wiredInUSA January 2019

Americaˊs online magazine for wire and cable

Issue No. 91 - January 2019

www.wiredInUSA.com

America’s online magazine for wire and cable

wiredIn USA

Entertaining acquisition Page 9

Boost for US steel production. Page 10

Open for business. Page 27

Work has started on record wind farm. Page 33

Quick Reliable Service Always there to help

www.zumbach.com • sales@zumbach.ch

EDITOR

CommScope is spending $7.4 billion to acquire global entertainment and communications provider Arris International, which would represent the company’s largest acquisition. “The newly combined company is expected to generate profitable growth in newmarkets, and lead the way in wired and wireless communications,” said a press release issued by CommScope. “After a comprehensive evaluation of our business, and the evolving industry we operate in, we are confident that combining with Arris is the best path forward to CommScope to grow and provide the greatest returns for shareholders,” said CommScope president and CEO Eddie Edwards. Turn to page 9 for the full story. And another purchase is that of UK-based GFG Alliance paying $320 million for Keystone Consolidated Industries Inc (KCI), and all its subsidiaries, from Contran Corporation. GFG’s Liberty Steel USA Group will run the operation, which includes the acquisition of a wire rod facility with an electric arc furnace, RedBrand agricultural fence products, industrial wire, a bar mill, three welded wire reinforcement mesh facilities, and a PC strand facility. Full story on page 10.

David Bell Editor

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

January 2019 Issue No.91 CONTENTS

06 PAGE

Show Diary 2019

09 PAGE

Making the News Industry news from the USA

26 PAGE

Europe news The latest news from Europe

32 PAGE

Asia & Africa News The latest news from Asia & Africa

38 PAGE

Products, Machines & Technology The latest news from machine industries

wiredInUSA - January 2019

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wiredIn USA

© 2019 Intras Limited UK ISSN 2046 - 9497 Publishers of EuroWire and Wire & Cable ASIA magazines

INTRAS OFFICES Europe: 46 Holly Walk, Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV32 4HY, UK

Tel: +44 1926 334137 Fax: +44 1926 314755

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USA: Danbury Corporate Center, 107 Mill Plain Road, Danbury, CT 06811, USA Tel: +1 203 794 0444 Email: doug@intras.co.uk News Editor David Bell david@wiredinusa.com Features Editor (USA) Dorothy Fabian Features Editor (Europe) Gill Watson Publisher Caroline Sullens

Sales & Marketing (International) Sales Director Jason Smith jason@wiredinusa.com +44 1926 834 684 Accounts Manager Julie Case juliecase@intras.co.uk

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

Diary Shows & Events 2019

february 28 February to 2 March 2019 Istanbul TEL Fair Istanbul, Turkey www.tel-fair.com

march 5-7 March 2019 Cables 2019 Düsseldorf, Germany www.ami.international

march 9-10 March 2019 Advanced Cable Middle East Abu Dhabi, UAE www.integer-research.com may 13-16 May 2019 Interwire Trade Exposition Atlanta, Georgia, USA www.wirenet.org

march 18-20 March 2019 Advanced Cable North America Charlotte, North Carolina, USA www.integer-research.com

june 13-15 June 2019 Guangzhou Guangzhou, China www.julang.com.cn

For more info visit: www.wiredinusa.com/showinfo.php

wiredInUSA - January 2019

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Entertaining acquisition M A K I N G T H E NEWS

CommScope has plans to acquire global entertainment and communications provider Arris International in what, at $7.4 billion, would represent CommScope’s largest ever acquisition. In a press release, CommScope said that once the deal is completed “the newly combined company is expected to generate profitable growth in new markets, and lead the way in wired and wireless communications,” as well as position the company to benefit from industry trends such as network convergence, fiber, mobility, 5G, Internet of things and the ever-changing network and technology architectures.

we operate in, we are confident that combining with Arris is the best path forward for CommScope to grow and provide the greatest returns for shareholders,” said CommScope president and CEO Eddie Edwards. will bring together a unique set of complementary assets and capabilities that enable end-to-end wired and wireless communications infrastructure solutions that neither company could otherwise achieve on its own. With Arris, we will access new and growing markets, and have greater technology, solutions and employee talent that will provide additional value and benefit to our customers and partners.” “CommScope and Arris

“After a comprehensive evaluation of our business, and the evolving industry

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

GFG North American chief investment officer Grant Quasha and executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta

Boost for US steel production

UK-based GFG Alliance is to purchase Texas- based Keystone Consolidated Industries Inc (KCI) from Contran Corporation. Under the terms of the deal, GFG Alliance’s Liberty Steel USA will acquire KCI, including all its subsidiaries, for $320 million. The acquisition adds a wire rod facility with an electric arc furnace (EAF), RedBrand agricultural fence products, industrial wire, a bar mill, three welded wire reinforcement mesh facilities, and a PC strand facility to the Liberty Steel USA group. “The Keystone acquisition is a core part of GFG’s Greensteel vision to become a leading US producer of high quality, cleanly produced steel,” said Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of Liberty and the GFG

Alliance. “As we look ahead to the future, GFGwill benefit fromKeystone’s century-long history, its robust operations and its reputation for producing top quality steel.” The merger combines the existing South Carolina-based Liberty Steel Georgetown steel plant with a valuable downstream business. The combined company will have operations in Illinois, Ohio, South Carolina, NewMexico, Texas and Georgia. GFGacquired Liberty Steel Georgetown from ArcelorMittal in late 2017. The plant reopened in June 2018 andhas been steadily increasing production.

