Wirenet Image Band
wirenet.org mobile image band

Wire Journal News

7/3/2022 -  UL announced that it has opened Mexico UL, its first laboratory in Mexico, in the city of Querétaro, which is 137 miles northwest of Mexico City.

A press release said that the site represents one of the first multinational testing laboratories to open in Mexico. It tests for product safety and performance for the Mexico market, and for export to the U.S., Canada and countries throughout Latin America.

“Today marks an exciting new day in our three-decade relationship with Mexico as we open UL’s newest state-of-the-art lab in Querétaro,” said Jennifer Scanlon, UL President/CEO. “Given our mission of working for a safer world, UL is dedicated to using its testing/certification expertise to help manufacturers in Mexico grow and prosper by helping to bring their innovations to market quickly and safely.”

Located in the Kaizen Industrial Park complex and near the Querétaro International Airport, the lab offers local testing for the UL Mark for the USA and Canada. Upon accreditation approval, it will also offer the Normas Oficiales Mexicanas (NOM) mark in Mexico and Latin American testing services.

UL notes that it operates in over 140 locations in more than 40 countries across North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa with more than 14,000 scientists, engineers, problem solvers and innovators who partner with customers to unlock their potential by empowering them to demonstrate safety, enhance sustainability and strengthen security. UL works with 60% of Global 500 and Fortune 500 companies, the largest companies in the world.

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/3/2022 - Nexans and its partners have won a project from Bpifrance (French Public Investment Bank) that calls for the installation of two superconducting DC cables near Montparnasse station in Paris, a unique integration of such cables into a railway system.

A press release said that the project is part of the “Investissements d’Avenir” (Investments for the Future) initiative coordinated by SNCF Réseau. It represents the first time that these types of cables will be integrated into a rail network and is set to be the first permanent installation in France on any network. With their revolutionary technology, these power cables will help secure the network

at a time when rail traffic is constantly growing in mega-cities.

Built in 1840 in Paris, Montparnasse is France’s fourth-largest train station, with more than 50 million passengers annually and more than 90 million expected in 2030. SNCF Réseau will thus need more power to run an ever-increasing number of trains. And superconductor cable technology will help provide the increased electrical power required to meet the needs of this growing rail traffic. The superconducting cables will make use of Montparnasse station’s infrastructure by installing the cables in existing conduits.

“Only a superconducting cable can combine a reduced diameter and exceptional power to deliver the performance required by SNCF Réseau: 5.3 MW per conduit, or 3,500 A to 1,500 VDC,” the release said. “This also enables our customer to save on substantial implementation costs related to infrastructure modification, avoid potential disruptions to rail and road traffic, and limit risks in terms of execution time and the commissioning date.”

The release observed that superconducting power cables offer unparalleled advantages as they have zero resistance, so they can transport electricity with minimal power loss and thus contribute to making the world more sustainable. “This project illustrates perfectly how their compact nature enables them to transport very high power through a limited space. A single superconducting cable can replace multiple copper cables. Also, it has a minimal footprint, making high-capacity 1,500 V connections possible, which in turn improves the safety of the stations’ power supply.”

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/3/2022 - Nexans has been awarded a contract worth more than 100 million euros to supply Enedis—a French distribution network company—with medium-voltage power distribution cables and services for the next four years.

A press release said that the contract includes an extended amount of EDR-MAX cables, most of which will be used to connect onshore wind and solar farms to the grid. These directly buried cables have demonstrated a reduced environmental impact and an improved total cost of ownership. The project combines technological innovation, environmental benefits, superior plant capability and digital services such as the full deployment of ULTRACKER: Nexans’ digital supply chain solution based on the Internet of Things, enhanced artificial intelligence and cloud services.

The release said that the new generation of Nexans eco-designed medium voltage cables (NF C 33-226) that could reduce carbon emissions up to 20% were a key to Enedis choosing Nexans. It noted that Nexans also allows the customer to buy and be delivered in a short circuit, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the cable supply. “Nexans technologies continue to allow us to help our partners with cable solutions, securing Nexans’ position in France as the supplier of choice and opening the door for additional projects in the future.”

Jérôme Bicail, director of the industrial sector division of Enedis, said that Nexans is seen as a “strategic” supplier in the cable sector. “We already share with Nexans our major challenges on CSR issues such as eco-design, commitments to reduce carbon emissions and recycling solutions. These innovations, combined with end-to-end quality control, allow us to secure capacity while ensuring product life cycle management.”

