8 g/m2 and excellent density in a short treatment time of approximately 15 seconds. This was solved by finding that the reaction layer was not only formed during the soap treatment, but also during drying, as shown in Fig. 20.

As a result, the inline treatment technology aids pollution control and improves the quality of lubricant. Fig. 21 shows a photograph of the inline phosphate reaction soap treatment. In Fig. 22, lubrication ability (extrusion stress, adherence of film, and life of forging dies) of the inline treatment material is compared with the batch process material. Extrusion stress of the inline treatment material decreases by approximately 10% compared with the batch process material. The adhesion of the lubrication film was improved by its homogeneity and by the anchor effect of the shot-blasted face. The author believes that this production technology and the pretreatment of cold forged wire will become increasingly important in the future13.

Protrusion die drawing High-fatigue strength in drawn bars and wires is required for precision machine parts, shafts, or springs. Smoothing the surface of bars and wires increases the fatigue strength.

Usually, after the drawing process, grinding or electrolytic polishing smoothes the surface of bars and wires, but these processes are very expensive and require extensive manufacturing time. The conventional die improved the surface smoothness of the steel bars. However, there was a limit to this surface improvement by using normal drawing, and the maximum height of irregularities, Ry, was considered to be approximately 2 μm. In metal formation, the surface roughness is improved by inducing high-contact pressure and shearing strain at the surface of the metal. To produce ultra-smooth bars by using only the

TECHNICAL PAPERS Fig. 20 Schematic outline of inline process Fig. 20. Schematic outline of inline process for cold-forged wire.

approximately 15 seconds. This was solved by finding that the reaction layer was not only formed during the soap treatment, but also during drying, as shown in Fig. 20.

As a result, the inline treatment technology aids pollution control and improves the quality of lubricant. Fig. 21 shows a photograph of the inline phosphate reaction soap treatment. In Fig. 22, lubrication ability (extrusion stress, adherence of film, and life of forging dies) of the inline treatment material is compared with the batch process material. Extrusion stress of the inline treatment material decreases by approximately 10% compared with the batch process material. The adhesion of the lubrication film was improved by the homogeneity of the lubrication film and by the anchor effect of the shot-blasted face. The author believes that this production technology and the pretreatment of cold forged wire will become increasingly important in the future [13].

3.2. Protrusion die drawing

Fig. 21. Outer view of inline process. drawing process, a new die was developed and evaluated.

The die had protrusions with bearing length height of Dh = 20–60 μm, as shown in Fig. 23-24. The protrusion die induces high-contact pressure and shearing strain at the surface of the drawn bars. A separate-type protrusion die is shown in Fig. 24. This die is in front of the protrusion area. One part, extending from the front of the protrusion, is called the “front die,” and the other part, extending Fig. 21 Outer inline process from the protrusion to the view back of relief, is called the “back die.” The front die and the back die are kept together in the die holder. The 0.2% plain carbon steel bars of 11 mm (Re = 17.4%) and antigalling lubricant were used for the experiment. Fig. 25 shows photographs of the section and the surface of a drawn bar before and after the protrusion

Fig. 22. Comparison of extrusion stress between batch process and inline process. die. Normal shearing deformations occurred at the surface of the metal before the protrusion die, but drawing with the protrusion die generated severe shearing deformations at the surface, as shown in the upper photographs. There were many depressions on the surface before using the protrusion die. However, drawing with the protrusion die decreased and smoothed the depressions on the surface, as shown in the lower photographs in Fig. 25. The protrusion Fig. 22and Comparison of extrusion stress between that die crushed smoothed drawn bar depressions batch process and inline process appeared to be oil pits. Sharp shear plastic deformation occurred at the surface layer and the shear strain crushed the oil pits. The use of the protrusion drawing die achieved more than Dh = 40 μm and surface smoothness below Ry = 1 μm. When drawing with the protrusion die, high-con-

OCTOBER 2014 | 63

TECHNICAL PAPERS

and shearing strain at the surface of the drawn bars.

A separate-type protrusion die is shown in Fig. 24. This die is in front of the protrusion area. One part, extending from the front of Fig. 24 Separate type protrusion die with front die and back die the protrusion, is called the “front die,” and the other part, extending from the protrusion to rs and wires is decreased and smoothed the depressions on the back relief, is called the “back Die die.” The front die and the back shafts, or springs. the surface, as shown in the lower Highdie contact are pressure kept together in the die drawing ires increases the photographs. The protrusion die crushed and andholder. shearingThe strain0.2% plain carbon gth in drawn bars and wires is drawing process, Die smoothed the depressions of drawn bars. on machine parts, shafts, orBar springs. steel bars of 11 mm (Re = 17.4%) hes the surface of High contact pressure These depressions appeared to be oil pits. ace of bars and wires increases the and antigalling lubricant were and shearing strain e veryafter expensive sually, the drawing process, Drawing with the protrusion die decreased used for the experiment. Fig. 25 Bar Improving surface tic ingpolishing time.smoothes The the surface of shows photographs of the section roughness these depressions. Sharp shear plastic these processes and the surface of a drawn bar smoothness of are thevery expensive Improving surface deformation occurred at the surface layer nsive manufacturing time. The roughness before and after the protrusion die. it to this surface and the shear strain crushed the oil pits. The proved the surface smoothness of the Normal shearing deformations awing, anda limit the to this , there was use of the protrusion drawing die achieved Fig.surface 23 Concept of protrusion die occurred at front the surface of the Fig. protrusion die with die and usingconsidered normal drawing, and the type was to 23. Separate Fig. 23 Concept of protrusion die applied to bar drawing more than h = 40 μm and surface metal before the protrusion die, die. irregularities, Ry,back was considered to applied bar drawing ation, the surface but to drawing with the protrusion smoothness below Ry = 1 μm. When μm. In metal formation, the surface die generated severe shearing drawing with the protrusion die, proved by deformations at the surface, as act pressure high-contact pressure and shearing strain smooothness a drawn before and Fig.25.

25 Surface Surface smoothness of aofdrawn bar bar before and after shown in the upper photographs. Fig. t the surface were induced at the surfaces of the drawn protrusion die (oil pits were crushed and smoothed after protrusion die crushed and smoothed oil pits.

There were many depressions on To produce bars.

Fig. 26 shows the ultra-smooth surface in protrusion die ) the surface before using the y using only decreased and smoothed on , a new die condition of extruded aluminum alloy bars protrusion die.the Ondepressions the other hand, Ultra-smoothing bar after the surface,drawing as shown the lower d evaluated. with theinprotrusion die die drawing.

As extruded barusing single-pass protrusion die protrusion drawing

F al pa

usions with photographs. The protrusion die crushed and The compressive axial residual stress on the ht of h = smoothed the depressions of drawn bars. surface was also generated by the protrusion n in Fig. 23 These depressions appeared to be oil pits. die. trusion die Drawing with the protrusion die decreased ct pressure these depressions. Sharp shear plastic t the surface deformation occurred at the surface layer bars.

A 3.2. Magnetic scales made by drawing with tra and the shear strain crushed the oil pits. The usion die is his die is in use of the protrusion drawing die achieved Intelligent actuators have contributed to constr on area. One more than h = 40 μm and surface robotic systems, factory automation, and more. I m the front of Fig. 24 Separate type protrusion smoothness below R = 1 μm.

When die with front die and back die y formation. Only the plastic deformation Fig. 24. Separate type protrusion die with front die and s called the drawing with the protrusion die, transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) create e other part, back die. high-contact pressure and shearing strain Fig. 26. Ultra-smoothing surface condition protrusion to nonmagnetic rod. Thisofactuator’s piston rod wa were induced at the surfaces of the drawn g.

24 Separate type protrusion die with front die and back die aluminum alloy extruded bars 910 mm using and one-pass Fig. 26 Ultra-smoothing surface condition of accurate regular led the “back method, a reasonable tact pressure and shearing strain were the induced at the surbars. Fig. 26 shows ultra-smooth surface protrusion and the back aluminum die alloy extruded bars (10 mm) using one drawing. manufacturing costs are very high. Fig. 27 show faces of the drawn condition bars. Fig.of26extruded shows the ultra-smooth er in the die aluminum alloy bars pass protrusion die drawing plain carbon surface condition ofusing extruded aluminum alloy bars single-pass protrusion die using drawing. stable. The output having an inner martensite structure is rotated a (Re = 17.4%) formation. A single-pass protrusion drawing. The axial Thedie compressive axialcompressive residual stress on the voltage decreases bricant were each roller d residual stress on the surface also generated the surface was was also generated by the by protrusion ment. Fig. 25 after machining; formation m protrusion die. die. of the section however, it is sufis stable. Th a drawn bar ficient for practical protrusion die. Magnetic scales made by drawing it is sufficie The distribudeformations 3.2. Magnetic scales made by drawing withuse. transformation-induced plasticity effect with transformation-induced plasticity effect under the co tion of martensite rface of the Intelligent actuators have contributed to constructing machines, (as shown at the top of Fig. 27) rotrusion die, Intelligent actuators have contributed constructing under themethod, concavemagnetic scales are made by rotary robotic systems, factoryto automation, and more.

