WCA November 2010

Industry news

New IWCS scholarships The International Wire and Cable Symposium Inc (IWCS) has announced the establishment of endowments to support future scholarships at two strategic universities. The endowments will, eventually, support the granting of two annual scholarships, tentatively set at $3,000 each, at each of the institutions. While the endowment funds are building, the IWCS also established two current scholarships at each institution to the value of $3,000 each to be awarded this year. The scholarship awards, both current and from the endowment, will be made by the institutions to students in their second, third or fourth years of studies in an engineering curriculum. IWCS will have the final approval of any proposed awards. The endowments have been established at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell for students in that school’s Department of Plastics Engineering, and at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte in the William States Lee College of Engineering. The universities are both located within close proximity to the recent and planned IWCS Conference venues of Providence, Rhode Island and Charlotte, North Carolina. International Wire and Cable Symposium Inc – USA Fax : +1 732 389 0991 Website : www.iwcs.org

Investment urged to tackle counterfeit cables

The International Authentication Association (IAA) is urging cable manufacturers to make further investment in anti-counterfeiting strategies and technologies, and not to reduce their efforts in an attempt to save costs during the current tough trading conditions. The chairman of the IAA was commenting on the British Cables Association initiative to tackle the problem of counterfeit cables. The Approved Cables Initiative (ACI) aims to address the issue of unsafe, non-approved and counterfeit cables from the UK market. It has the backing of various industry bodies including the British Approvals Service for Cables (BASEC), the Electrical Distributors Association (EDA), Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), Electrical Safety Council and the NICEIC Group. The IAA believes that many dangerous cables are entering the UK via organised importers who are not complying with their legal duties under UK regulations. The UK market for electrical cables and systems has an approximate value of £2bn. It is estimated that up to 20% of cable products in the cable systems supply chain are unsafe, non-approved or counterfeit. International Authentication Association (IAA) – UK Fax : +44 1932 780 790 Email : info@intlaa.org Website : www.internationalauthenticationassociation.org

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2010