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/3/2022 - Prysmian Group recently broke ground on a $50 million expansion project at its Marshall plant in Texas to support growth in the power distribution and transmission markets.

A press release said that the $50 million project, scheduled for completion in early summer of 2023, will see the plant expand to over a million sq ft and include capability upgrades. “As part of Prysmian’s original $100 million commitment made last October to upgrade plants across its North American footprint, this investment is helping to meet the need for infrastructure upgrades in the region and the growing demand for clean energy sources.”

Prysmian Group acquired General Cable in 2018 and expanded its North American footprint. The Marshall facility currently has more than 400 employees and will add 75 new positions including machine operators, logistics and skilled trades. “We have a strong team here in Marshall, and I’m looking forward to seeing it expand. This investment is the beginning of big things for our community,” said David Cooper, Marshall Plant Director. Marshall has started hiring for the open positions and plans to complete the process in the fall.

“The Marshall expansion is crucial in our commitment to develop the next generation power distribution and transmission grids that will support the energy transition in the U.S. and Canada,” said Andrea Pirondini, CEO of Prysmian Group North America. “This investment is another step towards transforming how our region distributes and transmits power throughout North America.

The Marshall facility is the Group’s largest plant in North America where the bulk of the region’s renewable energy products are manufactured, and the investment is crucial to enabling the energy transition and digital transformation across the region.

Prysmian has recently seen major project announcements, such as for the largest submarine cable contact in the U.S. from Dominion Energy, along with the Vineyard Offshore Wind Farm Project and the SOO Green Link Project to deliver high-voltage direct current underground transmission cables along existing railroad corridors.

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/3/2022 - GEON Performance Solutions announced that it has acquired Cary Compounds, LLC, which is based in Manalapan, New Jersey, and will see its assets consolidated into Cary manufacturing campuses to best service the geographic needs of its customers.

A press release said that the Cary name has had a good reputation for its quality and high-end formulas dating back to when Ken Cary started the business in 1999. “Charlie Cary and the team have built on that reputation in the wire and cable industry, with exceptional formulary, customer service and manufacturing expertise as its key differentiators,” said GEON CEO Tracy Garrison. “We look forward to using that same personalized service that our Cary customers value as we introduce an expanded portfolio of highly engineered polymer solutions offered by GEON.”

“We have been watching GEON expand and evolve in the marketplace and are pleased the tradition of quality and excellence built by the Cary team will now live on in GEON,” said Charlie Cary. “This is an exciting day for wire and cable manufacturers and our employees who will enjoy a strong competitive advantage with GEON’s strong culture and global leadership position.”

GEON is a global leader in the formulation, development, and manufacture of performance polymer solutions. It has 1,000 global associates and 11 world-class manufacturing plants with headquarters in a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It is a portfolio company of SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm with a disciplined focus on the specialty materials, specialty chemicals, and pharmaceuticals sectors.

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/3/2022 - SubCom’s cable installation vessel, the CS Durable, landed the IRIS Subsea Telecoms Cable System (IRIS) at Thorlakshofn beach in Iceland on May 23.

Per a report at SubCom’s website, the landing signifies the commencement of the marine installation of the IRIS cable system that Farice has been developing since 2019. During the summer months, SubCom’s CS Durable will lay the cable south from Iceland to Galway, Ireland, with final splice and completion of marine work planned for mid-August 2022.

Marine survey of the entire route was done by Farice in 2020 and 2021. SubCom completed the final design, preparation work, and manufacturing of the system during 2021-2022. The cable installation progressed at some 20-200 km per day with burial or surface lay from Iceland to Ireland. The target burial depth of the cable was 1.5 m beneath the seabed in water depth of up to 1,500 m.

Designed as a six-fiber pair trunk with a total system capacity of 108 Tbps (each fiber pair delivers 18Tbs), IRIS will be approximately 1,700 km in length and connect southwest of Iceland to Ballyloughane Strand in Galway, Ireland. The cable was made at SubCom’s plant in Newington, New Hampshire.

The IRIS system will be ready for service in the beginning of 2023. It will be the third submarine fiber optic cable system connecting Iceland with Europe, providing further redundancy in telecom connection, with low latency connections around 10.5 ms, between Reykjavík and Dublin.

Farice, a connectivity provider owned by the Icelandic Government, owns and operates two submarine cable systems that connect Iceland to Europe: FARICE-1 and DANICE. The newest cable system will improve the diversity of adequate connections to support the continued growth of Iceland’s modern community and international business environment.

