The executive committee of the Spring Manufacturers Institute (SMI) announced that it has canceled its Metal Engineering eXpo event, which had been scheduled for Sept. 12-14, 2023, at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A press release said that SMI has entered into an agreement with the Chicago Association of Spring Manufacturers, Inc. (CASMI) to combine their trade shows in 2024. The combined CASMI SpringWorld and the SMI Metal Engineering eXpo will now take place Oct. 2-4, 2024, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. The 2024 event will combine the strengths of the two associations into one trade show for the good of the industry where SMI provides technical education and CASMI provides the venue.

“In light of the recent decision to combine the shows, we made the decision for the good of the industry to cancel our show so we can put all our energy and resources toward the event in 2024,” said SMI President Gene Huber, Jr., of Winamac Coil Spring.

SMI had been scheduled to host the next ISO/TC227 meetings on Sept. 14-15, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada, in conjunction with the 2023 Metal Engineering eXpo. SMI will continue to host the meetings with a date and location to be announced soon.

SMI serves as the technical advisory group to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for ISO/TC227. The role of the U.S. delegation is essential to ensure that the interests of American spring manufacturers, designers, and consumers are represented in international standards development.

Exhibitors who reserved space for the eXpo will receive a refund for any payments made.

América Móvil and Telxius announced that they will deploy a new subsea cable linking Guatemala and the United States that will be supplied by ASN.

An announcement said that the cable, named “AMX3” by América Móvil and “Tikal” by Telxius, will be a high-capacity undersea cable that connects Puerto Barrios in Guatemala with Boca Raton in the U.S., with an additional possible landing in Cancun, Mexico. The line will feature an initial estimated capacity of 190Tbps and will serve a key route in the Caribbean with reliability and security, the companies said in a release. It should be operational in 2025.

The supply contract is already in force with ASN and will offer options to increase capacity and to incorporate additional branching units to serve other destinations.

For América Móvil, the project is a new step to build a substantial subsea network in the Americas, delivering a capacity through more than 197,000 km, including the AMX-1 submarine cable that extends 18,300 km and connects the U.S. to Central and South America with 13 landing points.

South Korea’s Taihan recently announced that it has completed the development of a 500kV LCC (Line Commutated Converter) XLPE HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) land cable system and obtained internationally accredited certification.

A press release said that 500 kV is the highest voltage for deployed LCC XLPE HVDC cable systems. Taihan is the first South Korean company to accomplish KEMA international certification and the second in the world after Japan to complete KEMA internationally accredited certification for 500 kV LCC XLPE HVDC cable.

By obtaining the certification, Taihan is officially recognized for its technology and stability while at the same time securing an opportunity to participate in large-scale projects. This certification has high significance in that the test was conducted by applying technical specifications higher than international standards, so the cable can be immediately used in large-scale HVDC projects scheduled to be conducted in Korea.

Further, Taihan also succeeded in the KEMA international certification test for the VSC (Voltage Source Converter) 500 kV HVDC cable. As a result, Taihan is equipped with technical capabilities for all conversion methods, such as XLPE LCC and VSC, including the 500 kV MI-PPLP HVDC developed in 2017, which allows Taihan to be able to respond to the market actively.

“It is very encouraging that Taihan has been recognised for its HVDC technology through international certification at a time when the global demand for long-distance transmission and the spread of new and renewable energy sources are becoming active,” said Taihan President
Na Hyeong-gyun. “We will actively seek business
opportunities in projects that are in full swing in Europe and the United States, etc., as well as participating in large-scale HVDC projects scheduled to be carried out
in Korea.”

Dr. Horace Pops, an industry guru/presenter on the causes of wire breaks and fines, has continued to share his expertise as a consultant. The Past WAI President (1992-93) believes the industry has not fared well the last few years, and that there is more than one reason why. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I wanted to share my thoughts in regards to the technical status of the wire and cable industry. As you might have guessed, I’m concerned, although the picture is not bleak. I was pleased to read about global R&D activity by the industry in the November 2022 issue of Wire Journal. Yet as an active consultant since 2005, I look at the overall industry and I see problems.

It’s not surprising that my activity has almost shut down completely since the onset of the Covid pandemic. I haven’t lost my desire or ability to travel, but overall, personnel are traveling to and from plants less. I may not be physically at plants, but I keep in touch with people, and I hear that many of these plants have the same processing and quality issues that occurred just a few years ago. It’s easy to cite Covid, but I believe what is going on predates that: many companies just do not have personnel with sufficient tenure or knowledge to solve these issues.