GFG Alliance rehired 100 employees at the site, and recruited 50 new employees.

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Adapt to low latency

Spectra7 Microsystems Inc has announced robust, error-free performance using Mellanox ConnectX-5 network adapters configured for ethernet low latency CA-N transmission. The testing included Spectra7-enabled active copper cables (ACC) up to 4m in length, which is double the length of passive direct attach cables (DAC) available for these demanding applications.

CA-N specification and requirements. Longer DAC cables require FEC which increases latency by up to 120ns per connection in each direction. The IEEE 100G CA-N specification was created to enable the lowest latency server-to-server connections for demanding artificial intelligence and deep learning applications. These connections can now span multiple racks, enabling larger radix switches and faster and more efficient computations.

Currently, only DAC cables with a maximum length of 2m can achieve the

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Subsea conference

InterGlobix LLC, a global solutions company focused on the convergence of data centers, terrestrial fiber and subsea fiber, has joined the subsea industry’s leading global trade organization, the SubOptic Association. SubOptic Association is active in the international undersea communications industry and is best known for its triennial conference, widely considered to be a global summit of the submarine cable community.

The Beta LaserMike brand has been faithfully serving the wire and cable industry for over 50 years and we have thousands of satisfied customers that rely on our measurement systems every day to improve quality, increase productivity and deliver manufacturing savings. We are committed to your success. Precision Measurement & Control Solutions The SubOptic 2019 conference, themed “To the beach and beyond – rethinking global networks”, is expected to attract around 1,000 subsea fiber optic cable professionals to New Orleans in April. InterGlobix’s president, Vinay Nagpal, will give a presentation, entitled “Convergence of subsea fiber, terrestrial fiber and data centers leading to the continental edge and subsea co- location”.

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

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Subsea power supplies

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has signed a letter of intent to enter into an agreement with energy storage specialist NEC Energy Solutions (NEC ES) for the supply of lithium ion batteries for OPT’s subsea battery solutions. In November 2018, OPT expanded its product line to include solutions providing sea floor energy storage for offshore operations. NEC ES is a designer, manufacturer and integrator of smart

energy storage for the electric grid and for applications with critical power needs. NEC ES has expressed an interest in providing energy storage solutions for remote marine applications. OPT’s subsea battery solutions can power subsea equipment, sensors and communications, and the recharge of autonomous underwater vehicles and electric remotely operated vehicles.

DeWAL PTFE Films and Tapes New solutions for challenging applications

DeWAL designs and manufactures a broad assortment of skived, unsintered and low density PTFE films and tapes. Our specialty laminates combine PTFE with porous substrates and films to withstand abrasion, harsh chemicals, hostile environments and irregular surfaces. For cost-effective film and tape solutions for masking, insulating, shielding, conducting and coating, call DeWAL today.

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

Canadian acquisition

TPC Wire and Cable Corp has completed its acquisition of Milrail Inc, a move that TPC expects to strengthen its position in the high-performance wire and cable market, as well as expand Milrail’s presence in the US and Mexico. Quebec-based Milrail supplies wire, cable and interconnect devices to the rail, transit and military markets in Canada. President and co-founder Allan LaPlante said: “CombiningMilrail’s exceptional customer service and technical support with TPC’s

broader commercial capabilities allows our two companies to carry this torch into the future, and throughout North America, in the wire, cable and connectivity market.” Jeff Crane, TPC president and CEO, acknowledged that TPC will focus on establishing the Milrail products in the US and Mexico markets.

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Long haul fiber in UK

Zayo Group Holdings is extending and upgrading a long haul fiber ring in the UK to enable a direct, low-latency path across the country. The 500km ring, which includes newbuild, will alsoprovideaccess to the UK’s latest subsea cable crossings in both the Irish and North Seas. As part of the project, Zayo will increase the overall fiber count on its existing UK network and add two new coast-to-coast routes to complete the ring. The project, expected to be completed in less than 12

months, will incorporate high-count, ultra- low loss fiber types, built over the shortest physical paths. The routes will also be available for wavelengths. Zayo’s network extends across major cities in eight European countries, and includes over one million fiber kilometers. The company recently announced additional metro expansions in London, Paris, Dublin and Amsterdam, but the UK project is the largest build Zayo has undertaken in Europe to date.