In this he protrusion machines, (as shownformation. at the top ofOnly Fig. 27) robotic systems, section of the scale become ferromagnetic because the plastic deformation components ere shearing factory automation,transformation-induced and more. In this method, magnetic is shown on the plasticity (TRIP) creates the effect of martensite on the surface of a surface, as scales are made bynonmagnetic rotary formation. the plastic side of Fig. beam irradiation [16]. Using this 25 Surface smoothness of a drawn bar before and after rod.

ThisOnly actuator’s piston rodright was made by laser photographs. Fig. protrusion die (oil pitsbecome were crushed and smoothed deformation components ferromagnetic because regular pressions on 28. As a result, the method, a reasonable and accurate magnetic interval was achieved. However, the in protrusionmanufacturing die ) plasticity using the transformation-induced (TRIP) the27 shows costs are verycreates high. Fig. a methodofusing productivity the rotary formation. An austenite rod e other hand, effect of martensitehaving on thean surface a nonmagnetic inner of martensite structurerod. is rotated and loaded by a roller die with incremental plastic magnetic scaling rotrusion die

formation. regular magnetic This actuator’s piston rod was made by laser beam irrarodA improves and interval is formed by TRIP with each roller Fig. 28 shows the output signals with the rotary diation [16]. Using this method, a reasonable and accuthe die. stroke sensing formation method.

It is clear rate regular magnetic interval was achieved. However, error of the new that the output by rotary formation g. 25 Surface smoothness of a drawn and Fig. after27 showsis astable. The output voltage decreases after machining; however, the manufacturing costsbar are before very high. method is less than protrusion dieusing (oil pits were crushed and it is sufficient for practical method rotary formation.

An smoothed austenite rod having ±0.1 mm.

This isuse. The distribution of martensite in protrusion die ) under the concave section of the scale is shown on the right side an inner martensite structure is rotated and loaded by a equivalent to that roller die with incremental plastic formation. A regular of a laser beam Fig. 27. Manufacturing 27 Methodof of magnetic interval is formed by TRIP with each roller die. method and is suf- Fig. manufacturing magnetic plastic Fig. 28 shows the output signals with the rotary formation ficient for practical magnetic scaling rod by scaling rod by plastic deformation. method. It is clear that the output by rotary formation is use16. formation 64 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

Fig. 28 using rot

Fig. 28. Manufacturing process of magnetic scaling rod using rotary formation.

Fig. 29. View of slip-type continuous wet drawing machine.

Fig. 30. Nonslip-type continuous wet drawing machine.

Continuous drawing machines may be classified as slip and nonslip types.

As shown in Fig. 29, a slip-type continuous drawing machine is very simple; hence, it is frequently employed.

However, frictional heat is produced between the wire and the capstan, so the wire may become brittle. This may produce surface defects on the wire. By comparison, nonslip wire drawing machines do not cause slippage between the capstan and the wire, so there are no problems with surface defects.

Recently a new, wet, nonslip, continuous drawing machine has been developed for the wire drawing machine market. This machine has capstans that are controlled by a new method and can draw thin, fine wire at high speed. The new capstans are set between passes, isolated mechanically, and driven with precise torque control (Fig. 30). With these methods, any pass schedule and back-tension conditions may be set. Existing continuous drawing machines have limited pass schedules and no back-tension control capabilities. These drawing conditions are determined when the machine is designed. However, in the newly developed, wet, nonslip continuous machines, the appropriate drawing conditions can be selected for each particular case.

For this study, 0.98% carbon steel wires that had been subjected to a patented heat treatment were selected; these wires had original diameters of 0.410 mm. The samples were drawn to 0.18 mm in 10 passes with 300 m/ min, then drawn to 0.06 mm in 10 passes with 300 m/min. The tensile strength of nonslip machining is 500 MPa higher than that of slip type at a total drawing strain of 4, but the both reduce the same area. This ability to vary the drawing conditions allows a manufacturer to produce carbon steel wire with superior mechanical properties. In future, the authors believe that the appropriate pass schedule and the minimum back-tension will be selected, and high strength with satisfactory ductility will be achieved.

OCTOBER 2014 | 65

TECHNICAL PAPERS

New, wet, nonslip continuous drawing machine for fine wire

TECHNICAL PAPERS

Conclusions Materials and processing, with a focus on plasticity, are key technological components with applications for bars and wires as well as sheets, pipes, sections, and materials of various shapes. The relationship between materials and processing can be compared to that between ingredients and the cooking process. A competent chef selects good ingredients, just as a good manufacturer uses high-quality materials. The quality of the end result depends on both materials (ingredients) and processing (cooking). A high-quality product looks like an excellent dish; the quality of a processed product is revealed in its durability, precision, and other essential qualities, just as the quality of an excellent dish is revealed in aroma, flavor, and texture. Materials and processing have very close relationships with “monozukuri,” which means product (“mono”) manufacturing (“zukuri”). What we value the most are state-of-the-art technologies for creating products of the highest quality to meet the needs of customers. The author is very proud to say that WAI has been supporting monozukuri with an emphasis on the needs of global clients. n

Acknowledgments The author wish to acknowledge the researchers at the Waseda University who contributed to the work presented in this paper: Mr. W. Sasaki, Mr. M. Mizuno, Dr. T. Kajino, Mr. T. Hatakeyama, Mr. Y. Tamura, Mr. S. Shimizu, Mr. Y. Oosawa, Mr. S. Hashimoto, Mr. T. Muraoka, Mr. H. Kubota, Mr. R. Komami, Miss S. Shirasaki & Miss S. Gondou.

References 1. N. Kutani and M. Asakawa, “Analysis of Residual Stress Induced

by Bar and Wire Drawing,” JSTP, 38-433, 1997-2, pp. 147-152.

2. A. Nakagiri, T. Yamamoto, M. Konaka, M. Asakawa, W. Sasaki and K. Yoshida, “Behavior of residual stress and drawing stress in conical-type die and circle-type die drawing by FEM simulation and experiment,” WJI, August 2001, pp. 72-80.

Professor Motoo Asakawa accepts the 2014 Mordica Memorial Award.

66 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

3. M. Asakawa, W. Sasaki and S. Shishido, “Effect of die approach geometry and bearing length on residual stress after bar drawing,” WJI, October 2002, pp. 68-72.

4. M. Asakawa, S. Kajino, Y. Ohsawa and S. Hashimoto, “Ultrasmoothing bar and wire by drawing process with protrusion die,” WJI, April 2003, pp. 111-115.

5. M. Asakawa, T. Hatakeyama, Y. Tamura, S. Kajino, S. Shishido and S. Shimizu, “Producing bar and wire with ultra-smoothing and lower residual stress by new drawing,” WJI, April 2004, pp. 144-151.

6. S. Kajino, M. Asakawa, W.Z. Misiolec and A.R. Bandar, “Effect of Additional Shear Strain Layer on Mechanical Properties of Fine Drawn Wire,” STEEL GRIPS, 2, Metal forming, Sept.

2004. pp. 635-639.

7. S. Kajino and M. Asakawa, “Effect of additional shear strain layer on mech properties of fine drawn wire,” ICTP, Sept. 2005.

8. S. Kajino and M. Asakawa, “Effect of additional shear strain layer on mech properties of fine drawn wire, WJI, Jan. 2008, p. 58-63.

9. K. Hosoda, M. Asakawa, S. Kajino and Y. Maeda, “Effect of die semi-angle and multi-pass drawing on additional shear strain layer,” WJI, Nov. 2008, pp. 68-73.

10. Y. Suzuki, M. Asakawa, H. Mizuno, N. Itou and I. Ochiai, “Generating a mechanism of delamination in High carbon steel wire by experimental drawing, WJI, Oct. 2005, pp. 70-72.

11. H. Kubota, M. Asakawa and S. Kajino, “Effect of back-tension in drawing on diameter of bar and wire,” WJI, Dec. 2007, pp. 75-79.

12. R. Komami, M. Asakawa, S. Kajino and H. Kubota, “Effect of thermal expansion of die on dimension accuracy in drawn bar and wire,” WJI, July 2008, pp. 68-73.

13. M. Asakawa, H. Hagita and N. Nakao, “In-line Treatment Annealing Wire Drawing for Cold Forging,” JSPT, 31-355, Aug. 1990, pp. 991-995.

14. M. Asakawa, T. Hatakeyama, Y. Tamura, S. Kajino, S. Shishido and S. Shimizu, “Producing bar and wire with ultra-smoothing and lower residual stress by new drawing,” WJI, April 2004, pp. 144-151.

15. T. Kajino, T. Hatakeyama, Y. Tamura, Y. Oosawa, S. Simizu, T. Muraoka and M. Asakawa, “Ultra-smooth bar and wire formed by drawing with protrusion die,” JSTP, 52-602, March 2011, pp. 66-70.

16. T. Tsukamoto, M. Asakawa, C. Sudo, and M. Kouso, “Development of magnetic scaling rod with laser beam, WJI, Sept. 1992, pp. 143-147.

