6/4/2021: Bremen-based SIKORA AG, manufacturer and worldwide supplier of measuring, control, inspection and sorting technology, is one of the most innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Germany 2021/2022, according to a survey conducted by the independent German Association for Consumer Studies (DtGV).

June 3, 2021 – A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office competition offers entrepreneurs up to $4.5 million in prizes for development of next-generation affordable conductors. It is part of DOE’s Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric applications (CABLE) Conductor Manufacturing initiative. Below, WJI poses questions to DOE’s Dr. Tina Kaarsberg, who leads the CABLE initiative. For eligibility, deadlines and more details go to www.americanmadechallenges.org/cable.

WJI: What is the contest about?
TK: DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office seeks entries in three categories: (1) metal enhanced with nanocarbon metals that also contain carbon nanotubes, single- or few-layer graphene, doped or undoped, or other carbon allotropes; (2) metal enhanced without nanocarbon, either by processing innovations and/or by adding other metals or non-nanocarbon compounds; and (3) nonmetal, enhanced with metal, which are conductors that are primarily nonmetal (e.g., polymer or nanocarbon) but may also contain metal, such as nanoparticles of metallic elements, but no bulk metal components. The goal is to strengthen American leadership in energy innovation and domestic manufacturing.

WJI: How does this work?
TK: There are three progressive stages to rapidly transition new materials from the lab to the marketplace. Stage 1 seeks concepts to develop and manufacture conductors with an electric conductivity that is an unprecedented 10% (over 65 MS/m) larger than today’s best copper-based conductor, or a conductivity by density that is nearly 5% larger (over 14 kS m2/kg) larger than today’s best aluminum-based conductors. Stage 2 will then test lab-scale samples for electrical conductivity. Finally, Stage 3 will evaluate manufacturing-scale samples for conductivity and other properties, and examine the documented manufacturing process, scale-up plans, and cost.

WJI: Who can enter?
TK: Any company or individual with the desire and drive to transform an idea into an impactful conductor material. It can be individuals of one or multiple organizations, students, academics, small business owners, researchers, etc. Competitors must be legal U.S. residents.

WJI: How do the prizes work?
TK: For the CABLE Prize, DOE may award up to 10 competitors in Stage 1, each team receiving a $25,000 cash award and a stipend for third-party testing. In Stage 2, up to six competitors will each win $200,000 in cash awards and a $100,000 noncash voucher that will support future work in Stage 3, when teams will collaborate with a DOE national laboratory or another American-Made Challenges Network provider. Up to four winners will be selected at the end of Stage 3, and a total prize pool of at least $2,000,000.

WJI: Why is this being done?
TK: Conductivity-enhanced materials are urgently needed to help make a more equitable, clean-energy future by enabling the grid expansion needed to deliver cleaner, lower-impact, and more affordable electricity across our nation. Conductivity-enhanced materials will also lower the cost and impact of electrifying the entire economy (e.g., with motors, heat pumps, chargers) to enable a zero-carbon economy by 2050. The CABLE Prize aims to identify, verify, and reward new materials and manufacturing methods that achieve significant enhancements in electrical conductivity. The impact of these materials goes beyond just American infrastructure, but a global landscape transitioning to a greener, more energy-efficient tomorrow. For more details, visit www.americanmadechallenges.org/cable.

WJI: Is it fair to say that you are seeking “out of the box” thinking?
TK: Yes, we encourage out-of-the-box thinking because many have thought significant enhancements in conductivity would be impossible until very recently. We’re encouraging problem solvers across the U.S. to tap into the vast potential of conductivity-enhanced materials for clean energy applications. Our hope is that innovators will experiment with the amazing properties of materials—including carbon—at the nanoscale, and partner with advanced manufacturers to fabricate materials at larger scales. Ultimately, our priorities are to encourage a more diverse set of innovators empowered to make clean energy more accessible and affordable, and spur the transition to a sustainable and equitable clean energy economy.

June 3, 2021 – Are you being worked to death? If you feel at times as if you are being worked to death … you might be right! To be clear, this news in no way implies that the wire and cable industry is not good for one’s health … but it does raise a concern to any working person.

Overworking is so prevalent that the Japanese even have a word for it: karoshi: death from overwork. Working more than 55 hours per week can lead to a slew of adverse health reactions, from ischemic heart disease, stroke and stress to impaired memory/sleep, suicide and death. Karoshi is common in Asia, but it is spreading around the world and in diverse industries.

Per a recent World Health Organization (WHO) study, 745,000 people who worked more than 55 hours a week died of heart disease and stroke in 2016. The number for heart attacks was up a shocking 42% from 2000. And long work weeks are quite common. In 2016, WHO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that 488 million people worldwide worked more than 55 hours a week. Of note, the latest ILO statistics show that the country that leads the world in long work weeks is Yemen, where 97% of employees work 49 hours or more. (The U.S. was listed at 14%.)

