1/31/2022 – The WAI Poland Chapter continues working on its 9th International Drawing Conference, “New technological aspects of producing wire rods, wires and metal products manufactured using modern metal forming processes,” that is set for April 20-22, at the Hotel GALAXY in Cracow, Poland."
Chapter President Jan Pilarczyk said that preparation for the scheduled event continues, and that despite concerns about Covid, it is expected that it will be held. The conference will focus on modern methods of metal forming and drawing processes and production of wire rod and wire. It will also serve as a congenial gathering site for producers and customers.
The program will be presented in the March issue. The final range of presentations is expected to include: modern cables and wires in the power industry, dieless drawing process for elongation of ultra-thin copper wire, and improvements of mechanical steel wire rod cleaning and surface treatment.
The plenary session will be moderated by Pilarczyk and Prof. Tadeusz Knych, the dean of the Department of Nonferrous Metals at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow, who is also chairman of the scientific committee. Attendance for the conference is expected to be about 100 participants.
Four individuals will be honored with the Schneider Memorial Award—the highest such award for Poland at the conference. They include Tom Moran, Brookfield Wire, U.S.; Prof. Beata Smyrak, AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow; Prof. Zbigniew Gronostajski, Wrocław University of Technology; and Andrzej Karwat, R&D, DRUMET/ WireCo Corp.
The co-organizers of the conference include Pilarczyk; Knych, the 2015 winner of the WAI’s Mordica Memorial Award; and Prof. Adam Zieliński, of the Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy. It will also include a tour of plant of TELE-FONIKA Kable S.A. The Conference Honorary Patronage is by Prof. Norbert Sczygiol, rector of the Czestochowa University of Technology.
For details about the different sponsorships available for businesses, and more information, go to the Poland Chapter website at www.msc.wip.pcz.pl.
1/31/2022 – On January 14, the WAI Board of Directors held the last in a series of planning meetings for the Operations Summit and Wire Expo 2022, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Dallas in Texas on June 6-8. The goal was to finalize the focus for the event, and it did just that when the board voted that the theme for the event would be “Rising to the Challenges.”
“The Board, which is comprised of experienced industry professionals, has been managing through this prolonged period of challenges” said WAI President Jim York, Sr. VP of Insteel Industries. “They considered a number of ‘current world’ elements well suited for the conference and, as the program came together, a common theme was apparent. ‘Rising to The Challenges’ was unanimously adopted as the Wire Expo theme for 2022.”
The Board planned the event to be full of topical content recognizing that the operational demands on the wire and cable industry are both significant and prolonged. The program will address four key areas: workforce, supply chain, production solutions and technical development. More details can found at www.wireexpo22.com and in subsequent WJI issues.
Other highlights will be a tour of Encore Wire Corp., the Fundamentals of Wire Manufacturing Course, the keynote speech and the Awards Ceremony.
WAI is optimistic that this in-person event will be held, given the projected return to more traditional meetings as the year progresses. This sentiment is shared by the more than 100 suppliers that are supporting the exhibit portion of the program. Wire and cable professionals can renew relationships, learn, rejuvenate and once again share in the industry experience. It is long overdue.
1/20/2022 – The organizers of wire Düsseldorf and Tube Düsseldorf have set a new date for the events, which had previously been rescheduled to May 9-13.
A Messe Düsseldorf press release said that the event is now scheduled for June 20-24 due to the “currently very dynamic infection patterns and rapidly spreading Omicron variant.” The new date offers more planning security and added value due to METAV held concurrently in part.
“The tenor among our exhibitors is: We want and need wire and Tube – but at a point in time that promises the biggest prospects of success,” said Messe Düsseldorf CEO Wolfram N. Diener. “Together with the partners and associations involved we regard early summer as the ideal period for this. We not only expect infection patterns to calm down but also more people to be able to enter the country and take part. This means exhibiting companies as well as visitors can do their business in an environment that is clearly less affected by Covid-19.”
Bernd Jablonowski, division manager of the overall Metals and Flow Technologies Portfolio at Messe Düsseldorf, is confident that the delay will help. "Planning security for exhibitors, visitors and the entire trade fair industry is the most important thing in the continuing pandemic situation. By moving the industries' two top events to early summer, we are enabling a secure live trade fair experience that is adapted to the situation."
Added Daniel Ryfisch, project director wire and Tube, "I would like to thank our exhibitors and partners for their understanding and willingness to once again make wire and Tube with us from 20 to 24 June the industry highlights they have been for more than 30 years at the Düsseldorf location."