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/3/2022 - Last year, JDR announced plans to build a new high-voltage U.K. cable plant subject to final agreements. That path just got a lot closer to completion when the project was approved by councilors on the Strategic Planning Committee of the Northumberland County Council (NCC).

A press release said that NCC Deputy Council Leader Richard Wearmouth reported that the project has its full support. “We’re absolutely delighted to be welcoming one of the most advanced subsea cable manufacturing facilities in the world into the county. This brand-new facility will focus on renewable energy products and services, which is crucial towards the county’s carbon neutral plans.”

Plans call for construction to begin this year, with the opening set for 2024. It will create up to 207 high-quality local jobs on completion and safeguard 270 jobs at JDR’s existing facilities. Part of the initial project investment, estimated at £130 million, will come from a grant from the BEIS Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Support (OWMIS) scheme. JDR and TFK plans to raise the remaining funding with support expected from financial institutions and U.K. Export Finance.

The new facility is the first stage of JDR’s plans to expand its product portfolio to support the growing global renewable energy market, adding high-voltage export and long length array cables to its existing capacity and product capabilities. Further stages of the development could result in over 400 staff working at the site, with supplied products complementing JDR’s existing capacity provided by the company’s Hartlepool and Littleport U.K. manufacturing centers.

When complete, the facility will include a new catenary continuous vulcanization (CCV) line, making it the only facility in the U.K. capable of full start-to-finish manufacturing of high voltage subsea cables for offshore wind farms to support the growing global renewable energy market. It will be located on the 16-hectare site of the former coal-fired Blyth power station in Cambois in the northeast of England. It is set to feature a 47.5-m high vertical laying-up machine tower and a 45-m high CVC tower along with cable testing and storage facilities. Construction is due to start in the third quarter of this year and finish in early 2024.

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/3/2022 -  Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Telecom Egypt to build the first submarine cable system to directly connect the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Egypt.

Per multiple media reports, the MoU was signed in Riyadh by Eng. Salman Al-Badran, CEO of Mobily, and Adel Hamed, Managing Director, and CEO of Telecom Egypt. The agreement explores various new ways to connect international capacity to Europe in the west, through Telecom Egypt’s network, and to the GCC in the east, through Mobily’s network, which is made possible by expanding the two companies’ networks and connecting them to neighboring countries.

The new cable system aims to meet the rising communication traffic and the large demand for such services between KSA and Egypt.

“By adopting cutting-edge technologies, we continue to expand our infrastructure and scale our capabilities across the KSA and the wider region,” said Salman Al-Badran, CEO of Mobily. “We are confident that our strategic partnership with Telecom Egypt will help achieve our goals.”

The investment allows Prysmian to rapidly transition the Jackson plant to optical cable and increase the production efficiency in other facilities across the region. Prysmian Group North America has 28 manufacturing facilities, eight distribution centers and six R&D centers. The investment also will enable digital inclusion in local communities across North America while supporting the needs of Prysmian’s customers.

Last modified on July 3, 2022

7/2/2022 - 

Christine Lovett has joined Fil-Tec as director of business development for the company’s Wire and Cable division. She has nearly 25 years of global experience in the wire and cable industry. Prior to joining Fil-Tec, she served as business development and product manager at LLFlex where she oversaw growth and product life cycle of their armoring and shielding products for the wire and cable industry. Before that she worked for more than 18 years at Sonoco Products Company and Zumbach Electronics Corporation in various wire and cable technical and commercial roles. She holds an MBA degree from The University of Memphis and a B.S. degree in business administration and management from Marist College. Based in Hagerstown, Maryland, Fil-Tech sells yarns to fields that include wire and cable.

David Hawker was promoted to director of engineering for Cerrowire. A WAI Past President (2017), he joined the company as a plant manager in March 2021. Prior to that he had worked for 32 years for Nexans, where he started out in 1987 as an engineering manager and served in roles with increasing responsibility, his last being vice president and general manager of the Energy Division North America of Nexans. Based in Hartselle, Alabama, and a Marmon/Berkshire Hathaway company, Cerrowire is a copper wire manufacturing company with plants in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Utah.

Q8Oils has promoted Andrew Turner to global technical sales manager - wire & rolling at Q8Oils. He joined the company in 2003 as a development chemist, and was promoted to product manager in 2007, and became technical manager - Americas in 2008. In 2010, he became a research scientist metalworking for Kuwait Petroleum Research and Technology B.V. (part of Q8 Research), then was named technical sales and logistics manager - American in 2012, prior to his latest promotion. Prior to Q8, he worked five years for Croda Application Chemicals. He holds a chemistry degree from Sheffield Hallam University. A global supplier of oils, Q8Oils serves industries that include wire and cable production.