ECC offers a broad portfolio of customized elastomeric or polyolefin based compounds utilized for medium/high voltage as well as certain low voltage flame retardant applications including: • EPR and Polyolefin Compounds • Elastomeric, Crosslinkable, and Thermoplastic Compounds • Flame Retardant and Halogen Free Compounds • Moisture Crosslinkabe Compounds • Specialty/Custom/FR Masterbatches • Insulation, Jacketing, and Bedding Compounds • ISO 9001 certified manufacturing process ensures quality, efficiency and ultimately customer satisfaction. • Non-carbon black product lines produce super-clean, elastomeric high voltage cable compounds. • Personalized customer service and support to customers worldwide. Wire & Cable Customized Compounds

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

Cable for defense data

Xtera ® has completed the final splice and marine operations on the Guantanamo- Puerto Rico submarine cable system for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), part of the US department of defense (DoD). The marine installation for the project was performed by International Telecom’s cable ship, IT Intrepid . The new system will be in service in early 2019, after being fully integrated into the global DISN network. The contract for the 1,400km cable system was awarded in September 2017. KeithHenderson,CEOofXtera,commented: “The success of this project is a credit to the professionalismof our expert team, and their ability to work seamlessly with our industry-

leading partners. Excellent collaboration between Xtera and the DISA project team has enabled the on-schedule delivery of the system despite regional weather challenges.” This is the second submarine cable system that Xtera has deployed for DISA; the first has been fully operational since 2015. Both systems demonstrate Xtera’s strength in the regional market based on its technology, which is said to offer the highest capacity and the longest reach subsea repeater available. When combined with the Nu- Wave Optima™ submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE), which utilizes patented Raman technology, Xtera can deliver over 40 terabits/s on a single fiber pair.

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Watertight wiring

Molex is introducing a new line of IP69K- rated, wet-location wiring devices for demanding harsh-duty environments. The Woodhead Watertite extreme wiring device is designed for use in wet and harsh plant floor conditions that include extreme temperature and wash-down applications. The Watertite Extreme series will comprise two product lines: the 14W47, which will feature FDA-approved vulcanized silicone rubber, and the 14W47-P petrochemical-grade version with oil-resistant vulcanized rubber. “Woodhead has a rich history as a market leader when it comes to quality, and we’ve only improved upon that with the launch of our latest Watertite wiring devices,” said Tony Quebbemann, global product manager, Molex. “The

Woodhead Watertite extreme wiring devices have been re-engineered to deliver extreme performance under extreme conditions.” The Woodhead Watertite extreme wiring solution is believed to be the only wiring device made from FDA-approved material for use in food processing environments. The new vulcanized silicone rubber husk of the wiring device repels and inhibits bacterial growth and can be used in any indoor or outdoor wet location. Claiming to offer superior sealing with flexibility in extreme temperatures, the devices have IP67, IP69K, NEMA 4X and NEMA 6P ratings, and are UV stable, NSF certified, UL listed and CSA certified, in addition to being FDA approved.

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Pittini Group’s new Acciaierie di Verona high- speed wire rod mill has produced its first coil, just 19 months after contract signing. The start-up and seven-week hot-test period, during which 25,000 tons of finished wire rod were produced, reflects the long-term cooperation between Pittini Group and Danieli, who supplied the advanced wire rod technologies and Danieli Automation Q3 intelligence system. Equipped in full compliance with Industry 4.0 requirements, the plant will produce 750,000 tonnes per year of plain wire rod from 5.5mm to 25mm, and rebar from 6mm to 18mm, at a rolling speed of 100m per second. The mill is characterized by a high-speed rougher feeding two independent rolling lines of cantilever roll stands, with quick roll changes and temperature control along the mill and downstream. High-speed shears, installed downstream of the multi-drive twin- module sizing blocks, perform wire rod head and tail cropping. The fourth-generation loop layers are said to guarantee extended pipe life, quick rotor changes, and no vibration during rolling, resulting in perfect loops from heads to tails. The variable-pitch cooling conveyor features modular slow-to-ultrafast cooling. Strict end-product size tolerances have been achieved from the start.

New mill into production

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Forming partners

Davis-Standard acquired Thermoforming Systems LLC (TSL) of Washington. TSL designs and manufactures thermoforming equipment for the North American food packaging industry. “TSL is the market leader in thermoforming equipment technology for high-volume packaging, andweareexcited towelcome their dedicated team to Davis-Standard,” LLC has

said Jim Murphy, Davis-Standard president and CEO, adding: “We are enthusiastic about this opportunity with TSL, as we share core values and a focus on our customers, technology and product innovation.” Murphy concluded: “This is an exciting day for both organizations as we begin our future together.”