Professor Motoo Asakawa, the winner of the Mordica Memorial Award, was employed by Sumitomo Metals in Japan from 1968 to 1995, where he earned 19 patents. He holds a doctoral degree in bar and rod rolling from Japan’s Waseda University, and in 1996 he joined the school’s faculty at the Mechanical Engineering Department of the School of Science and Engineering. He has been a prolific author, presenting more than 27 technical papers on wiredrawing, straightening, rolling and material processing, including 16 papers for WAI since 2001. The professor has won numerous awards, including the Okochi Memorial Prize, the Society for Technology of Plasticity Prize, and the Iron & Steel Institute Prize in Japan as well as WAI’s Allan B. Dove Memorial Award for the best ferrous technical paper in 2003. This Mordica Lecture was presented at WAI’s 84th Annual Convention, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. May 2014.

I can help WAI members learn more about copper, continuous casting, and process innovation.

Q: Why did you join WAI? A: To network and connect with like-minded business professionals and enhance my career development through WAI technical programs and contacts. I also like the ability to meet many suppliers in one location.

Q: Why do you renew your membership?

A: To stay abreast of the latest technologies for a competitive edge and keep in touch with friends and colleagues from around the world. I am at the point in my career that I would like to give back to the WAI and our industry by being a voice for manufacturing.

Q: What would you be doing if you hadn’t become involved in the wire industry?

A: I’d be in the metals industry. I like metallurgy and molten metals.

Gary Spence VP Nonferrous Metals | Encore Wire Corp.

Member Since: 1980

Q: What do your co-workers say about you?

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Q: What did your most valuable WAI contact help Meet Gary Spence.

One of WAI’s worldwide members.

One compelling story.

You’ll find Gary where innovation and old-world ethics collide. He’s continuously improving. In 43 years he’s gathered more information on copper continuous casting than most will ever learn—until April 2015, that is, when he will join a casting call of his international colleagues at Interwire for the second global continuous casting forum of his design. The encore? Aluminum will join his cast.

He’s an expert. An optimistic leader. And, he’s emblematic of the knowledge base accessible through WAI. Gary’s profile reveals key themes familiar to all distinguished personalities, namely:

you do?

A: Many helped further my professional development and assisted me in achieving product and process improvements. I now have global contacts to communicate with via the Internet at anytime.

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Bold Optimism | Intrepid Innovation | Achievement | Hot Metal | Cool Mettle | Moving Ahead | Giving Back A global networker, he stays connected. When you meet Gary be sure to ask him what he’s working on. He’s clearly advancing but he’s always ready to give back.

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TECHNICAL PAPERS

TECHNICAL PAPERS Speed optimization for cross-linked PE insulation (PE-Xa) at a horizontal CV line For automotive products, extrusion lines for cable insulation with peroxide cross-linking material are often slow running. This paper presents a much faster CV line concept.

By Wolfgang Menne and Dr. Horst Scheid Curing of polymers by cross-linking (also “curing” or “vulcanizing”) can modify physical properties for higher tensile strength or improved dynamic performance.

Several vulcanization types are used in the cable industry, selected based on the depends on the polymer used, the required final properties and suitable processing for the given product size. The curing process causes an irreversible change to the raw polymer by adding permanent links at the crossing points of the polymer chains. See Fig. 1. While the single chains could easily re-arrange before, they are now more or less networked to other chains, which results in an obvious increase of stiffness.

Most physical properties changes due to curing are helpful for wire and cable. A partial or full cross-linking increases viscosity, hardness, modulus, tensileness and rebound. Elongation, solvent swell and compression set are decreased. Typical polymers used for cross-linking are polyethylene (XLPE), rubber (silicone, NR, SBR, butyl), neoprene or ethylene rubber (EPR, EPDM).

Curing types In cable production, three systems are common for cross-linking: Peroxides: signature Xa, thermal curing through organic peroxides (for example Di-CumylPeroxide) that decompose to free radicals. · Silane: signature Xb, chemical curing with functional chemical groups consisting of vinylsilane (for example trimethoxyvinylsilane) plus a catalyst and water. · Irradiation–signature Xc, physical curing with g- or b-radiation, free radicals are created by the partial decomposition of the polymer chains. Table 1 shows some advantages and disadvantages of these systems. A detailed description of the chemistry during cross-linking can be found in polymer literature1, 2.

There is no ‘best’ curing type for cable. All three are used, depending on the product geometry, property demands and processing requirements. This article reviews use of peroxide curing with polyethylene (PE-Xa).

Line concepts for CV with peroxide curing Continuous Vulcanization (CV) line concepts for peroxide curing in cable production depend on the product geometry but follow the same basic layout: after the inner conductor is covered with the peroxide polymer insulation, a vulcanization section is passed before the cable enters the cooling section. Vulcanizing is done either in a dry gas (nitrogen or SF6) or a water steam Fig. 1. Modified polymer by applying a full crosslinking/curing.

Table 1. Overview of advantages/disadvantages for Xa, Xb, Xc-systems.

68 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

TECHNICAL PAPERS Fig. 3a. Mollier diagram for water steam, red curve: representation of Magnus formula at 100% saturation; bold pink and blue curves: typical temperature/pressure setpoints for CV line.

Fig. 2. Basic CV line layouts. top: vertical line (VCV); middle: catenary line (CCV); bottom: horizontal line (HCV); a: vulcanizing section; b: cooling section. atmosphere under high temperatures and pressure. Fig. 2 shows the principle layouts for CV lines.

The vertical layout (VCV = vertical CV) is mostly used for energy/high-voltage cables with large dimensions. The insulation crosslinking happens in a vertical tube (a), then the cable is redirected into the cooling section (b). In catenary lines (CCV = catenary CV, also known as “alysoid” or “chainette”) the layout follows the hanging through of wires under its own weight. This type of line is used for cable with medium to large cross sections (around 10 mm2 and bigger).

Cables with smaller cross sections, like automotive or small building cables, are processed in so-called “horizontal” lines (HCV = horizontal CV), although the layout needs a certain slope in the tube to drain condensing water towards the cooling section. All these CV-lines are considered to be slow running. The following sections will review a modification of the horizontal line type that could result in a significant increase in production speed.

The relationship between temperature and pressure is described by the Magnus formula: Eq. (1)

A similar description in a graphical way can be seen in the Mollier diagram that shows steam enthalpy versus entropy. Fig. 3a shows the values of the Magnus formula, represented by the red curve at x = 100% (full saturation = wet steam).

Theoretical considerations of curing/cooling It is essential to understand the curing process and the related physics. As dry gases are mostly used in VCV lines, this heat transfer medium is not discussed here. The water steam in the curing tube is saturated to 100%.

Fig. 3b. p,T-diagram of wet steam for water in the range from 10 to 30 barsetpoints for CV line.

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Two grid lines at 220°C and 20 bar are printed in bold to indicate a typical setpoint for CV cable processing. As steam tube design is for a maximum of 25 bar working conditions, the pressure window around the indicated point is limited to that value. This can be seen in Fig. 3b.

This should be considered together with the peroxides thermal decomposition that forms free radicals which are the agent to create the crosslinking points. The speed of decomposition follows like many other chemical reactions an Arrhenius law, Eq. (2) Fig. 5. Mismatch between calculated and measured curing percentage (Arrhenius constants from [5]). which can be simplified to the van’t Hoff’s rule: assuming a slope Q10 of 2, an increase of 10K in temperature doubles the reaction speed.

Eq. (3)

Simulations As the insulation material has a limited heat transfer value, the curing starts from the outer rim of the insulation towards the inner conductor. Even the inner conductor is normally preheated, the outside layers crosslinking is completed faster than inside. Due to this effect the measured curing doesn’t follow exactly the Eqs. 2 and 3

Fig. 4. Decomposing of a peroxide according to Arrhenius law/van’t Hoff’s rule.

For a Di-cumyl-peroxide, the resulting curve in Fig. 4 shows that below around 200°C, the decomposition takes too much residence time in the curing tube so this is not suitable for an economical production. In the p-T plot (see Fig. 3), this minimum temperature and the mentioned maximum pressure load of the tube define the possible process range. Within the green coloured range, there is in first order a linear relationship between temperature and pressure that makes it easy to modify a setpoint. For high production speed, temperature/pressure near the upper limit should be used.

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Fig. 6. Thermal simulation (top) and curing simulation (bottom) along a steam tube4.

Fig. 7. Layout possibilities for a high speed HCV line. (see Fig. 5) but looks slower. This effect increases with insulation wall thickness.

Therefore, a numerical simulation was used to find the maximum line speed for a given steam tube length according to product geometry and processing settings.

The same could be used the other way round to design the tube depending on product speed demands.

A similar approach was used to find the necessary cooling length. (It should be mentioned that the curing section and the cooling bath are build out of one tube, where the first part of the tube contains the steam and the end of the tube is filled with drain water plus cooling water.) To make these simulations, it is essential to know a number of physical parameters of the inner conductor metal and the insulation compound(s), such as density, heat capacitance, heat transfer value, peroxide dosing amount and Arrhenius constants of the peroxide additive. Fig. 6 gives an impression of such simulations - here only for the curing section; the cooling down looks similar - just with a negative slope. At the upper plot with temperatures, the outside layer of insulation (light green) has heated up after 20 minutes to around 210°C while the inner layers (light blue and red) are at less than 170°C. A corresponding curing simulation in the lower plot shows at the bottom right that the curing in the outer half of the insulation wall has already reached more than 80% curing percentage (indicated in red) while in the inner half curing is still at a low level (indicated in blue).