Overwork can include being available for work emails and calls 24/7. The Harvard Business Review reports that such overloading can make certain job duties more difficult, from sales and decision-making and judgment calls to getting along with coworkers. Ironically, those who give it their all may not reap any praise, let alone rewards: a Boston University study found that managers often could not tell the difference between employees who actually worked 80 hours a week and those who pretended to.

You might think that working from home during Covid-19 would have resulted in fewer work hours and less stress. Just the opposite. “Teleworking has become the norm in many industries, often blurring the boundaries between home and work,” noted WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Forbes. Workers with family obligations fit their work in during bizarre hours like very early in the morning, during the night, and over the weekends, disrupting the circadian rhythm of their sleep–wake cycle.

WHO Director Dr. Maria Neira suggests that governments and employers should forbid mandatory overtime, arrange flexible work schedules, create work-sharing among employees, and set the maximum work hours to 55 per week for a single person. She recommends that employees ignore their smartphone for several hours per day, pursue a hobby or enjoyable activity, eat right, exercise and get enough sleep.

Of course, the ability to schedule in such recommendations would be the real challenge.

June 3, 2021 – Penicillin, the microwave oven, Viagra, and chocolate chip cookies were all successful accidental accomplishments. Joining these is one-dimensional (1D) atomic silver wire. Eluding scientists for two decades, this milestone in nanotechnology was achieved by an international team of researchers who were trying to do something else.

 Researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai, Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science, and Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Centre for Materials Science were examining the properties of silver by putting silver atoms on the outside of manganese dioxide nanorods that had channels inside them. The scientists conducted the experiment in regular air, rather than inside an inert vacuum, expecting the silver atoms to react with oxygen and form silver oxide.

 Instead, the silver atoms diffused quickly inside the nanorod channels in a self-assembly technique that formed 1D silver rods up to 1 μm in length that was stable outside a vacuum. The team made 200 silver wires as wide as one atom. In an article at ZDnet, QUT professor Dmitri Golberg said that unexpectedly, the silver demonstrated a temperature-controlled insulator-to-metal transition. This means that depending on the temperature, the wire could be used as a switch in thermal electrical devices. If the wires are processed at suitable 3D sizes, which is still a challenging endeavor, they could be connected to nanocircuitry. Ultimately, the atomic wire discovery could contribute to the manufacture of electronic devices on a molecular scale. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

6/3/2021: UL has recognized four new Halguard® low-smoke, flame retardant jacketing compounds as “halogen-free”, it was announced today by Teknor Apex Company. The compounds include new-generation EVA-based products with an enhanced balance of properties, and highly flexible TPE-based products that exhibit excellent oil and sunlight resistance.

The assessment of halogen content was conducted in accordance with UL 2885 standard for the presence of fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br) and iodine (I) at a maximum individual limit of 1,000 ppm. With the four new grades, there are now fifteen Halguard low-smoke, halogen-free flame retardant (LS-HFFR) compounds with UL AATJ2 component recognition as Halogen-free.

The new compounds, all with UL 94 flame ratings of V-0, are of two types:

● EVA-based compounds for control, data, and transit cables. Halguard grades 58240 and 58242 provide high levels of flame retardance, resistance to heat shock and heat deformation, and ease of processing —the latter translating into increased throughput. The compounds enable cables to comply with UL 1685-FT4/IEEE 1202 standards for vertical tray cable and the UL 1666 standard for riser cable. Other applications include fiber optic data cables and cables used in transit infrastructure, as in the case of tunnels.

● Highly flexible, oil- and sunlight-resistant TPE-based compounds. Incorporating elastomers, these two products comply with UL 62 and UL 758 standards for flexible cord and appliance wire, respectively. Halguard E 59001 exhibits 80% and 90% retention of tensile strength and elongation at break, respectively, upon immersion in IRM 902 oil for seven days at 60 °C. Halguard E 59002 retains 90% and 95% of tensile strength and elongation at break upon exposure for 720 hours in a weatherometer.

Typical property data for these compounds appear in the accompanying table.

“The Halguard LS-HFFR product line provides properties to meet a wide range of applications, and the growing list of grades with ‘halogen-free’ assessments by UL further expands options for customers,” said David Braun, wire and cable industry manager for the Vinyl Division of Teknor Apex. “We will continue to develop Halguard compounds which can comply with this UL assessment in order to provide customers with readily available component recognition, which enables them to accelerate speed to market for their products.

Halguard LS-HFFR compounds are available worldwide.

For further information contact the company at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.