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Chicago-based ComEd has entered into a partnership with Massachusetts- based AMSC to deploy AMSC’s high temperature superconductor technology to link a number of ComEd’s substations. The aim is to improve Chicago’s load-serving capacity, resilience and reliability. The project is funded in part by the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security as a step to securing the nation’s electric grid against outages caused by man- made or natural events. The ComEd project will be the first commercial installation in the nation of what is called resilient electric grid (REG) technology. The current design of grid infrastructure in many urban areas makes restoration of power, after a catastrophic event, time-consuming, expensive and unpredictable. REG is a self-healing solution that provides redundancy if portions of the grid are lost for any reason. REG technology can increase the reliability and load-serving capacity of the electric grid by enabling the use of transmission and distribution assets in a way that is not possible with traditional technologies, while at the same time limiting the need for additional grid infrastructure and thus reducing cost.

Resilient grids

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EUROPE NEWS

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Image: E.ON

Open for business

E.ON has formally opened the Rampion wind farm, located 13km off the UK’s Sussex coast. Three years of construction officially came to an end on 30 th November 2018 at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the 400MW Rampion offshore wind farm, the first wind farm off the UK’s south coast. Offshore work began in autumn 2015 to prepare the seabed for the turbine foundations, the first of which was installed in early 2016, with all completed by November the same year. Turbine installation began in March last year and was completed, ahead of schedule, in September.

A visitor center is expected to be opened in Brighton by summer 2019, where interactive displays will provide information on the 400MW project, climate change and offshore wind energy. “We continue to see the UK as an attractive market for the expansion of offshore wind. The government’s support for this technology and an intelligent funding system are also exemplary for other countries in Europe,” said Sven Utermöhlen, COO of E.ON Climate and Renewables. Rampion, whichwill beproducingelectricity for thenext 25 years, is a joint project of E.ON, Canadian energy company Enbridge, and the Green Investment Rampion Ltd consortium.

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

Cable ship starts work

Rebar rolling

Image: DEME

Fuzhou Wuhang, China, has placed an order with SMS group to upgrade its existing mill with SMS TMbaR technology for thermo-mechanical rolling of rebar. This is the third order for a TMbaR mill in China within a year, following orders from Yancheng Lianxin Steel and Laigang Yongfeng Steel. Fuzhou Wuhang, located in the Changle district of Fuzhou, produces structural steel products, and has an annual capacity of around two million tons. The new line is designed for an annual production of 700,000 tons of rebar in diameters of between 10mm and 18mm, at a maximum rolling speed of 45m per second. It can produce rounds of between 14mm and 20mm. SMS group will supply all key equipment including the electrics and the automation package. The plant is scheduled to be in production by mid- 2019. Technological highlights of the contract include loop technology that achieves an ideal temperature across the feeder section within an optimized mill bay length, and the SMS group’s MEERdrive ® finishing blocks. The robust cartridge-type design provides high performance with minimal maintenance requirements.

DEME group’s new cable laying vessel, Living Stone , has begun an offshore wind assignment at the Hornsea Project One wind farm, 120km off the North Sea coast of the UK. Tideway, part of DEME Group, is responsible for laying export cables to the shore from three different offshore substations, and for installing two interlink cables. Tideway is also tasked with boulder removal, pre-trenching, cable pull-in to the substations, crossing installation and cable burial. After the Hornsea Project One installation, Living Stone will continue with cable installation work for Elia’s modular offshore grid (MOG) project. The 160m Living Stone is designed to lay deep-sea cables linking offshore wind farms with the mainland. The vessel is also equipped for the positioning of rocks using a vertical fall pipe system that can reach depths of up to 1,000m. Additional features include a cable capacity of over 10,000 tonnes, an in-house designed cable laying system, dual-fuel (MGO-LNG) engines, and a DP3 system. The cable laying system, designed by Tideway and built at Reimerswaal shipyard, has two cableways – one to lay the cable, and another on which the next cable can be prepared at the same time.

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Power sharing

Wind project growth

Image: Ralf Christian, Siemens AG

Image: Ørsted

Nemo Link interconnector is a joint venture between the transmission system operators Elia (Belgium) and National Grid (UK), to exchange electricity between the two countries using Siemens HVDC Plus technology. The link uses 140km of subsea and underground cables, and will transmit 1,000MW of electrical power at a transmission voltage of ±400kV DC. Ralf Christian, CEO at Siemens’ energy management division, said: “The collaboration between Elia, National Grid, Siemens and our partners has delivered an exemplar project, on time, on budget, and with outstanding safety. This has been down to the exceptional commitment and solidarity of all the people involved, working as one teamacross Belgium, the UK and Germany. The team should be rightly proud of delivering such class-leading technology.” Nemo Link entered its test phase in early December 2018, and is expected to come into commercial operation in the first quarter of 2019.

