3/4/2022 – Greece’s Hellenic Cables recently reported two contracts, both related to Dogger Bank (A, B and C), the world’s largest offshore wind project, which is located in the North Sea, between 125 and 290 km off the east coast of Yorkshire.

Per Wikipedia, since 2017, Dogger Bank Wind Farm Ltd. has developed what is known as Dogger Bank A, B and C, while a fourth wind farm has been developed by Sofia Offshore Wind Farm Ltd. as Sofia Offshore Wind Farm.

A press release said that Hellenic Cables has been awarded the Dogger Bank C array cable contract by DEME Offshore, the renewables business unit of DEME Group. Already the designated supplier for Dogger Bank A and B, with this contract Hellenic Cables becomes the sole inter array cables’ supplier for the massive project.

Under the new contract, Hellenic Cables will supply some 240 km of 66 kV XLPE-insulated inter-array cables and associated accessories. This is in addition to 650 km of array cables already awarded for phases A & B. The cables will be produced at the company’s plant in Corinth, Greece. Production of the cables for Dogger Bank C is set to begin in 2023 and delivery will be a phased roll out in line with the project execution program.

“We’re proud to be the exclusive array cables supplier for the world’s largest offshore wind farm, which provides the U.K.’s largest single source of renewable energy,” said Alexis Alexiou, CEO of Cenergy Holdings and Hellenic Cables.

The second project, for the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, is for RWE, a German energy firm that contracted Van Oord Offshore Wind UK to provide the engineering. The project calls for Hellenic Cables to supply some 360 km of 66 kV inter-array cables and accessories to the Sofia offshore wind farm. The company will also make the cables at its Corinth plant. Cable production is set to begin in 2022 and be completed in 2023. The cables will be installed by Van Oord’s cable-laying vessel, Nexus.

The 1.4 GW Sofia offshore wind farm is located 195 km from the nearest point on the U.K.’s North East coast on a site of 593 sq km. “Building on the expertise and know-how demonstrated in previous projects, such as the Hollandse Kust (South) project, our goal is to successfully implement this project as well. Together with our investment in the next-generation custom-built green cable-laying vessel Calypso, this highlights Van Oord’s drive to continuously reinforce its market position,” said Arnoud Kuis, managing director at Van Oord offshore wind.

The Dogger Bank is an attractive location for offshore wind farms because it is far away from shore, avoiding complaints about the sight of wind turbines, yet at a water depth shallow enough for traditional fixed foundation wind turbine designs to be deployed. Fixed-foundation wind turbines are economically limited to maximum water depths of 40 to 50 meters, whereas greater water depths require new floating wind turbine designs that cost significantly more to build. All four farms have a delivery date between 2023 and 2025.

3/4/2022 – NKT has entered into an agreement to acquire U.K.-based Ventcroft Ltd. to bolster its position in the European power cable market by adding the company’s fire-resistant cable technology to the portfolio.

A press release said that the acquisition was an important step in the NKT strategy to grow the business with a strong product portfolio including fire-resistant power cables, telecom power cables and building wires. It noted that there is a growing focus on such products in the construction industry. “We are pleased to welcome Ventcroft to NKT and add their leading technology to our portfolio and expect them to benefit from our broad reach across the European market as part of our growth journey,” said NKT Executive Vice President and Head of Applications Will Hendrikx.

“We are looking forward to starting a new chapter with NKT and the acquisition brings some interesting possibilities to create future growth for Ventcroft,” said Ventcroft owner and Chairman Frank Rotheram. At the website of the family owned business, located south of Liverpool, Ventcroft notes that it is the U.K.’s largest independent manufacturer of fire and security products. The company, founded in 1989 and based in Runcorn, Cheshire, supplies cable and electronic products to a global client base in more than 50 countries.

3/4/2022 – Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Nokia, has signed a contract to be the supplier for a Mediterranean project that will require 8,700 km of submarine cables.

A press release said that the order is from AFR-IX telecom, a Spanish infrastructure and telecom operator. Dubbed the Medusa, the cable will connect the two shores of the Mediterranean. It will interconnect nine countries of the Mediterranean Sea through landing points in Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Algeria, France, Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Egypt.
The submarine cable is expected to be operational between late 2024 for its West part and the beginning of 2025 for its East part, with segments accommodating up to 24 fiber pairs with a capacity of 20 Tbit/s per fiber pair.

Per multiple media reports, citing a statement from AFE-IC CEO Albi Norman, “There is a combination of factors that lead us to invest in this cable: in addition to the fact that there are some submarine cables in the Mediterranean that are reaching the end of their life cycle (and that need alternatives), it is known that the telecommunications traffic generated in Africa has grown at an average of 55% per year.”

Per submarinenetworks.com, the AFR-IX telecom is part of a public-private consortium that also includes the University of Alcalá, the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) and Aragón Photonics. The Medusa cable, which follows the open cable standard, is estimated to cost €326 million.

Greenblatt said he wants to aggressively grow the Madsen workforce— now about three dozen employees—by about 20%, to keep up with new business. “We’re planning to get Madsen to 45 or so in the next couple of weeks. We just want smart people who want to be part of a growing company.”