Ramping up and water level control

Especially in a HCV line with the long distance from extruder to the quality measurement near the end of the line, it is important to avoid scrap when ramping up. This can be achieved by implementing the characteristic output curve of the extruder to the control. A ‘classic’ control loop to wait until the end of ramping up for stable conditions, than it has to wait once the length of the steam/cooling tube to get a result and making the next correction. A predictive control loop using the output curve knows the relationship between speed and output so it reaches the final production conditions in the ramp. See Table 2. A simple calculation shows the difference: Assuming a start up speed of 100 m/min and a production speed of 600 m/min with a ramping up of 5 m/ Line optimization for high speed and min per second, the ramping up needs (600-100)*5s = low scrap: line layout and extruder 100s. The average speed during ramping up is 350m/ Based on the speed demands and the necessary length min, resulting in a processed length during ramping up of the steam tube, the line layout is not straight as in of 350/60 m/s*100s = 583m.

A classic control loop reaches around 80% of its setpoint (x) in one cycle, so it needs at least 3 cycles to get an actual value (y) of 99% of x or better: Together with the 583m. for Table 2. Approach of actual value to setpoint in a classic control loop.

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Fig. 2 but folded near the end of the steam section. By the usage of an autoclave, the tube is redirected so the takeup of the line is again near the payoff. This improves the handling for the line operator (see Fig. 7), especially in case of the layout with height compensation (bottom of Fig. 7).

To prevent an early curing of the molten polymer in the extruder, it is necessary to keep the polymer melt at low temperatures before entering the steam tube. For optimum control, the screw is equipped with inner oil cooling and the crosshead also has oil heating/ cooling instead of just electrical heating.

One more effect should only be briefly mentioned : due to the length of the steam section, the tube has a large inner surface that is cold at the moment of filling with steam. When steam is entering the tube, a large amount of water is condensing on the tube wall until the tube is heated up. Therefore the line has to be equipped with a steam generator with a high capacity.

While in production a steam amount of 150 kg/h may be enough, a high speed HCV needs up to 850 kg/h when starting from cold conditions.

TECHNICAL PAPERS

ramping up, the classical control creates around 1180m. of scrap before production conditions are OK. This can be completely avoided Fig. 8. Fast running HCV line panel. with the predicRight side shows water control tive control. screen. Displayed values during the Another point process are only for information. is the control of the water level in the tube.

While in slow running lines the water level is just static, in fast running lines the cable’s surface creates a high dynamic streaming of water near the cable in its direction. For an operator there is almost no chance to keep the water level constant. During ramping up there is a high risk all the water drains through the dynamic end seal of the tube. The result would be a massive pressure drop of steam/temperature so the processing crashes down. When having a suitable water level at high speed and stopping the line, the dynamic drain is missing and the complete tube including the steam section may flood up to the cross head.

Both effects can be avoided only with a high dynamic water level control that can react very fast especially during ramping up/down. Below a ‘critical’ cable speed, it switches to a simple static level control. This control shows the actual level but is completely transparent for the operator, only the desired setpoint for the final speed has to be entered at the line panel. See Fig. 8.

Fig. 9. ‘Scissors-effect’ for cable production, gray (extruder) and red (product) area cannot be reached.

Balance of forces

Table 3. Tension forces in a fast running HCV (not to scale). Dark fields are main driving components.

Fig. 10. Measured data for speed and output rate as verification of the concept described in this article.

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Wolfgang Menne

Horst Scheid

This is decoupling the sections so each of them is within tension limits. This was again achieved with a high dynamic control loop between master and slaves.

Conclusion Taking together all described improvements, it was possible to speed up horizontal CV lines to more than 1000 m./min. with good curing. The amount of scrap was minimized with a predictive mass output control in the ramp. Tension forces in the inner conductor (see Table 3) are carefully balanced to keep them within limits at every section of the line. An intelligent water level control makes it easy for the operator to handle the cooling section. Short distances between payoff and takeup due to the ‘folding’ of the line reduce working times for product changes. Fig. 10 shows some production data that verify the concept described here.

The maximum speed (depending on cable cross section) is around 1100 m./min. which is the highest value achieved for a HCV line.

References 1. Hensen, Knappe, Potente, Kunststoffextrusionstechnik II, Hanser, 1986.

2. Hohlweck, VDI Kabeltagung Nürnberg, Proceedings, 2012.

3. Datasheet Akzo Chemie bv, Amersfoort, 1973.

4. Menne, Scheid, VDI Kabeltagung Nürnberg, Proceedings, 2012.

5. Hundley, curing constants private communication, Lyondell Basell, 2012.

Wolfgang Menne studied electronics at the University of Cologne.

Since 1987 he has been working at Siebe Engineering in Germany, with a focus on software and hardware engineering for process-control and HMI. Dr. Horst Scheid studied solid state physics at the University of Saarbruecken. He has worked since 1986 in the injection moulding machinery research group of Arburg. In 1990 he joined the COSY beam accelerator group in Juelich Nuclear Research Centre and received his doctoral degree in Nuclear Physics from the University of Bonn. Since 1995, his activities have focused on foam extrusion, new extrusion processing techniques and enhanced inline quality control at Siebe Engineering. This paper was presented at the CabWire World Conference, Milan, Italy, November 2013.

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When trying to speed up a line, it is obvious that for a given extruder size a limitation exists in mass output either at high speed or with large insulating cross sections. See Fig. 9, upper right area). If the product range also includes small cables, an increase of the extruder size is not suitable because turn speed for the low mass output would be too slow for stable production conditions.

A second limitation is given by the drag forces of the cable transport mechanics and also the water in the steam section in the form of a condensing film on the cables surface and in the cooling section in the full water bath. The drag forces increase with speed while the maximum tension of the inner conductor reduces with cross section (Fig. 9, left side). So the highest production speed could be achieved only in the middle of the product range, where limitations due to drag force and mass output meet each other. This ‘scissors-effect’ is almost negligible for slow running lines as indicated by the arrow on the left axis in the picture.

Copper has a maximum tensile strength of 200 MPa, corresponding to a maximum tension of around 70 N for a 0.35 sq mm inner conductor. Steel can reach up to 500 MPa, but with reduced electrical resistance, which is often out of electrical specifications. The only way is to use a layout with a sophisticated balance of applied forces. The following table shows a possible configuration of tension applied to the wire: In this example constellation, the total of the forces is more than 100% of maximum load for the inner conductor. Trying this with a single drive concept would result in an immediate wire beak. The solution is to choose the autoclave as master drive in the line, pushing and pulling capstans are running now as slaves.

TECHNICAL PAPERS

TECHNICAL PAPERS Influence of the strain rate on the mechanical response of prestressing steel wires in cold drawing At higher strain rates, the stress-strain relationship may change, and alternate testing techniques have to be employed to predict the parameters of the process with a high level of accuracy.

By Francisco Gálvez, José Miguel Atienza and Manuel Elices Numerical simulation is becoming a powerful tool to optimize the forming processes. A basic ingredient for this numerical modelling is the constitutive equations of the material components. In the case of wiredrawing, this data, the mechanical behavior of the wires during the processing, normally described by a flow curve, is obtained by means of static tensile tests (strain rates around 10-3s-1) at room temperature (20ºC).

However, to increase the productivity and reduce the manufacturing cost, drawing speeds are further increasing. It should be taken into account that high velocities result in an increase of the strain rate for the material and this may affect the material behavior during the processing and the properties of the final products.

During cold drawing, especially by drawing very fine wires, the strain rate reaches values higher than 103s-1, which could be compared with the strain rate produced by impact or explosive loads. At such high strain rates, the material behavior may be quite different from that in a static state. Also, it is known that the strain rate dependency of strength is different for different materials. Together with that, high velocities could produce an increase in the temperature during the processing, which could reach values higher than 150-200ºC in some cases.

In the literature, few data are available on the mechanical response of these wires at high strain rates and at high temperatures. Nakkalil et al.1 performed compression tests at high temperatures and strain rates with eutectoid steel cylinders. Itabashi and Kawata2 conducted tensile tests on carbon steels (carbon content ranging 0.14-0.54 in weight percentage, wt %) and found that the yield stress and ultimate strength could be predicted by an empirical formula for quasi-static tensile tests, taking in consideration carbon and manganese contents. Later, He et al.3 carried out compression tests with wires for tire cord at high strain rates showing that these values were important to simulate the drawing force in the processing of wires fabricated under high speed cold drawing conditions. More recently, the influence of temperature and strain rate on the performance of the final product (steel wires 74 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

for prestressing) was reported in a paper published by the authors5,6 which served as a reference for the new Model Code7.

Regarding the numerical simulations, although significant progress in development of material constitutive models has been made, the physical models are still not advanced enough to account for the whole complexity of the dynamic response of cold drawn eutectoid steel wires.

Nevertheless, the interested reader is advised to consult a classical paper by Johnson and Cook8 or a more recent update9, devoted to high strength steels where a modified Johnson-Cook model was developed to describe the relationship of the flow stress, strain rate and temperature over a wide range of temperatures and loading rates.

