4/6/2021: The International Wire and Machinery Association (IWMA), citing its mission to “Connect Expertise Globally,” will hold its first-ever virtual, one day-event from 10 am to 4 pm (BST) on Thursday, April 22.

IWMA reported that it has been working in recent months “with a tried and trusted virtual event platform to bring our members together.” The event, free to IWMA members/£25 per person nonmembers, will provide “real opportunity for networking, building connections, industry insight and more.”
The event will include guest speakers from the CRU Group, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and Ducab. The Sponsored Speaker Sessions will allow a company to pre-record its own talk or presentation to feature on the virtual event platform for £400. The forum will allow participants “to present their latest company news, products or technology right in front of (attendees) whilst also providing them with the opportunity to network and gain industry insight from our guest speakers.”

All content on the virtual event platform will be available after the event to delegates and can be re-watched at any time. Pre-recorded videos/presentations will be required by Monday, April 19, supplied as an MP4 self-recorded video or zoom video. A limited number of slots are available, and will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. To access the booking form to secure a slot, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more details, go to www.iwma.org.

4/6/2021: Messe Düsseldorf has appointed Daniel Ryfisch as project director of the Global Portfolio wire, Tube & Flow Technologies, as part of a reorganization of the team in charge of its 15 trade fairs in six countries. He has experience in both international and national trade fair businesses. He started with Messe Düsseldorf as a trainee, and from 2008 he held the position of project manager for the worldwide satellites of the trade fairs wire, Tube and Metec in Russia, India, China and the UAE.

Since 2015, he was also in charge of wire and Tube on the operational level as deputy director. Last September, he became project director for the wire, Tube and VALVE WORLD EXPO events, and their international satellites in China, Thailand, Brazil, Russia and India. He will be responsible for both the strategic orientation of the trade fair themes and the expansion of the exhibition business abroad. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Cologne. He will continue to report to Global Portfolio Director Friedrich-Georg Kehrer, who will change his focus on developing new business in the fields of wire, Tube and Flow Technologies. Based in Düsseldorf, Germany, Messe Düsseldorf is one of the world’s leading organizers of trade shows, including wire Düsseldorf, the industry’s largest such event for the wire and cable industry.

4/6/2021: Larry Lee Finney, an industry veteran whose passion for trouble-shooting production problems transcended his official retirement, died Feb. 28, 2021, at age 82.

Finney, who retired from the Prysmian Group, worked for more than four decades in the wire and cable industry. His career started in the 1960s as a machine operator at Anaconda. He worked at a number of different positions for different companies over the years. In 1966, the same year he got married, he got a call from Wendell Yeager asking him to help start up a plant in Tarboro, North Carolina, which he did. In 1988, he became a general foreman with Pirelli Cable in Abbeville, South Carolina. In 1993, he became a process engineer at the BICC Cable plant in Du Quoin, Illinois, where he stayed until 1998, when he returned to Abbeville for Pirelli. During his career, he traveled to many states and internationally to share his knowledge and help solve production problems. After his 2007 retirement, he worked for three more years as a contractor, although he continued to take calls for help well beyond that from many past co-workers.

He is survived by Karen Lea Donahoo Finney, his wife of 55 years; a son, Jason Finney; a daughter, Jennifer Leigh Donohoe; a brother, Bill Finney; a sister-in-law, Kathy Sweney; and five grandchildren: Taylor Donohoe, Chase Donohoe, Wilson Ehrhardt, Livingston Finney and Jameson Finney.

4/6/2021: Eugene “Gino” Valentino Marozzi, Jr., who worked in the wire and cable industry for more than a half-century, died Feb. 17 at his family home in East Windsor, Connecticut, at age 76.

Marozzi worked for Rome Cable in New York; General Cable in Willimantic, Connecticut; was a co-owner of Communications Cable, Inc., in Manchester, Connecticut; and was most recently employed at Wire Tek Inc. in Bloomfield. He held a degree from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree from Syracuse University. He is survived by his wife, JoAnn Marozzi; former wife, Lynn Marozzi; daughters Kristine Webb, Julia Garner, Nicole Marozzi and Tori Ash; and grandchildren Adam Webb, Morgan Webb, Jonathan Boushee and Tayla Lupacchino.

4/5/2021: South Korea’s LS Cable & System (LC&S) announced that it will be the sole supplier of magnet wire for the drive motors (enamel wire) of the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 electric vehicles.

A press release said that LC&S is the first South Korean company to mass-produce magnet wires that can be used at 800 V. Sales are estimated to reach more than KRW200 billion within 6 years. It noted that the company succeeded in using a high-performance insulation material to develop a high-voltage magnet wire with improved efficiency.

As the charging speed competition is intensifying in the electric vehicle industry, development of high-voltage parts supporting this is becoming more important. “We expect that this supply will provide us with an opportunity to preempt the high-voltage electric vehicle wire market, which is still in its early stage,” the release said.

LC&S projects that global demand for environmentally friendly automotive magnet wire market will grow more than six-fold by 2025. It is responding by reinforcing its marketing efforts and increasing investments with regard to global automakers. “The drive motor and the battery are important enough to be called the two hearts of an electric vehicle,” said LC&S President & CEO Myung Roe-Hyun. “We are certain that the wires and parts business, which serves as the blood vessels of the heart, will also grow rapidly, so we are fostering them as new growth engines.”
Since 2016, LC&S has been supplying GM with the magnet wire (400V) for the drive motors of the Chevrolet Bolt EV. It is also discussing development of HV magnet wires that will be used by all EVs produced by GM.