Danish energy company Ørsted is to begin construction of the 184MW Locket Wind project in Texas, through its subsidiary Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE). Ørsted expects the wind farm to come into operation in the second half of 2019: it will be its fourth onshore wind farm to go online following its Amazon wind farm, Willow Springs Wind and Tahoka installations. Ørsted Onshore’s executive vice president, Ole Kjems, said: “We’re very pleased that our onshore wind portfolio is growing. Today, LCE has two wind farms in operation, a third that’s nearing completion, and with Lockett Wind our portfolio will reach about 1,000MW in 2019.” LCE is a US-based renewable developer and was acquired by Ørsted in October 2018. LCE has a project portfolio of 513MW recently commissioned, 300MW under construction, and over 1.5GW to be completed by 2022, Ørsted said. Established in 2009 by CEO Declan Flanagan, LCE has developed more than 1.8GW of renewable energy projects in the US states of California, New Jersey and Texas.

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

Connection contract

Power to the islands

Image: Boskalis

Nexans has secured a €111 million turnkey project fromADMIE, an independent power transmission operator, for the Cyclades Islands Interconnection in Greece. The project is aimed at providing a reliable and sufficient supply of electricity to the Syros, Paros, Tinos, Mykonos and Naxos islands. The interconnector will be laid between the city of Lavrion, on the Greek mainland, and the island of Syros. By interconnecting the Cyclades Islands, ADMIE plans to reduce the number of the existing power stations that operate on heavy fuel oil and light fuel oil (diesel) and set up the necessary infrastructure to tap the significant renewable power potential in the region. Nexans’ contract includes seabed survey, design, manufacturing, installation and protection of a 150kV high-voltage alternating current three-core submarine power cable with an internal fiber optical element. Delivery and commissioning of the interconnection are scheduled to take place in August 2020.

50Hertz has awarded a contract to the consortium of Danish cable manufacturer NKT and Dutch installation company Boskalis, for the manufacture and installation of three 220kV alternating current cables for the Ostwind 2 project. The 220kV HVAC cables will connect two wind farms in the Baltic Sea - Arcadis Ost 1 and Baltic Eagle - to the German extra-high voltage grid. The order is said to be worth approximately €550 million. The cable systems, identified as OST-2-1, OST-2-2 and OST-2-3, were confirmed by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) in accordance with the 2030 offshore grid development plan (2017 version). The cables have a total length of about 270km. Offshore, these are divided into three cable bundles with lengths between 97km and 85km. Onshore, all cables have the same standard length of 3km. The three 220kV HVAC cables can transfer a total capacity of 750MW. The cables used are synthetic insulated three-core copper cables with a conductor cross-section of 1,200mm². The cable insulation consists of cross-linked polyethylene, and thewatertight submarine cables are reinforced with steel to protect them from mechanical damage.

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Halfway point

PD testing

Prysmian group has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GCC Electrical Equipment Testing Laboratory (GCC Lab)—a testing facility for power transmission and distribution cables andaccessories located inDammam(Saudi Arabia) — for a technical cooperation to develop services associated with testing, inspection and certification activities in the GCC region. Prysmian will cooperate with GCC Lab to perform partial discharge (PD) tests, based on the group’s Pry-Cam wireless technology, on behalf of third parties. fast, accurate and reliable partial discharge measurements, diagnosis and defect localization without needing to switch off the system, covering every aspect of condition assessment for any electrical equipment from 3kV to 600kV. The agreement involves the supply of Pry- Cam equipment, training at Prysmian headquarters for GCC Lab’s engineers, Pry-Cam PD training sessions in GCC Lab to third parties, and on-line PD services on site. Pry-Cam technology allows

DeepOcean has installed the first of two HVAC export cables needed for the UK’s 714MW East Anglia One offshore wind farm. Nexans, the company responsible for the supply of the export cables, gave DeepOcean the contract in January 2017 to carry out the transport and installation work. DeepOcean’s Maersk Connector simultaneously laid and buried the 85km three-core cable using its 7,000-tonne carousel and ACP2 cable plow spread. The project’s offshore substation was installed some 59km from the coast of Lowestoft at the end of August. At present around 60 electrical engineers and technicians are working to complete the installation of the equipment required to commission the substation and to have it ready for the first turbines. The East Anglia One offshore wind project is scheduled to come into operation in 2020.

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ASIA & AFRICA NEWS

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Work has started on record wind farm

Nexans and Marais Laying Technologies Australia have partnered in a consortium to provide a complete collector cable service for Australia’s Stockyard Hill wind farm. The consortium has the contract to design, manufacture, supply, install and test 275km of 33kV collector cables for the 530MW onshore wind farm, expected to be the largest in the southern hemisphere. Trenching and laying of the power cables, fiber optics and earthing cables for the first collector group of turbines began in late 2018. The Marais SMC 200 R Trencher will be used to cut around 130km of narrow trench while simultaneously laying the cables and backfilling. The highly automated approach provides close control of the trenching process, and enables the cross-section of the trench to be minimized while still providing essential protection to maintain the cable ratings.