In this work, the effect of strain rate on the mechanical behavior of pearlitic steel wires has been characterized, hoping that this information could be useful for producers when performing numerical modeling of cold drawing processes. To this end, the following loadings were explored: Influence of strain rate—ranging from 10-3s-1 to 103s-1—at room temperature (T = 20˚C) and at 200ºC.

Materials and methods

For this research a commercial steel wire for prestressed concrete was used. The chemical composition was (wt %): 0.815 C, 0.231 Si, 0.642 Mn, 0.012 P, 0.008 S, 0.044 V and 0.221 Cr (C-Carbon, Si-Silicon, Mn-Manganese, P-Phosphorus, S-Sulfur, V-Vanadium, Cr-Chromium).

The manufacture proceeded according to the following steps: 12-mm rods were drawn in eight passes to a final diameter of 5.2 mm as shown in Table 1. The drawing velocity was 44 m/min, and the temperature, which was controlled during the process, reached a maximum value of 197˚C on the wire surface at the exit of the last die. After drawing they were subjected to an industrial thermo-mechanical stress relieving treatment; steel wires were warmed to 400˚C and stressed to 64% of its maximum stress smax for several seconds.

The wire microstructure is fully pearlitic, as it corresponds to the eutectoid point (0.8% C), with alternating nanosize ferrite (aFe) and cementite (Fe3C)

lamellae (interlamellar spacing around 100nm). This is typical of cold-drawn eutectoid steel, with the lamellae being aligned in the drawing direction, which coincides with the wire axis.

Samples after each drawing pass (Ti, varying i from 1 to 8) were obtained in order to characterize the entire processing.

At higher strain rates different testing techniques have to be employed. The widely used Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) technique was used in this work to obtain the stress-strain curve at strain rates of the order of 103s–1. General descriptions of the SHPB technique are given elsewhere, see for example Zukas et al.10 and Meyers11.

High strain rate tests were performed using a special Hopkinson device designed to test at high temperatures12. The unit consisted of a projectile, incident and transmitter bar, a furnace and associated instrumentation for recording data. The device used was a 12-meter Hopkinson bar as shown in Fig. 1. Loads were produced though a 2000-mm projectile impacting against a 4000-mm steel bar inside a gun using compressed air. The load was transmitted to two Inconel bars with a length of 3850 mm and diameter of 19.3 mm. The specimen was placed between the two bars, and inside a furnace. The bars were refrigerated using a cooling water system. With this device, the adiabatic stress-strain curve can be obtained from the measurements of the deformation of the Inconel bars.

The dimensions of the specimens were 4 mm diameter, 6 mm length. Strain rate achieved during the test was 1.5×103 s–1. The tests were performed at room temperature (20ºC) and at 200ºC. Three tests were performed for each condition and for each drawing pass.

Mechanical tests

Results and discussion

Table 1. Drawing process for prestressing steel wires: Die dimensions and temperature at the surface of the wires.

In order to characterize the mechanical behavior, compression samples with the same geometry were machined for all of the programmed tests. The compression approach was chosen due to its closer behavior from what is happening inside the die during drawing, where a high hydrostatic component of the stresses is reached. The same dimensions in all the specimens were used to avoid geometry dependence of the results, being cylinders of 4-mm diameter and 6-mm length.

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 represent the stress-strain curves obtained at low strain rate and room temperature, at high strain rates and room temperature and at high strain rates and 200ºC. As expected, the material strengthens

Low strain rate tensile tests Compression tests were performed with an Instrom tensile testing machine with a load cell of 25 kN, with load versus strain being continuously recorded. Tests, labeled low strain rate, were performed at a strain rate of 10–3 s–1.

Load and strain histories were measured during the tests. From these results, the full stress-strain curve was computed. At least two tests Fig. 1. Set-up for high strain rate tests at different temperatures and detailed view of the furnace were performed in each condition.

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High strain rate tests at different temperatures

TECHNICAL PAPERS Fig. 2. Stress-strain curves at room temperature and low strain rate.

Fig. 3. Stress-strain curves at room temperature and high strain rate. due to the strain hardening during the drawing process in the three cases.

Experimental results show a small increase in the recorded values of the yield stress as the loading speed increases. This increment is especially important in the first steps of the processing, where it could be higher than 15% in some cases. Similar results have been found by the authors for other types of wires5,6. Regarding the effect of temperature, experimental results show a decrease of the mechanical properties at high strain rate as the test temperature increases, as it was expected.

In Fig. 5 the relation between stress at high strain rate and at low strain rate for the same strain (10%) is represented to compare the mechanical response of the wires.

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Fig. 4. Stress-strain curves at 200ยบC and high strain rate.

Fig. 5. Influence of strain rate in the mechanical response: Relation between stress at high strain rate and at low strain rate for the same strain (10%).

Limitations Yielding at high strain rate is difficult to measure due to instabilities that appear as oscillations in the stressstrain diagram. Those oscillations are due to the time to reach the specimen equilibrium and not representing the material behavior. It should be pointed out that low strain rates are isothermal tests, while high strain rate tests are adiabatic. This implies that during specimen deformation temperature increases due to thermal work, as the specimen has no time to interchange heat with the environment. This produces a temperature increment on the specimen as deformation increases that can be computed using the Taylor-Quinney equation11. For this type of steels a linear temperature increase with deformation

Conclusions Although the quasi-static stress-strain curve is often treated as the only data regarding the mechanical behavior of the materials during cold processing, it is a valid description of a material only at the strain rate at which the test was conducted. At higher strain rates, the stressstrain relationship may change, and alternate testing techniques have to be employed to predict the parameters of the process with a high level of accuracy.

In the case of cold drawing, modern drawing velocities could reach high strain rates, around six orders of magnitude higher than the quasi-static conditions of ordinary tensile tests. The purpose of this paper has been to provide experimental data on the behavior of steel wires under likely conditions that could be expected during highspeed processing. Numerical simulations performed by the authors’ show that not taking into account the effect of high strain rates can lead to underestimated values of different process parameters like the drawing force13.

Correct description of the constitutive equation of the material at real processing conditions will help to improve the predictions, by means of FE method, of the material flow during the process and the final properties of the products.

Impact Engineering, 31, 2005, pp. 401-433.

5. J.M. Atienza and M. Elices, Behavior of prestressing steels after a simulated fire: Fire-induced damages, Construction and Building Materials, 23, 2009, pp. 2932-2940.

6. F. Galvez, J.M. Atienza and M. Elices, Behavior of prestressing steel wires under extreme conditions of strain rate and temperature, Structural Concrete, 12(4), 2011, pp. 255-261.

7. FIB Model Code 2010 8. G.R. Johnson and W.H. Cook, Fracture characteristics of three metals subjected to various strains, strain rates, temperatures and pressures, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 21, 1985, pp. 31-48.

9. Y.C. Lin, X. Chen and G. Liu, A modified JohnsonCook model for tensile behaviors of typical high-strength alloy steel, Materials Science and Engineering, A 527, 2010, pp. 6980-6986.

10. J.A. Zukas, T. Nicholas, H.F. Swift, L.B. Greszczuk and D.R. Durran, Impact Dynamics, Wiley, 1982.

11. Dynamic Behaviour of Materials, M.A. Meyers, John Wiley & Sons, NY, 1994.

12. F. Galvez, D.A. Cendón, A. Enfedaque and V. SánchezGálvez, High strain rate and high temperature behaviour of metallic materials for jet engine turbine containment, Journal de Physique IV, 134, 2006, pp. 269-274.

13. F. Gálvez, B. Erice and J.M. Atienza, Efecto de la Velocidad de Trefilado sobre los Parámetros de Control del Proceso industrial, Anales de la Mecánica de la Fractura, XXIX, 2012, Vol. 28-II, pp. 683-688.

Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge thanks to Luís del Pozo and Luisa Villares from EMESA Trefilería, S.A. (Arteixo, La Coruña, Spain) for the supply of the steel wires, as well as for their useful comments, and the financial support though project BIA-2011-24445.

Gálvez

References 1. R. Nakkalil, J.R. Hornaday and M.N. Bassim, Characterization of the compression properties of rails steel in high temperatures and strain rates, Materials Science and Engineering, A 141, 1991, pp. 247-260.

2. M. Itabashi and K. Kawata, Carbon content effect on high-strain-rate tensile properties for carbon steels, International Journal of Impact Engineering, 24, 2000, pp.

117-131.

3. S. He, P. van Houtte, A. van Bael, F. Mei, A. Sarban, P. Boesman, F. Gálvez amd J.M. Atienza, Strain rate effect in high-speed wire drawing process, Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering 10, 2002, pp. 267-276.

4. I. Rohr, H. Nahme and K. Thoma, Material characterization and constitutive modeling of ductile high strength steel for a wide range of strain rates, International Journal of

Atienza

Elices

Francisco Gálvez is a Ph.D. aeronautical engineer and senior lecturer at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Spain. He teaches plasticity and dynamic behavior of materials, among other related subjects. He specializes in the research of high strain rate behavior of materials, ballistic impact, and crashworthiness. José Miguel Atienza teaches in the materials science department at UPM, where he started as a researcher in 1998. His areas of scientific interest include steel wire for prestressed concrete and biomaterials. He holds a Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from UPM. Manuel Elices is full professor of materials science and technology at UPM, and dean of the faculty for materials science and engineering. His professional and research work has been centered mainly on cracking and fracture of materials. This paper was presented at WAI’s 83rd Annual Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, May 2013.

