WCA January 2009

news

New manufacturing concept for precision micro flexible flat cables (FFC) Flexible flat cables (FFCs) have found widespread use in the automotive and IT industries. Lamination and extrusion are the processes most commonly used for the production of FFCs but the disadvantage of lamination is its extremely low production speed. Extrusion is unsuitable for the production of micro FFCs due to the high temperatures and pressures encountered in the extruder head, and these make it impossible to maintain accurate geometrical dimensions and precise positioning.

Medek & Schoerner has developed a new un- pressurised cold process for the production of FFCs using UV cured resins, thus ensuring the perfect geo- metrical accuracy of the cable at high production speeds.

The procedure can also be employed inline with an extruder to position the indi- vidual flat cables accurately as they enter the extruder head. The same system, with some detail modification, also allows the coating of fine steel wire in varying colours. Medek & Schoerner GmbH – Austria Fax : +43 1 982 72 96 Email : m+s@medek.at Website : www.medek.at High-capacity wire rod mill with FRS ® technique ArcelorMittal Hochfeld GmbH has placed an order with SMS Meer for the supply of a complete high-capacity wire rod mill with FRS ® technique for high-grade steels. The annual capacity will be 690,000t. Of this, the major portion of the products will be cold heading steel grades. The mill will be designed for producing wire rod in high-grade steels and will go into production in August 2010. The SMS Meer order comprises a walking-beam furnace, the mechanical and electrical equipment of the mill train, all of the supply systems, the finishing facilities for the wire-rod coils, the entire rolling and cooling equipment, and the erection and installation. The walking-beam furnace for billets up to 155mm square will reach an output of 120t/hour. The wire rod outlet comprises a cooling and equalising section in a loop arrangement, a six-stand wire rod block and a four-stand FRS ® (Flexible Reduction and Sizing) block – both in UHD (Ultra-Heavy Duty) arrangement. The wire-rod block and the FRS ® block are each followed by a water-cooling line. The core component of the mill is the FRS ® block together with the cooling and equalising section. The supply scope therefore also includes the 104m long LCC ® (Loop Cooling Conveyor) for forced and retarded cooling, a total of three water cooling lines and the CCT ® (Controlled Cooling Technology) system developed by SMS Meer. These facilities allow wire rod to be produced over the entire dimensional range of 5.5mm to 25mm by means of temperature-controlled rolling. Ultra-fine microstructures can be achieved especially for cold-heading grades by thermomechanical rolling. The maximum rolling speed for 5.5mm wire rod is 120m/sec. SMS Meer GmbH – Germany Fax : +49 2161 350 1667 Email : info@sms-meer.com Website : www.sms-meer.com FFC with 12 Cu conductors 0.035 x 0.600mm m m

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2009