WCA September 2022

Industry News

Metalube ships to its 100 th country Industrial lubricant specialist Metalube has shipped a container of Alumol 195 aluminium wire drawing lubricant to Azerbaijan, making it the 100 th country on the company’s export list. Established in 1988, the lubricant producer has always been a sizable exporter, with more than 95 per cent of its production shipped globally each year. This year, however, the company is

worldwide have experienced excessive challenges from Covid to Brexit, along with fluctuatingmarkets and rising prices. “At Metalube we always find solutions and try wherever possible for the client experience to be seamless.” Metalube is part of the Bishopdale Group, a private holding company for a group of industrial lubricants brands that also include Molyslip and UOP. From its headquarters in Irlam, Manchester, UK, the company has a fully inte- grated lubricant manufacturing facility, including new laboratories. Metalube Ltd www.metalube.co.uk

expanding its customer base, and is seeing opportunities with new customers in new territories. Commercial director Douglas Hunt said, “It is always exciting for us to supply a new market and we hope to expand our presence in the coming years in Azerbaijan. We pride ourselves on having a ‘can do’ attitude, which has been very beneficial this past year where exporters

Metalube is expanding its customer base

Strengthening global presence Kocks has established a representative office in Taiwan to carry out activities for expanding its business. The office is located in the city of Kaohsiung, the economic and political centre of southern Taiwan.

The office will allow the company to advise and assist customers in a new way. With experts working in Asia, common barriers due to geographical distance or time difference can be compensated for. The Asian market is a general focus of Kocks’s internationalisation strategy. Economic growth is expected to remain at a high level on the back of the positive environment in the Asia-Pacific region. The new representative office is described by the company as an attractive platform for building closer relationships with

The new representative office will promote products and services in the region, to strengthen the global presence of the Kocks Group. The office will establish and coordinate regional business relations, with the aim of meeting current and futuremarket needs.

customers as well as for expanding the business. Friedrich Kocks GmbH & Co KG www.kocks.de The new representative office in Kaohsiung

New investments for further automation Swedish wire machinery manufacturer Lämneå Bruk has made further invest ments, with the purchase of another nVent Hoffman modification centre, a versatile automation solution for preci sion machining for holes and cut-outs. The company has also purchased several nVent Hoffman PWA 2000s (personal wiring assistants), including crimping stations and printers, to automate the entire preparation and installation of the electrical department.

customers what they need as speedy as possible and with the highest quality,” said Lämneå Bruk president Jonas Hagstedt. “Incorporating automated pre- cision machining and wire processing capabilities into our workflow has been well worth the initial investment. We are precisely meeting our customers’ needs faster, with great quality and more cost effectively.” Robert Krükel, nVent Hoffman’s sales manager for Europe, commented, “We are looking forward to future technical exchanges and further ideas that will accelerate Lämneå Bruk but also nVent Hoffman and ultimately all other customers, moving forward.” Lämneå Bruk AB www.lamnea.se

Lämneå president Jonas Hagstedt (right), with nVent’s Robert Kruekel (centre) and Niklas Fast

Lämneå Bruk’s automation begins with switchgear planning in the office, which creates the necessary data for the PWA systems. From there, the automated wire preparation, cutting and installation take place in the workshop. Electrical department personnel receive all the information needed to install the wire, which is produced just in time by the PWA 2000. A visualisation is provided of each wire for connection to components, eliminating the need to read a traditional circuit diagram. “As part of our sincere commitment to providing excellent customer service, we are always looking for ways to get our

nVent Hoffman www.nvent.com

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September 2022