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of 5ºC per 1% increase in strain can be assumed.

Values of the Young modulus are difficult to measure during very high strain rates. For very low (10–3s–1) strain rates the recorded values are similar, 200 GPa. It is usually assumed that Young Modulus remains unchanged when increasing strain rates. For tests performed at high strain rate, no significant influence of the strain rate on the Young Modulus was observed.

PRODUCTS & MEDIA

PRODUCTS TECHNOLOGY Wiredrawing system can process 24 wires from a single capstan row Frigeco, a Mario Frigerio Company, introduced a highly efficient multi-wire drawing machine at wire Düsseldorf that it said goes one giant eight-wire step beyond the company’s TM100-21-16 model which, introduced in 2010, employs a single row of capstans. A press release, which said that the new system, based on the same concept, has been engineered to be able to process 24 wires on a single row of capstans, provided the following details.

Frigeco has focused in recent years on developing this new generation of multi-wire wire-drawing machines to improve process performance as well as to simplify the machine for ease of maintenance, increase reliability and to decrease overall energy consumption. The results have confirmed that those goals have been achieved. For instance, a traditional multiwire drawing machine has eight wires per row of capstans, so the Frigeco design made it possible to eliminate 84 transmission shafts, 168 additional bearings and 126 additional gears that would be required using a traditional system limited to an eightwire row. Fewer mechanical parts also result in increased efficiency and energy savings of more than 10%. Further, having less need to lubricate gears with lubricating oil improves the mechanical output efficiency at high speeds.

This represents hundreds of thousands of KW/hours per year and a substantial reduction in use of electricity.

The size of the first six capstans of multi-wire have been increased to 120 mm diameter, which guarantees a perfect operation and eliminates any possibility of bending and vibration in the shafts. The larger capstans have a significantly longer life and the large capstan shafts are easier to maintain as one does not need to dismantle major parts of the machine frame to access them.

Frigeco divided the machine gear train in half and introduced a second motor. The two motors, which are interconnected with an electronic shaft, allow you to reset the slip half way through the process. This improvement pro78 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

vides an additional energy savings of about 4%. Finally, the new concept die holder incorporated in this machine uses pressure lubrication. That facilitates the cleaning of the entrance and exit cone of the dies, which also increases the life of the die.

Contact: Frigeco, www.frigeco.com.

New die technology said to offer huge potential for wiredrawing India’s Ajex & Turner announced that the company has developed a new concept, Vitrified Nanocrystalline Technology (VNT), that it says has the potential to completely change the traditional method of wiredrawing.

A press release explained the advance as follows. The prospects of Vitrified Nanotechnology will definitely have a huge impact in the near future and will save material and manufacturing costs for cable companies around the globe.

The company’s R&D team has developed state-of-the-art, diamond-coated dies and extrusion tooling for bunching and compacting copper and aluminum multi wire strands for electric cables. These dies are made with multi-layer coatings of nanocrystalline diamond composites on hard metal, which provides extremely smooth surface with immensely low friction.

The Ajex & Turner VNT technology provides a much harder and more compact surface compared to PCD, and is on process to develop re-size and re-polishing above 29 mm to 42 mm.

The die has a 100% diamond layer, unlike a PCD die that uses a mixture of cobalt and other hard materials.

Therefore, dies coated with VNT do not develop wear ring throughout its working life, this saving costs for re-polishing which means the tolerance will remain same. The VNT coating cost does not increase the price but does increase the die’s life and size tolerances. VNT dies can be re-cut like PCD dies from 2 mm to 29 mm in microns with special equipment, and re-cutting above 29 mm is being developed.

The company’s R&D team is working hard to increase the coating layers, which may also help coating profile dies and increase the die’s working life by 30-50%, with zero

Indoor fiber-copper cable designed for use with DAS Remote Units Superior Essex has launched a line of indoor plenum fiber copper hybrid cables for Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) that it said are ideal for when the DAS remotes are powered from a centralized source.

A press release said that the DAS hybrid cable consists of two discrete cables, one copper and one fiber, paired beneath an overjacket. Below, it notes more details about how the dual-cable design allows the hybrid cable to transmit communications while also providing power to DAS remote units.

The unique cable design facilitates efficiency during installations and deployment. The two-in-one design allows

power and fiber cables to be pulled simultaneously, saving time and labor by eliminating the need for two separate pulls. Unlike round hybrid cables with unjacketed copper and fiber, the discrete copper and fiber cables within the Superior Essex hybrid cable can be easily separated and routed individually. Further, the copper conductors utilize an intuitive black and red color scheme that makes it easier to determine positive and negative connections. The UL 13 CL2P plenum rated cable can be used for installation throughout a building, including air carrying plenum space.

When the cable is part of a NEC Class 2 power limited system, some local building codes allow it to be installed without being enclosed in a raceway, or being armored.

It’s important for for contractors to be able to complete installations faster, Superior Essex’s Kim Purdie said. “(Our) hybrid cable helps reduce the installation time by eliminating the need for two separate cable pulls.”

Contact: Superior Essex International LP, www.superioressex.com.

Control cable negates the need for polyurethane cables in tray application Germany’s HELUKABEL, represented in the U.S. by HELUKABEL USA, introduced a new control cable to the company’s TRAYCONTROL family at the recently held 2014 International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS).

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tolerances and sizes up to 42 mm. The size range for VNT dies is 2.5 mm to 42 mm; the reduction angle is generally 18-24° with a 20 to 30% bearing length.

Contact: Ajex & Turner, tel. 91-9811078882, sales@ajexturner.com, www.ajexturner.com.

PRODUCTS & MEDIA A press release described TRAYCONTROL 550 TPE as a flexible, oil-resistant control cable with blue- or red-colored conductors that is approved for open, unprotected installation in cable trays from power sources/ control units to the machine. It noted the following about the cable, which it said was developed to help offset the need for PUR cables in tray applications.

The specially blended TPE has been designed to perform as well as standard PUR cables with the added benefit of being able to transition from cable trays to free air, an installation method not permitted for PUR cables. The special combination of TC-ER, PLTC-ER and ITC-ER allows this cable to be used as a connecting cable for AC, DC or control wiring in accordance

with NFPA 79 Edition 2007. Its outstanding oil resistance (Oil Res I & II) guarantees a long service life for machine tools in industrial applications located in dry, damp and wet environments such as the automotive, food and beverage industries, or other various production lines found in harsh locations.

Specifications for TRAYCONTROL 550 TPE include: temperature range: -40°C to +105°C (flexing applications); nominal voltage: TC – 600V/AWM & WTTC – 1000V; and min. bending radius: 7.5X the cable OD. The cable, which has a wide range of approvals, is available in 18 AWG and 16 AWG of various conductor configurations. More gauge sizes will be added according to market needs. For customers working in facilities where high levels of electromagnetic interference are prevalent, a shielded variant is available upon request.

Contact: HELUKABEL USA, Inc., www.helukabel.com.

Copper wiredrawing line offers high-speed and high performance At wire China 2014, Germany’s Niehoff GmbH and its Chinese subsidiary, Niehoff Machinery Changzhou Co., Ltd. (NMC), displayed an MMH 101 + RM 161 type multiwire drawing machine, a D 630.5 type high-speed, double-twist buncher and an SV 400 D type double spooler that collectively are designed to provide fast, dependable copper and aluminum wire production.

Huestis Industrial Cable Jacket Strippers Who do you call when you’ve just run a rush order, the jacket has defects, and there isn’t enough time to remake the entire job?

Huestis Industrial, of course! Our cable jacket strippers will save you time and money salvaging the valuable core, allowing you to re-extrude the job fast to keep your customers happy and your remake costs down. In many cases, one job provides the payback for your investment.

For more details or to place an order, call us at 800-972-9222, or email us at sales@huestis.com

Model CJS 1000

Model BJS 1000* Strippers can be customized to meet your specific requirements. * Model BJS 1000 is bench mounted.

All other models are free standing.

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WJI 1/2 PA HORIZ

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MTS WIRE DRAWING MACHINES STRAIGHT-THROUGH MULTI-BLOCK MACHINES WITH SENSOR/DANCER ARM SYNCHRONIZATION For bare and galvanized carbon steel wire, stainless steel wire and alloy wire for every application.

• Highly efficient cooling • Wide range of block sizes and configurations • Can be used with dies or rolling cassettes • Maximum flexibility to satisfy every customer need

NOT ONLY A MACHINERY MANUFACTURER

GCR EURODRAW S.p.A.

Via Camillo Chiesa, 19/21 - 20010 Pogliano Milanese (MI), Italy Tel. +39 02.93963.1 - Fax +39 02.93540452 - gcr@gcrgroup.com - www.gcrgroup.com

PRODUCTS & MEDIA A press release noted the following about the line.

The MMH 101 + RM 161 type multiwire drawing line is designed for the simultaneous drawing of eight or 16 copper wires to a minimum final diameter of 0.50 to 0.08 mm. It features inline annealing and can work to a maximum speed of 36 m/s. More than 1,100 MMH units are now being used worldwide for manufacturing copper and aluminum wire that exceeds the most demanding specifications and processing requirements for electrical conductivity, surface quality and mechanical properties.