1/31/2022 – CABLE contest winner: Clean Carbon Conductors/DexMat

Last issue, WJI presented the 10 Stage 1 winners in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric applications (CABLE) conductor manufacturing initiative. One winner, Clean Carbon Conductors/DexMat, focuses on carbon nanotubes. Below, DexMat CEO Dimitri Tsentalovich discusses his work. A second winner will be presented in March.

WJI: How did your team form?
Tsentalovich: DexMat began commercializing Galvorn Carbon NanoTube (CNT) conductors in 2015 and teamed up with Rice University to solve critical R&D challenges for scaling the production of CNT materials over the years. The DexMat/Rice team that has substantial combined experience in academic research, engineering, and product development. In 2021, DexMat and Rice partnered with Prysmian to form the Clean Carbon Conductors team and take advantage of Prysmian’s significant expertise in the development and introduction of new materials in their wire and cable products. Rice University Professor Matteo Pasquali is a cofounder of DexMat.

WJI: What is your contest focus?
Tsentalovich: The objective of the Clean Carbon Conductors effort is to produce higher conductivity Galvorn CNT conductors. DexMat has a low-cost, scalable fluid phase process for manufacturing CNT conductors out of raw CNTs. By partnering with Rice University and Prysmian to deliberately focus on enhancing electrical conductivity, we believe that within the next 10 years, our team can produce CNT fibers and yarns with >65 MS/m electrical conductivity (over 112% IACS) through a process that will be cost-competitive with Cu wire production, but with a substantially reduced climate impact.

WJI: How did the collaboration with the Prysmian Group help?
Tsentalovich: The Prysmian Group has been a tremendous resource for our team. Prysmian’s R&D team has contributed valuable insights to the importance of considering factors such as manufacturing costs, product life-cycle environmental impact and the commercialization pathway for enhanced conductivity Galvorn conductors.

WJI: Where do you see your CNTs most benefiting wire and cable?
Tsentalovich: CNTs are positioned as the most promising solution for reducing the weight of aircraft wiring. DexMat has already demonstrated a 50% weight reduction by replacing the Cu braid EMI shielding layer of an RG-316 cable with Galvorn CNT film. Enhanced conductivity Galvorn CNT conductors would enable a 70% reduction in the mass of most electrical cabling on any commercial aircraft, resulting in a total weight reduction of several hundred kilograms per aircraft; this would result in significant fuel savings, and thus a reduced climate impact as well.

WJI: Can your process to be commercialized on a large scale?
Tsentalovich: Galvorn CNT fibers, yarns, and films are commercially available and can be purchased directly from DexMat. Over the next few years, we plan to scale-up Galvorn conductor production by a factor of at least 100, while continuing to work on increasing conductivity and other properties. Working with institutions like Rice University and companies like Prysmian is sure to help accelerate the path to both large scale production and enhanced conductivity. For more information, contact DexMat at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.dexmat.com.

Prysmian Group perspective
For the past decade, we have been exploring and testing engineered nanocarbons that offer great potential as strength members and electrical conductors. The holy grail is a lightweight material, with high electrical & thermal conductivity, high tensile strength and low coefficient of thermal expansion, produced with a minimal environmental impact. We believe DexMat has made significant strides with their Galvorn CNT fiber technology in this regard, both in terms of product performance and process scalability. Luca De Rai, vice president of Energy R&D.

1/31/2022 – Marlin Steel has acquired the assets of Madsen Wire, an Indiana-based maker of wire products that was founded in 1938, and the new owner plans to bolster further growth.

A press release said that Madsen Wire, based in Orland, Indiana, makes security partitions for fleet vehicles, and is one of the largest manufacturers of wire mesh, wire grid, wire mats and forms and refrigerator shelves. The acquisition price was less than $10 million, said Drew Greenblatt, president of Marlin Industries and Madsen Wire.

“The combination of the two companies will allow Madsen and Marlin to ship faster and provide much more capacity to handle bigger jobs, since so many opportunities are coming back from China,” Greenblatt said in an announcement. “We are all in on USA manufacturing.”

Madsen Wire Products reported that it plans to hire additional workers in Indiana to help serve new clients and surging demand. The company was said to have recently invested millions of dollars in robotic welding and wire forming technology.

Madsen Wire General Manager Steve Cochran said there were many positives to come from the acquisition. He noted that Madsen Wire was focused on quality and on-time delivery. “By adding the strong suit of Marlin’s engineering team, our footprint will become global.”

Greg Parker, one of the sellers of Madsen Wire, said that the deal is a good fit as the companies share common goals and interests, including safety. “Marlin Steel’s history of safety (1,400-plus days) and Madsen’s history of safety (1,000-plus days) were a big factor in our getting comfortable with each other. I wanted our employees to have a company that embraced the safety culture as we did. Marlin and Madsen’s team gets safety.”

Greenblatt said he wants to aggressively grow the Madsen workforce— now about three dozen employees—by about 20%, to keep up with new business. “We’re planning to get Madsen to 45 or so in the next couple of weeks. We just want smart people who want to be part of a growing company.”