For the Stockyard Hill project Nexans is providing its Windlink ® solutions consisting of 33kV power cables, manufactured at Nexans’ China facility in Yanggu, China, with aluminum conductor cross-sections ranging from 95mm 2 to 1,000mm 2 in long continuous lengths. Nexans Olex subsidiary Nexans Australmold will supply underground junction cabinets for the cables, the indoor terminations for the substation connections, and the tower end ring main unit (RMU) connections. The Windlink cables will be installed in trenches to collect the electricity produced by the individual wind turbines and feed it into three 33/132kV substations that will connect the wind farm to the local grid.

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wiredInUSA - January 2019

Space monitoring fibers

Contract brings cable milestone

Image: UPM

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has sent optic fiber samples to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) for testing on the International Space Station (ISS). The optic fibers, which took a year and a half to produce, are known as E-SOFPADS and I-SOFPADS (smart optical fibers for passive dosimetry in space), and will detect harmful space radiation outside and inside the ISS. The samples will be sent from Jaxa to ISS in February 2019. The E-SOFPADS will be in space for 360 days, while the I-SOFPADS will detect radiation within the ISS for 300 days, said Dr Noramaliza; they will then be returned to UPM for analysis. Three UPM researchers were involved in the building of the samples, in collaboration withUniversiti Malaya, MultimediaUniversity, Sunway University and Malaysia’s National Space Agency (Angkasa). Dr Noramaliza said the dosimeter of optical fibers will be exposed in space under various conditions and will be stored in the Kibo module, a Japanese science module developed by Jaxa for ISS.

Hengtong has manufactured and supplied 3,000km of subsea cable to Chile, as part of the Fibre Optic Austral (FOA) cable project. Including this latest contract, Hengtong has now supplied over 10,000km of subsea cable for overseas projects. The FOA subsea cable system will run along the coast of Chile, connecting Puerto Montt with Puerto Williams, with two branches to Tortel and Punta Arenas. Chile’s Comunicación y Telefonía Rural awarded the contract to build the cable to Huawei Marine. Huawei Marine said it will provide an end-to- end submarine cable solution using its 100G universal platform to provide a seamless optical network architecture between submarine and terrestrial networks. The system has a design capacity of 16Tbps and a length of 2,800km. It is scheduled for completion by the end of 2019. On 26 th November 2018 Hengtong released a number of new products, including submarine equipment fitting stations, a stereo intelligent anchor observation system, andaport andwharf environmental monitoring system. Hengtong submarine cable for Chile shipped at Heng- tong’s Pier 1

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Kenyan power plan

Integrated plant plans

Image: Seshagiri Rao

Image: Charles Keter

Indian manufacturer JSW Steel plans to integrate theAferpi rollingplant, in Italy, with its Indian businesses, including its recently purchased Monnet Ispat and Energy. JSW purchased the Aferpi plant in May 2018. The managing director of JSW Steel, Seshagiri Rao, said the company will send billet, smelted at Salem and Monnet Ispat plants in India, to Italy. Currently, Aferpi operates a rolling mill with a capacity of 1.3 million tons per year, which the company utilizes to produce rails. JSW has plans to use the rolling mills for the production of up to 700 tonnes of rebar and wire rod per year. Timings for a planned furnace at the site have yet to be decided.

Kenya’s government and the World Bank have launched the Kenya National Electrification Strategy (KNES), a plan for total electrification in the country by 2022. According to the World Bank, Kenya has rich renewable resources and is a global leader in the use of geothermal resources as a clean fuel for power generation. According to a recent multi-tier framework energy access survey report, Kenya has the highest electricity access rate in East Africa at 75 percent, both from on-grid and off-grid solutions, but 25 percent of the population still lack power. Charles Keter, cabinet secretary of the ministry of energy, said: “Tremendous achievement in scaling up connectivity has been made over the last few years. However, there was a need to come up with a new national electrification strategy to deal with the challenges of bringing the entire country under electrification in an economically viable manner.” It is expected that around $14.8 billion will be spent on power infrastructure in Kenya over the next five years.

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Securing supply

Island network

Image: www.egssurvey.com

Nexans has a full turnkey contract to reinforce the national grid of the Philippines. The contract includes manufacturing, delivery and installation of 350kV HVDC mass-impregnated (MI) submarine cable, in water depths up to 650m, for the submarine link of the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP). National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) launched the Mindanao-Visayas project to connect the three power grids of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao into one unified national grid. With the completion of the MVIP, expected by 2020, NGCP aims to ensure a more stable and secure supply of power in the country and maximize the use of available local energy resources. The 350kV submarine MI cable will be manufactured in Nexans’ Nippon High Voltage Cable Corporation plant in Futtsu, Japan, and at Nexans’ Norway plant in Halden. The installation and protection works will be performed by Nexans’ C/S Nexans Skagerrak . Vincent Dessale, senior executive vice president Nexans, subsea and land systems business group, said: “…We look forward to contributing to the construction of a single national grid, which will provide a more reliable electricity transmission to the Philippine people.”