The wire can be processed to multiwire bundles with outstanding characteristics.

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The SV 400 D type double spooler built by NMC under Niehoff license for insulated wires, is designed for the non-stop production of NPS packages (Niehoff Package System). When installed behind an extrusion line, it is capable of spooling automotive primary cable at a speed of up to 1,200 m/min. The spooler can process cables with a cross-section of 0.22 to 6.0 sq mm and an outer diameter of 1.0 to 5.0 mm (including insulation), and is capable of accommodating all NPS 400 multiway spools with a traverse width of 100 to 400 mm. The D 630.5 double twist bunching machine is designed for strands with a cross section of 0.09 to 6.00 sq mm, and can accommodate spools with a maximum flange diameter of 630 mm. The machine is equipped with AC drive technology and Niehoff’s Eco-Bow. Contact: Niehoff GmbH, www.niehoff.de, and in the U.S., www.niehoff-usa.com.

Pneumatic twist-tie technology excels for processing of larger cable bundles At Wire Expo 2014, U.S.-based Plas-Ties Company displayed its XL-8 Air Ring model, which was designed for customers who need larger tying capacities.

A press release said that the unit provides a pneumatic twist-tying solution that self-adjusts to bundle product

PRODUCTS & MEDIA

diameters from 1 in. up to 8 in. It noted the following about the model, which it said is ideal for securing wire harnesses, cords, cables, hoses, coils, tubes and rods.

The XL-8 Air Ring model was designed to minimize resource consumption, maintenance needs and ergonomic injuries.

The air-driven unit increases productivity, saves on energy consumption costs and is built on a rolling stand to make it easy to relocate it as needed within a facility.

Users save on operator handling time with its self-adjusting diameter sizing feature and large (4,000 ft.) twist-tie material spool capacity. This operator friendly solution is easy to use and helps reduce the potential for carpal tunnel injuries.

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Plas-Ties Company offers superior customer service, a six-month product warranty and U.S.-based operations that assure the highest level of product reliability and support. Multiple product demonstration videos can be seen at the company’s website.

Contact: Jesse Garcia, Plas-Ties Company, tel. 800-8540137, ext. 230, jgarcia@plasties.com, www.plasties.com.

2 lubricant lines are offered for aluminum and copper applications U.S.-based Baum’s Castorine offers two lines of lubricants for wiredrawing that each offer unique advantages for manufacturers. A press release provided the following information about the two products, both of which were introduced last year.

Dura Draw 942 is a true multi-metal, semi-synthetic drawing emulsion compound that is currently being used to draw aluminum rod breakdown, both 1350 and 8000 series. Because of its formulation advances, Dura Draw 942 will draw at concentration levels well below what is currently being done with other compounds. This means that customers will not have

Wire straightener is described as durable, compact and easy to install U.S.-based Electron Beam Technologies, Inc., has introduced Straight ‘N Easy®, a new, larger heavy-duty wire straightener (Part #A-2251) that was described as both compact and durable.

A press release said that the wire straightener features a modular design with mounting options that include face, end and traditional. The company provided the following details.

The unit has three adapters (in-line, feeder mount and payoff) for quick connect. It will accept a variety of electrodes from 5/64 in.

(2 mm) to 3/16 in. (4.8 mm).

The unit is light weight and expandable, quick to install and having a longer life than friction systems. User cost is reduced with electrode wandering, and provides repeatability in automated systems. It can also be recast electrode for proper energy transfer. The Straight ‘N Easy wire straightener is also resettable, with a built-in reference scale for ease of wire changes. A free product catalog can be obtained from the company.

Contact: Electron Beam Technologies, Inc., tel. 815935-2211, ebtservice@electronbeam.com, www.electronbeam.com.

OCTOBER 2014 | 85

PRODUCTS & MEDIA

to keep increasing the concentration of old copper-drawing formulas in hope of achieving acceptable results.

Dura Draw 898, primarily used for copper wire, is a unique addition to Baum’s Castorine’s already extensive line of metal working (wiredrawing) formulas. As manufacturers are increasingly turning to more “turn-key” systems, smaller-than-ideal emulsion tanks are being employed that are powered by smaller horsepower motors that require higher rpm pumps. That condition contributes greatly to a system’s tendency to be a foam generator. To counter that challenge, Dura Draw 898 employs a unique proprietary blend of raw materials that not only foams less, but actually works to suppress foaming. And, unlike low foam formulas of recent years, Dura Draw 898 forms a very tight emulsion, allowing for a stable emulsion resulting in lower consumption rates and requiring less tank side additives.

Contact: Baum’s Castorine, tel. 315-336-8154, sales@ baumscastorine.com, www.baumscastorine.com.

PRODUCTS & MEDIA

New software module expands scope of what manufacturers can control U.K.-based Cimteq, a global provider of cable design and manufacturing software, recently announced its latest innovative product, the Manufacturing Simulation Module (MSM), which is a module of the company’s cable design software, CableBuilder.

A press release provided the following details. MSM is so innovative in its design that it will transform the way that companies operate in both an administrative and a productive capacity. The system allows the manufacturer to define a set of rules relating to their processes and capabilities; MSM is then able to simulate the production costs and capabilities of the company to. From creating the initial quotation to generating production process instructions, MSM will ensure complete cost accuracy while minimizing waste and improving consistency.

The system’s unique ability to understand cable length and the variables associated with it has a huge impact on a company’s capacity to exploit the concept of length-based costing to ensure maximum profitability. Using MSM a company can simulate the production cycle and ascertain

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all the variable elements involved, such as machine running costs, material usage and extra length wastage, to produce real time production figures for any given length of cable.

This provides an invaluable insight into the profitability and associated costs of a theoretical order, allowing for extremely accurate quotations and minimal risk of unprofitable orders resulting from errors in estimating.

More details about MSM can be found at the company’s website. It also includes information on CableMES (Cable Manufacturing Execution System), which controls the production process.

Contact: Ali Shehab, Cimteq, tel. 44-1978-664-215, info@cimteq.com, www.cimteq.com.

New generation of spark testers offered for both extrusion and rewinding lines Switzerland’s Zumbach reports that the company’s latest generation of high-voltage sparktesters--the DC sparktesters of the DST 28A series and the AST H 15A high-frequency spark testers--extend the range of capabilities that the company can provide customers.

A press release, which noted that both systems meet all applicable requirements for extruding or rewinding processes, noted the following. The spark testers instantly and reliably detect defects and faults on the sheathing and insulation of electrical cables, tubes, corrugated tubing, hoses and similar products. Install these devices to make sure that defective products with bare patches, hairline cracks or pinholes have no chance of slipping into circulation.

As soon as a fault is detected, the system triggers an alarm. Every fault is logged. Once the fault is outside the electrode, the spark tester continues operations after an unbelievably brief loading time and resets the test voltage to the default value. On rewinding devices, the faults are consecutively counted. The test voltage is disconnected on fault detection. An alarm message is sent via the interface, or the potential-free alarm contact is activated.

Benefits include: capability of handling highest capacitive loading capabilities; continuous and faultless detection of defects in insulation or sheathing of electric cables; detection of defects in wall thickness; regulated, adjustable output voltage up to 28 kV DC (DST 28A)/ 15 kV AC (AST H 15A); full range of electrodes; detection of pinholes and bare patches on cables/tubes up to 70 mm (DST 28A) and to 30 mm with AST H 15A; compact design; and meeting a wide standards range (IEC 62230, UL 1581, UL 2556).

Shown is an electrode unit with local operating and display unit BAE 2 SP (option). Zumbach’s full spark tester product range covers test voltages of up to 40 kV for products up to 200 mm.

Contact: Zumbach AG, www.zumbach.de, and Zumbach Electronics Ltd., www.zumbach.com. n

Catch your prospects all season with an ad in the 2015 WJI Reference Guide

SPACE RESERVATION DEADLINE: November 12, 2014 ANNUAL BUYER’S GUIDE FEATURES: wire • cable • supplies • equipment 1,100 Products | 3,000+ Company Profiles Contact WAI Sales at 001-203-453-2777 ext. 119 or 126.

The Wire Association International, Inc. 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

Oct. 1, 2014

October 2014

9910

9910

890

546

344

9020

3234

5786

9910

94.92

9112

9112

463

125

338

8649

3121

5528

9112

September 2014

91.02

September 18, 2014

WIRE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS seeking positions are entitled to free “Position Wanted” classified ads. Limit: one ad per issue, three ads per year. This benefit is not transferable to nonmembers or to companies.

BLIND BOX INFO: Responses to Blind Box ads should be addressed to: Wire Journal International, Box number (as it appears in print or on-line), P.O. Box 578, Guilford, CT 06437-0578 USA.

CLASSIFIED AD RATES: • $1.30 per word for WJI and on-line classifieds at wirenet.org (20-word minimum). • Blind box numbers, add $25. • Boldface headlines, add $6 per line (up to 18 characters per line). Specify category.

PAYMENT POLICY: All ads must be pre-paid.