Kathy Beaudoin was promoted to director of sales operations at Comtran Marmon ITF. She joined the company in 2005 as national sales director, and was named director of sales operations in 2017. She began her career in sales in 1989 at Madison Cable, where she worked for 10 years. She then worked for six years for Century Electronics, General Dynamics Network Systems, DocuServe and ACT Electronics before joining Comtran. Based in Attleboro, Massachusetts, Comtran manufactures cable and system solutions for a variety of applications, including structured cabling, fire safety, circuit integrity and transit communications.


Bartell Machinery Systems has named William Cacciapouti as its sales manager for wire and cable. He previously was East Coast regional sales manager for Quabbin Wire & Cable Co., Inc., which he joined in 2019. Prior to that he worked for 12 years for Quirk Wire Company as outside sales manager, business development manager, and later as sales manager. Before that, he had worked for nine years as a product marketing manager for C&M Corporation. He holds a BBA degree in finance from Nichols College. Based in Rome, New York, Bartell Machinery Systems supplies rotating technology to the wire and cable industry.

Obituary

Christopher Shannon McGill, a plant manager at Southwire’s factory in Huntersville, North Carolina, died June 2 at age 52 from brain cancer.
McGill joined the company as an operations manager in 2015, and was promoted to plant manager in 2018. He previously had worked for three years for ABB as a production manager and as an operational excellence and process engineering manager. Prior to that he worked as a manufacturing manager for ASTA for two years. A WAI member, he was the president of the Southeast Chapter.|

McGill was known at Southwire as a devoted, caring and smart plant manager. He loved his job, his employees and the company he worked for. He battled the cancer for three years, and worked until the day they sent him home for his own good, just one month before he died. If it were up to him he would have gone every day until then.
Survivors include his wife of 29 years, Tina McGill; four children, Amanda Palomino, Nina Derrick, Taylor McGill, and Trevor McGill; his parents, Jane and Murry McGill; three grandchildren, his brother and sister-in-law, Pat and Alexy McGil; and many nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

Last modified on July 2, 2022

7/2/2022 - The Midwest Chapter reports that its annual golf tournament was a day to remember for the field of 68 golfers competing for bragging rights on Wednesday, June 1, at the St. Andrews Golf & Country Club in West Chicago, Illinois.

Kevin Sopczak of Liberty Steel, who heads the logistics for the golf tournament, said that the annual golf tournament had been sorely missed as the last two events were not able to be held, “courtesy” of Covid-19, the ultimate scourge and spoilsport. “It was a great day, and everything went off without issue. The day was cloudy, with a high of about 70 degrees, with no rain. It was a picture perfect day for golf.”

The return to the links was warmly greeted. “This was my first WAI Midwest Chapter outing and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” said John Hauerwas, heating and heat treating product manager, Radyne Corporation. “My playing companions were pleasant and interesting to be with, some good networking took place and the course, food and hospitality were also good.”

Claiming bragging rights with a winning low score of 64 was the Lake Cable team of Jack Rosenthal, Justin Albright, Dan Pelzel and Fabian Arias. Other challenge winners included: Closest to the Pin, Hole #7, Jack Rosenthal (Lake Cable), Hole #12 Justin Albright (Lake Cable) and Hole #15, Jim DeGrado (Worth Steel); Longest Drive, Hole #2, Jon Singer (Transend Logistics), Hole #14, Dan Pelzel (Lake Cable) and Hole #17, Mike Krueger (Traxit); and Accurate Drive, Hole #11, Rick Fisher.

Sopzak also thanked the sponsors for the event, which included the following. Longest Drive: Chemetall, Worth Steel & Machinery, Suzuki-Garphyttan, Micro Wire & Bar; Closest to the Pin: Chemetall (2 holes) and Leggett & Platt; Accurate Drive: Central Wire; and Corporate Hole Sponsors: Ivaco Rolling Mills, Omni Source, Precision Die Technologies, Charter Steel, Redline Metals, Suzuki-Garphyttan, D & S Wire, Fort Wayne Wire Die and Lake Michigan Metals.

The Midwest Chapter event continues to be a key fundraiser for the body’s scholarship program.

Last modified on July 2, 2022

Contact us

The Wire Association Int.

71 Bradley Road, Suite 9

Madison, CT 06443-2662

P: (203) 453-2777