The RV Northern Endeavour has completed its survey operations of the proposed route for the Coral Sea Cable system and the Solomon Islands’ domestic network. The vessel has been in Solomon waters, working in collaboration with an onshore team. Preliminary findings from the survey indicate that the Coral Sea Cable, linking Sydney to Honiara, will be around 3,759km long. The Solomon Islands’ domestic network will extend approximately 722km across the Solomon Islands seafloor to deliver high- speed, reliable Internet to Malaita, Western and Choiseul provinces. The governments of the Solomon Islands and Australia are working in partnership to deliver the project, using cable manufactured in France by Alcatel Submarine Networks. Project construction began in July 2018, and the cable is scheduled for service by the end of 2019.

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Marketing has its own reward

Seeking standard cables

Image: Lapp Group Cable

Electrical engineering company Process and Plant Automation has partnered with Lapp Group to distribute quality cables to the Ghanaianmarket. Themove will enable the company to adhere to the Ghana standard authority regulations for importing only quality cables into the country. Speaking at the launch of Lapp Group Cable in Accra, the chief executive officer of Automation Ghana, Kweku Asmah, said the partnership will strengthen their reputation for supplying only high-standard cables. Mr Asmah, who has been in business since 2003, noted that the partnership with Lapp will not only improve sales, but also increase supply chain. The managing director of Lapp Group Cable, Jose Carvalho, said the company is currently supplying cables to over 150 countries. In Ghana, Mr Carvalho added, the company’s products will be distributed solely by Automation Ghana.

Sri Lanka’s ACL Cables PLC received a silver award for “B2B brandof the year” at the SLIM brand excellence 2018 awards ceremony held recently in Colombo. The award is in recognition of ACL’s brand marketing to effectively reach its B2B audience and attain the maximum value possible within the industry. It is the second time that ACL Cables has won the award. As the national body of marketing, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) encourages strategic and result-oriented thinking in the fields of brand development, sales, advertising and research through prestigious events such as its SLIM brand excellence awards. Suren Madanayake, managing director of ACL Cables, commented: “We are very pleasedanddelighted to receive this award. It has been only the second occasion where we have been a contender and we’ve won again.” ACL Cables is credited with being first to introduce fire-retardant and fire-resistant cables to its market, via its brand names ACL Fireguard, ACL Firezero and ACL Fire Survivor.

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Products, Machines & Technology

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A step closer to Energiewende

important breakthrough for Nexans at both the technology and commercial levels,” said Johannes Rothfeld, Nexans strategic account manager for German TSOs. Fiber diagnostics PacketLight Networks, a provider of DWDM and optical fiber networking products, has introduced its PL-1000D fiber optic diagnostic solution, a single device for consistent monitoring of signal quality and network faults. Delivering non-intrusive network visibility, the PL-1000D provides carriers, dark fiber providers and enterprises with a strategic asset for real-time network diagnostics and improved service level agreements (SLAs). The solution offers an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) and an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) integrated into a 1U box for minimal rack space. To maintain secure networks PL-1000D detects changes in the fiber characteristics, such as tapping, and works in combination with embedded layer-1 encryption to protect data across the fiber. “The PL-1000Dwas developedas a response to high demand from our customers wanting a cost-effective solution for better network visibility and accurate monitoring of fiber signal and faults,” said Koby Reshef, CEO of PacketLight Networks. “We responded by delivering one device with

Germany’s Energiewende, the transition in energy policy to focus on renewable sources of energy, is presenting significant challenges for the country’s transmission grid. In particular, Germany’s transmission systems operators must transmit huge amounts of renewable energy over long distances from the north to demand centers in the the south, and are building some of the world’s longest underground cable projects. Nexans has responded to the challenge by qualifying its HVDC cable systems for the German TSOs for operation at 525kV, a major voltage increase that enables them to carry more power than previous industry-standard cables. Nexans has developed an HVDC cable system, based on a triple extruded cross- linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation design, to operate at 525kV, with a power rating of 2GW. In a one-year test program under installation conditions, the Nexans HVDC cable system is said to have demonstrated “reliability and performance”. Deploying the 525kV cable will enable the TSOs to transmit far more power with a cable of the same cross-section. In some projects this could eliminate the need to construct an additional circuit, resulting in savings on cable infrastructure and civil works as well as reducing the installation footprint.