POSITION WANTED WIRE & CABLE REPRESENTATIVE AVAILABLE FOR THE AMERICAS. Do you need an experienced salesman in Mexico, Central and South America? If so, please conact Antonio Ayala at 1953ayala@ gmail.com.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES PROJECT/PROCESS ENGINEER Manufacturer of welded wire mesh based in MA seeks a project/process engineer with 5+ years- experience and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

Well versed in AutoCAD, the preferred candidate will perform engineering related design and analysis functions for wire mesh processing equipment. If you are a proactive person with a strong engineering skills, take pride and ownership in your contribution, have excellent attention to detail and want to be part of a growing organization this could be your next long term role. We are an EOE offering competitive pay and opportunity for advancement. Please send resume to ipardo@riverdale.com.

LUCRATIVE OPPORTUNITY FOR REPS AND AGENTS IN WIRE & CABLE. Earn up to 10% commission for relationships you already have! Allied Wire & Cable, a leading global specialty manufacturer and value-added distributor of electrical wire and cable, is looking for independent reps to support our dynamic and growing sales team.

With this opportunity, you can work for us part-time. Want to learn more?

Contact us confidentially by email: agent@awcwire.com or by fax: 484302-4275.

DEADLINES: Copy is due a full month in advance.

Contact: classified@wirenet.org for more details.

PLANT/MANUFACTURING MANAGER. MA-based privately held custom cable manufacturer seeks manufacturing manager due to pending retirement of current one.

Extensive background and experience in Wire & Cable industry is required.

We are a smoke & drug free EOE offering excellent pay, benefits and room for personal and professional growth for the right candidate. Send Resume to: generalwire@aol.com.

PERSONNEL SERVICES “LET OUR SUCCESS BE YOUR SUCCESS” Wire Resources is the foremost recruiting firm in the Wire & Cable Industry. Since 1967 we have partnered with industry Manufacturers to secure the services of executives, managers, and thousands of key individual contributors. Contact: Peter Carino, pcarino@ wireresources.com or online at www.linkedin.com/in/petercarino1/ Wire Resources Inc., PO Box 593, Riverside, CT 06878, tel. 203-6223000. www.wireresources.com.

FOR SALE 1 - HACOBA Model DF24 24-Carrier Braider 2 - WARDWELL 24-Carrier Braiders 1 - NEB 72-C #2 Braider, Long Legs, Motor 1 - TRENZ 64-C Horizontal Braider 1 - NEB 24-C CB-1 Cable Braider 7 - KINREI 560mm D.T. Twisters 1 - MGS 50” Caterpuller Capstan 1 - REEL-O-MATIC 24” Caterpuller Capstan 2 - FARRIS 22”, 30” Caterpuller Capstans 1 - ALLARD 36” Closer 2 - NEB 12-Wire 8” Vertical Planetary Cablers 1 - ALLARD 30” S.T. Closer 1 - DAVIS STANDARD 3.5” 24:1 Extruder 1 - DAVIS STANDARD 3.5” Rubber Extruder 1 - DAVIS STANDARD 2.5” Hi-Temp Extruder 1 - DAVIS STANDARD 1” 24:1 Extruder

1 - KRUPP 37-Wire 27” Rigid Strander 1 - KRUPP 1+12 Wire 31” Tubular Strander 1 - KRUPP 1+6 Wire 26” Tubular Strander 1 - ROSENDAHL 630mm P/A Dual Reel Take-up 1 - SPHEREX 18” Dual Reel Take-up, refurbed 1 - CLIPPER Model SP16 Dual Spooler 1 - AL-BE Model MS12 Respooler, 18” Reels 1 - BARTELL 108” Gantry Take-up 1 - METEOR Model ME301 3-Head Winder 1 - TEC Model DTC630 D.T. Twister 1 - ENTWISTLE 4WDT24 4-W 24” D.T. Twisters 2 - NEWMCO 16” D.T. Quadders 1 - METRONIC AlphaJet C Inkjet Printer, 2005 1 - HALL Tape Accumulator 1 - WARBRICK “Chalkmaster” Talc Applicator 1 - EUBANKS Model 4000-04 C/S Machine

1 - MGS 84” Payoff, Motorized 1 - AFA 84” Portal Payoff 1 - LESMO 1800mm Gantry Payoff, Model SPF1800 1 - SKALTEK 1600mm Payoff, Model A16-4K

1 - SCHLEUNIGER Model UC3750 Cutter 1 - SCHLEUNIGER Model ES3200 EcoCut 1 - SCHLEUNIGER Model ES9320 EcoStrip 1 - SCHLEUNIGER Model HS4500 Hot Stamper 1 - SCHLEUNIGER Model CT32, CT42 Crimpers 1 - IDEAL Model STP Stripper, Part #45-930

1 - DYNAMEX Tape Payoff, Model TPB30-2-D 2 - KRUPP 54-Wire 31” Rigid Stranders Commission

B r o k e r s

Commission Brokers Inc., Cranston, RI 02920 • 401-943-3777 www.CommissionBrokers.com • marty137@aol.com

OCTOBER 2014 | 89

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CLASSIFIEDS

CLASSIFIEDS

DIES APOLLO DIA-CARB COMPANY Sells Natural/PCD diamond dies.

Fair prices/excellent lead times.

Contact Paulette, Owner/Sales Tel. #1 (508) 226-0946 E-mail: apollodie@comcast.net.

WE SELL GOOD USED DIAMOND DIES. All dies should be recut to your specifications and should be able to be recut a number of larger sizes. Your inspection should show this. Guarantee Included. For more information, reply to Box 10-1, Wire Journal International, PO Box 578, Guilford, CT., 06437-0578-USA or classified@wirenet.org reference 10-1.

MACHINERY WWW.URBANOASSOCIATES. COM. For New (Hakusan Heat Pressure Welders, Ferrous & NonFerrous; Marldon Rolling Ring Traverses) & Used Wire & Cable Equipment (buttwelders, coldwelders,

90 | WIRE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

ers and pointers). Tel: 727-863-4700 or by e-mail, please send to urbassoc@ verizon.net.

MEDIA THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE PROCESS CAPABILITY STUDY. Creating a universal language for problem solving, this 2011 135-page booth by industry expert Douglas Relyea, founder of Quality Principle Associates, a consulting firm specializing in the education and application of data analysis techniques to industrial problem solving. The list price is $45, $40 for WAI members, plus shipping. To purchase, go to wirenet.org and click on The WAI Store.

SIX SIGMA AND OTHER IMPROVEMENT TOOLS FOR THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE PROCESS CAPABILITY STUDY. Creating a universal language for problem solving, this 135page indexed booth (published in

2011) was written by industry expert Douglas B. Relyea, founder of Quality Principle Associates, a New Englandbased consulting firm specializing in the education and application of data analysis techniques to industrial problem solving. The book includes: the benefits of statistical process control over statistical product control; real-world industrial examples and case studies showing how to use the techniques; ways for management to determine if the investment in process capability studies is providing an appropriate return; methods to correct lack of stability and capability once either condition has been identified, such as the ANOVA technique and the simple three-factor designed experiment; and a flow chart that enables machine operators to execute a process capability study without interfering with productivity. The list price is $45, $40 for WAI members, plus shipping. To purchase, go to wirenet. org and click on The WAI Store. n

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX PEOPLE

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX ADVERTISER ............................ PAGE

ADVERTISER ............................ PAGE

AlphaGary Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 2

SIKORA AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Amaral Automation Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Sjogren Industries Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Anbao Wire & Mesh Co Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Steel Cable Reels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Beta LaserMike/ NDC Technologies . . . . . . . . . 1 Cable Components Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Stolberger Inc dba Wardwell Braiding Machine Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Carris Reels Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4

August Strecker GmbH & Co KG. . . . . . . . . . . 47

Cemanco LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Commission Brokers Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Dow Electrical &Telecommunications . . . . 20-21 George Evans Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Foerster Instruments Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Frontier Composites & Castings Inc . . . . . . . . 54 GCR Eurodraw SpA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Gem Gravure Co Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Gimax Srl . . . . . . . . . . . insert, between pp. 32-33 Howar/Metavan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Howar/Unitek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Howar Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Huestis Industrial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 80 Inosym Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 36 KEIR Manufacturing Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Lamnea Bruk AB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Lloyd & Bouvier Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Locton Limited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Messe Dusseldorf Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Metavan/Howar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Nano-Diamond America Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Teknor Apex Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 TMS Specialties Manufacturing Co Inc . . . . . . . 4 Tubular Products Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Unitek/Howar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Vandor Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 WAFIOS Machinery Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 3 Web Industries Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Windak Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Wire & Plastic Machinery Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Woodburn Diamond Die Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Wyrepak Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 33 Zumbach Electronics Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

WIRE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL ADS Interwire 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-35 Interwire Call for Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41-42 Global Continuous Casting Forum . . . . . . . . . 43 WAI Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 WAI Reference Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 WAI Industry Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Paramount Die Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Perfection Industrial Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 PKG Equipment Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Pressure Welding Machines Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Properzi International Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Proton Products International Ltd . . . . . . . 23, 58 Queins Machines GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Rainbow Rubber & Plastics Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 REELEX Packaging Solutions Inc . . . . . . . . . . 59 SAMP USA Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

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December 2014 WJI • Industry Role: agents • Wire & Cable India wrapup Advertising Deadline: Nov. 1