WCA MAY 2015

From the Americas to 1.7 million tons by 2024, a Kobe senior officer, Hiroshi Kato, told Bloomberg News in Tokyo in February. That market would be bigger, and its pace of growth faster, than in Japan – where demand is expected to approximately double to 50,000 tons over the ten years. The size of the American plant would depend on Kobe’s need for capacity to process aluminium alloy, Mr Kato said. A larger, integrated plant could only be justified by a broader customer base, perhaps extending beyond the auto industry. Last year Kobe’s Dutch rival Constellium NV acquired the Japanese company’s supplier of semi-processed alloy in the USA, leaving it to either take the processing in-house or find another source. If Kobe can secure a new supply of semi-processed alloy it will probably build a smaller plant, rated at around 100,000 metric tons of aluminium sheet. But, Mr Kato told Bloomberg : “Our intention to gain access to the North American market has not changed.” Rolling and milling crude steel into strip steel generates large quantities of scrap and offcuts. After its passage through the rolls the strip often ends up too wide, requiring it to be trimmed. In a typical day a steel mill may accumulate several tons of such material. Millimetre-wave radar developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques (FHR) measures the width of sheet steel during processing to within micrometres. The Wachtberg-based unit of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Munich) – Europe’s largest applications-orientated research organisation – believes that this could yield considerable cost savings by permitting self-adjustment throughout rolling so that less scrap is produced. In the FHR method, two radar sensors mounted at the side of the rolls measure the distance to the edge of the sheet steel. Describing it to R&D Magazine (Rockaway, New Jersey), FHR scientist Nils Pohl suggested an analogy with the echolocation mechanism that enables bats to distinguish prey from obstacles. “Our radar sends out continuous electromagnetic signals that are reflected by the right and left edges of the strip,” said Dr Pohl. “The transmitted and received signals are then compared to each other with the help of numeric algorithms. The width of the sheet can be calculated from this comparison.” (“High-Precision Radar for the Steel Industry,” 2 nd March) While lasers and cameras also measure very accurately, they are not well adapted to deployment in environments Technology A new radar system holds promise for minimising scrap from the steel rolling process

of high humidity and/or varied lighting. Hot strip steel must, of course, be water-cooled during rolling; this forms dense steam, especially in winter. An advantage claimed for the FHR system is the excellent penetration of its radar signals even in conditions of steam, fog, heat and dust. Since the sensors are mounted at the sides of the rolls, the FHR system could be readily integrated into existing plants. Low transmitting power – less than that of a cell phone – enables the high-frequency radar, which operates with electromagnetic waves above 30GHz, to satisfy ordinary safety requirements. Intended for eventual mass-production, the system is presently being tested at three steel mills in Germany. Net neutrality – the equality of all Internet traffic – is approved: and the world continues turning on its axis On 26 th February, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), by a vote of three to two, enacted its strongest-ever rules on net neutrality, preserving an open Internet by prohibiting broadband providers from blocking or slowing content that moves through their networks. A substantial victory for President Barack Obama and for the FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, this means that the providers will not be able to block access to sites that they consider competitive; nor will they be able to accelerate access to sites that have paid them. Tim Wu, a professor at New York’s Columbia Law School, took the occasion to reflect on the unlikely prospects for such an outcome, given the almost unanimous conviction of “political cynics” that passage of strong rules would be impossible. “Money,” Mr Wu wrote in the New Yorker , “was certainly not on the side of net neutrality.” Why, exactly, the pessimists were confounded is subject to debate. It may have derived from the unexpected effectiveness of Internet-based activist groups, which helped convince millions of people to take an interest. (See “British comedian,” below) It may have been the personal involvement of Mr Obama, or a misperception of the character of Tom Wheeler. “Whatever the explanation,” Mr Wu wrote, “The most pessimistic theories of lobbyist power clearly need be revised.” (“Why Everyone Was Wrong About Net Neutrality,”) 26 th February). A case in point was the widespread idea that enacting strong net-neutrality rules would lead to a collapse in the value of broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon. In a May 2014 letter to the FCC, 28 telecom industry CEOs warned of an “investment-chilling effect” that would destroy millions in market value. (Indeed, fears of a collapse had helped back the commission away from enacting strong rules in Mr Obama’s first term). Telecom

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2015

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