“Qualification of our 525kV HVDC cable systems with Germany’s TSOs is an

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OTDR and OSA functionality for constant non-intrusive network monitoring to reduce maintenance costs and detect issues prior to service degradation.” The PL-1000D will monitor up to eight fiber strands consecutively and operates stand alone over dark fiber, lighted fiber, or a third party network without impacting network traffic. Thedevicemonitors theentireDWDM C-band spectrum and provides the optical spectrum, OSNR, and OTDR measurements of the fiber. This reduces the cost and delays of deploying technicians to the field. Secure entry icotek has expanded its range of round- type KEL-DPZ entry plates with the addition of metric standard size M25. The new M25 allows easy and fast entry for four cables of 3.2mm to 5.2mm diameter, or one cable of 3.2mm to 6.5mm and two of 3.2mm to 5.2mm diameter. Cables, or pneumatic hoses without plugs, are quickly and safely routed into control cabinets, panels or machines, and sealed with certified protection up to IP68 (certified to DIN EN 60529: 2000-09) and UL type 4X.

Other certifications, such as Ecolab, cURus, and HL3 have been granted. Pierced or no longer required membranes are reclosed with ST-B plugs. Introduced cables are automatically sealed and strain relieved, and the hygienic design prevents dirt niches. The KEL-DPZ consists of two components: an insert plate made of elastomer, and an integrated polyamide body. As with other icotek products, the KEL-DPZ series is halogen, and silicone-free. Matching polyamide locknuts are included. Tiny terminations Molex has introduced a micro-termination for use in applications with tiny structural elements. The product is designed for the medical, smartphone and mobile device industries seeking detachable micro- terminations that can be used with ever- decreasing component sizes. The automated and reliable micro- termination solutions work with Temp-Flex micro-ribbon cables, and with wires down to 50 AWG. The Molex micro-termination solution is a separable connection, eliminating the need for bulky soldered terminations for the 42 to 50 AWG range and the cost of new permanent terminations.

“As devices grow ever smaller, components necessarily shrink as well,” said Abe

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Hiroshi, global product manager, Molex. “Terminating micro connectors and wires becomes increasingly challenging as a result. The Molex micro-termination method offers customers a true separable connection and huge space savings.”

The cables are offered in cat 6a, cat 5e and cat 5e slim construction versions, and comply with all RoHS directives. The fire properties of the new cables meet FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation), Airbus and Boeing requirements. “Our new high-temperature cables are perfect for use in in-flight systems, cabin management applications, ground vehicle trunks, backbone avionics, high-temp testing and for general military, avionics or aerospace use,” said Mark Hearn, MilesTek product manager.

Three capabilities are available: interposer flex to micro FPC connector, which offers distal end terminations and proximal ends; board-to- board on interposer, utilizing a SlimStack board-to-board interposer with two wire routing orientations; and direct to ASIC, where a cable terminates directly on ASIC. Ethernet in hot places MilesTek has released a new series of high-temperature-rated ethernet cables, designed for aerospace and extreme high- temperature environment applications. The new cable assemblies feature FEP jackets, rated for a temperature range of –55°C to +150°C, and a double-shielded cable with both 100 percent foil and 85 percent braid shields to provide maximum EMI and RFI protection. micro-termination

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EDITORIAL Index

50Hertz

30 37 30 25 30 16 25 24 31 28 27 39 28 31 10 34 40 13 34 35 10 37 9 9

Lincoln Clean Energy

29 33 41 16

ACL Cables PLC

Marais Laying Technologies

ADMIE AMSC

MilesTek Milrail Inc

Arris International

Molex

20, 40

Boskalis

National Grid (UK) NEC Energy Solutions

29 15

Cable Corp

ComEd

Nexans

30, 31, 33, 36, 39

CommScope

NKT

30 15 29 39 22 37 31 29 28 11 24 16 34 35 18 17

Davis-Standard LLC

Ocean Power Technologies

DeepOcean DEME group

Ørsted

PacketLight Networks

E.ON

Pittini Group

Elia

28, 29

Process and Plant Automation

Energiewende Fuzhou Wuhang

Prysmian group

Siemens

GCC Lab

SMS group

GFG Alliance

Spectra7 Microsystems Inc Thermoforming Systems LLC

Hengtong

icotek

TPC Wire

InterGlobix LLC

Universiti Putra Malaysia

Jaxa

World Bank

JSW Steel

Xtera

Keystone Consolidated Industries Inc

Zayo Group Holdings

Lapp Group

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ADVERTISING Index

Advanced Cable North America 2019

14 23 13 12 11 15 17 16

AIM Inc

Beta LaserMike (An NDC Technologies Brand)

Cables 2019

Clinton Instrument Company

DeWAL

Electrical Cable Compounds Inc

Madem

Messe Düsseldorf Paramount Die

7

21

Sikora

8

Windak Group

19

Zumbach Electronic

2

Marketing: Contact Jason Smith, wiredInUSA, Tel: +44 (0) 1926 834684 Email: jason@wiredinusa.com News: Contact David Bell, Editor, wiredInUSA, Tel: +44 (0) 1926 334137 Email: david@wiredinusa.com

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