Exhibitors at wire will present their technological highlights in exhibition halls 9 to 15, while Tube exhibitors will be in halls 1 to 7a. A guest event, METAV, International Trade Fair for metal-working technologies, will be held from June 21-24 June in halls 16 and 17. METAV is organized and staged by the VDW, German Machine Tool Builders' Association.
1/7/2022 – Below are the individuals who will lead the Wire Association in 2022, and details about them.
James R. York will serve as the Association’s president in 2022, succeeding Thomas Heberling, Southwire Co. The other officers are 1st Vice President Daniel Blais, Prysmian; 2nd Vice President Kurt Breischaft, SDI LaFarga COPPERWORKS; WAI Executive Director/Secretary Steve Fetteroll; and WAI Treasurer Sheila Kuever. The WAI officers are key to the direction and planning for events, products and services to serve the WAI’s 2,000 members.
President: James R. York
James R. York is senior vice president of Insteel Industries Inc., where his focus is sourcing, logistics and business development. He joined the company in 2018, and prior to that had worked for Leggett & Platt for 15 years in key management positions, the last one being vice president, president rod & wire products. Prior to that, he had worked for Bekaert for nearly 20 years. He joined the Board of Directors in 2017 and the Executive Committee in 2018. He is the co-chair of the 2022 Conference Programming Committee, and he previously was a member of the Interwire Industry 4.0 Task Force and the Finance Committee. He has been a WAI member since 2012. He is active in the American Wire Producers Association. He holds a B.S. degree in marketing from the University of Missouri-Columbia’s College of Business.
1st Vice President: Daniel Blais
Daniel Blais is the North American manufacturing area utilities vice president for Prysmian, where he has worked since 1987. He is based at the company’s in Highland Heights, Kentucky. A WAI member since 2011, he is responsible for nine manufacturing facilities serving the utility and rod and strip customer base. He has held several operational leadership positions of growing responsibilities across the Prysmian North American footprint. He joined the Board of Directors in 2018 and the Executive Committee in 2019. He is the co-chair of the 2022 Conference Programming Committee, and he previously was a member of the Interwire Industry 4.0 Task Force and the Finance Committee. He holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Sherbrooke University.
2nd Vice President: Kurt Breischaft
Kurt Breischaft is the president of SDI LaFarga COPPERWORKS, a position he has held since 2013. He has held progressively responsible positions within the industry during his 30-year career, working for companies that include Cerrowire, Belden and Superior Essex. He serves on the WAI Board of Directors and is a member of the Executive Committee. He was the chairman of the Membership Committee from 2018 to 2021. He holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an MBA from Indiana Western University. Of note, he also was the recipient of the 2006 Wire Link Traveling Scholarship Award.
1/4/2022 – Prysmian Group has been awarded a framework contract worth around €1.71 billion by Terna Rete Italia SpA (Terna), for the Tyrrhenian Link project, which includes the design, supply, submarine and land installation, and commissioning of a total of over 1,500 km of submarine cables to support the power exchange among Sardinia, Sicily and Campania, thus reinforcing the Mediterranean energy hub.
A press release said that the order from Terna, a unit of an Italian electricity grid operator (TSO), calls for the turn-key installation of one to three 500 kV HVDC links. Each 500-km link will use single-core cables with mass impregnated insulation. They will also have double wire armoring, an innovation recently developed by Prysmian Group.
Delivery and commissioning are expected in 2025-2028. Installation will be done by Prysmian’s new vessel, the Leonardo da Vinci, which will deploy the cable to a water depth of 2,000 meters, the deepest ever reached for a power cable. The ship, described as the world’s largest cable-laying vessel, entered into operations in August 2021.
The contract also includes an electrode system and an optical fiber cable for system monitoring, as well as land civil works and land-fall HDD (Horizontal Directional Drilling). The submarine and land cables will be manufactured at Prysmian’s plant in Arco Felice (Naples).
“We are proud to have once again been chosen by Terna as a partner for this milestone infrastructure project, aimed at providing a more robust and sustainable national power grid,” stated Valerio Battista, Prysmian Group CEO. “We have proven to be able to offer the widest industry expertise, as well as technology and assets, to execute such an extensive and challenging project.”
The new 1,000 MW submarine link will help Italy reach its energy transition goals, enabling three regions to increase their solar and wind power exchange capacity generated locally. This will therefore support the development of renewable energy through better use of energy flows and a more efficient market.
“This contract adds to the other €2.3 billion projects already secured by Prysmian in 2021, thus further strengthening the Group’s ambition to become the strategic partner for developing power grids in support of the energy transition,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP project business, Prysmian Group.
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