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wiredInUSA - May 2014
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Lubricant manufacturer Metalube Ltd
has been awarded a Queen’s Award for
Enterprise for the second successive year.
Exporting to over 86 countries worldwide,
the company won in the international trade
category in 2013.
This year’s Innovation Award is made to
Metalube for developinga syntheticgrease,
OCG 6000, to protect overhead electrical
conductors.
The
corrosion-preventing
grease can operate at over 200ºC and
has an operational life exceeding 20 years.
OCG 6000 extends the lives of conductors
and ultimately saves capital investment by
delaying the renewal of pylon infrastructure.
Chris Nettleship, technical director at
Metalube, said: “This is a great feather in our
cap. To win the Queen’s Award once is a
major achievement, but to win two years
in a row is a superb honour. I am so proud
of all our chemists who innovate on a daily
basis. It is fantastic that their hard work and
technical expertise is now acknowledged
by this esteemed recognition.”
Metalube’s lubricants and greases are
manufactured chiefly for the wire and
cable industry.
Another Queen’s Award
Weatherford International Ltd has entered
into an agreement with CurTran LLC to
use, sell, and distribute LiteWire, the first
commercial scale production of carbon
nanotube technology in wire and cable
form.
“With LiteWireproducts, we gain exclusivity
to a revolutionary technology that will
greatly add value to our business,” said
Dharmesh Mehta, chief operating officer
for Weatherford. The company will use
LiteWire in its operations, as well as acting
as sole distributor of the product to the oil
and gas industry.
CurTran manufactures LiteWire, which can
be utilized wherever a metallic conductor
is used, as well as in places where metals
cannot go. “There hasn’t been any real
innovation to replace copper wire in the
last hundred years until now,” added Mr
Rome. “LiteWire is a sustainable, lighter
and stronger technology that combines
the electrical and mechanical aspects of
wire and cable into one product.”
LiteWire can be usedas themain conductor
or as shielding in a cable application, and
is produced in filaments for processing
into any standard wire size and delivered
on spools. It can be processed using the
same equipment as copper wire.
Nanotube exclusive