It appears that, outside of companies like Southwire and Prysmian, relatively few people with a STEM background are now employed in the wire and cable industry. I’m convinced that the percentage of employees at most wire and cable companies with a solid knowledge base has continued to decrease, and it only gets worse as more veteran employees retire. At the same time, more technical or R&D corporate facilities have either been reduced in size or even eliminated to cut overall costs. You don’t have to have a PhD to know that that is a bad combination. The result is that there are far more common production problems, such as wire breaks, excessive amounts of wire drawing fines, poor surface finish, and internal defects within castings and wires. The origin for those are well understood. They shouldn’t be happening, but they do.

There’s another contributing factor, and it’s related to hiring. Companies may be able to hire young people to fill key positions, such as engineers, but often they leave after just a few years of service because they can get higher salaries in other fields. It makes it hard to groom someone to get beyond the early stages where they are learning to be the ones who can be depended on.

Consequently, many plants in our industry do not have employees with a strong enough background to help solve the aforementioned quality issues. Although global in nature, this problem seems to be worse in North America. And I’m sorry to add to my list of perceived woes, but I think another trend that overall has made things worse is that many face-to-face conferences and meetings for technological societies have been replaced with virtual activities. There is less interaction, and while the virtual sessions may be easier to attend, the learning experience just does not have the same sense of depth. Finally, I see fewer technical articles being prepared and presented because many companies see little benefit.

So what does all of this mean? My above comments could be seen as what today is called a “soft quit” or “quit quitting.” Per Google, “Employee disengagement occurs when an employee backs off from their typical or expected levels of productivity. They quit going above and beyond in their role. Instead, many employees are prioritizing a better work-life balance by refusing to do extra work beyond their defined job descriptions.”

Albert Einstein once said, “The source of knowledge is experience.” When young employees are already more inclined to not stay in the same job—any job—for a long time, the industry needs to find a way of making the field a place where it can foster growth to that level.

Editor’s Note:
This occasional section will present information and perspectives in multiple fields by experts from the industry, think-tanks, associations, academia and other sources that provide thoughtful “big picture” analysis. Have an issue you’d like to discuss? Send the details to WJI at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – IEWC has been named a “2023 Top Workplaces USA” award-winner. This is the second consecutive year that IEWC has been recognized with the Top Workplaces honor. In 2022, IEWC received its first Top Workplaces award as a regional winner. For 2023, IEWC has been recognized as a national winner.

The Top Workplaces honors are awarded by Energage, a company that specializes in surveying employee engagement. The awards are given to those companies that demonstrate “exceptional workplace cultures.” The global survey allows US-based companies to measure their performance against other companies, and awards are given for regional, national, and market-specific categories.

IEWC performs this annual survey for its 600+ global employees, measuring employee engagement and assessing various aspects of IEWC’s culture. The employee feedback is used to identify and ultimately address areas where IEWC can continue to improve as a company. It’s that commitment to continuous improvement which allows IEWC to build upon its successful culture.

“The fact that we are being recognized in two consecutive years, and that we’re being recognized on a national level, is something all of us at IEWC can be very proud of,” said Brian Hinton, Chief Human Resources Officer at IEWC. “Our wonderful culture is built on a foundation of strong values, none of which is possible without an incredibly engaged workforce. The IEWC team is thrilled to be recognized once again as a “Top Workplaces” winner.

 “The companies recognized as Top Workplaces have high performance, people-first cultures,” said Greg Barnett, Ph.D., Chief People Scientist at Energage. “These companies are successful because they put their people at the center of all they do. By prioritizing the employee experience, they are known to out-produce, out-innovate, and out-deliver the competition.”

About IEWC - (www.iewc.com)

IEWC is a global distributor of wire and cable products, manufacturer of custom fiber assemblies, and provider of value-add solutions that advance a connected world. As a partner to thousands of companies in a wide array of manufacturing and infrastructure industries, IEWC has been an entrusted partner supporting customer supply chain, logistics and product quality initiatives for 60 years. IEWC is an employee-owned company with nearly 30 locations in seven countries, serving customers in almost 100 countries. Having grown organically and through acquisition during its 60-year history, today IEWC spans the globe with divisions in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe (under the Premier Cables brand) and serves the telecommunications industry under the Cablcon brand.