Education in wire and cable technology

Mehmet Ali Duran
MS in Electrical Engineering
mad@esm-as.com.tr
Cable is essentially a cold equipment which is a series of rods composed of insulator covered conductive material such as copper aluminium, ceramic or glass. However may be considered as hot equipment according to the medium and situation it is used in. All this boils down to being the backbone of information and energy transmission.
Types of cable Cables are generally classified according to usage and conductive material;
1- Energy cables used for transmission, distribution and end user installation of electrical energy:
a. Copper conductor cables,
b. Aluminium conductor cables,
c. Ceramic/superconductor cables.
2- Communication and data transmission cables:
a. Copper conductor cables,
b. Optical Fiber (glass)cables,
Also they are grouped according to the usage, but for our work, it is not necessary to use this kind of classification. If we compare a country to a a living organism, energy cables may be considered as the veins, data cables as the plexus. Either of them having a crisis, disconnection, overloading will mean a stroke, heart attack or nervous breakdown for the country. For a subject that is significantly effective to the health of the land, industry, economy and communication is there a specific education program?
As for our metaphor we have basic and specialist education in the medical schools regarding several systems in our living bodies. We believe that we are lacking the education and training programs required for handling any kind of problem resembling the vital malfunctions of an organism that may have outcomes such as communication breakdowns, power outings, which may even cause serious problems like transportation failure, accidents, economic crisis for countries and all humanity.
The training required for cable manufacturing is generally provided internally as a master-apprentice basis education in our country which has become the most important cable manufacturing and exportation hub for the Middle East and Europe. A newly established cable manufacturing company would acquire know-how required to penetrate into market by transferring technicians and engineers experienced from former rivals. A personnell thus acquired would bring in every positive and negative influence from the former employer, would prevent a fresh approach to the matter, duplicating same type of development and economic problems. Due to large number of transfers inside the market, regarding the former employers, this will amount to a total loss of experience and know-how resulting in loss of production and quality The combined cost of education of hands-on personnell and the production loss caused by mistakes made by unproficient employees would roll up to a great amount. In conjunction with this, the master-apprentice approach results in ever persisting errors unrectified. Let’s have a glimpse of cable industry’s place and importance in Turkish economy.
PLACE OF CABLE INDUSTRY IN TURKISH ECONOMY
We have (in our records) 210 active small, middle and big sized facilities whose production in total has a capacity thrice the country’s consumption. The companies try to satisfy the overcapacity via export. This causes a ferocious competition in internal and overseas markets as well resulting in company take-overs and bankruptcy.
Production and sales of cable (as of 2013)
– There are a total of 147 companies producing conductors, magnet wires and cables.
– 800.000 Tons/Year copper and alumuinium equivalent conjectural total production capacity
– 650.000 Tons conductor equivalent a total of 14 Billion TL worth of bare conductor and cable produced.
– 350.000 Tons conductor equivalent of US$ 3,6 billion worth of cable export,
– 300.000 Tons conductor equivalent of US$ 2,9 billion worth of cable used in internal market.
Note: These are projected values based on 2012 values and growth ratios. Errors may occur .
PERSONNEL SITUATION IN MANUFACTURING
There are near 11000 employees among The 147 companies which operate in large, medium and small scale operations.These employees vary from unskilled worker to general manager level in production, sales and management departments with various levels of education. Distributor and/or project integrator companies are not included in this number.
Are there available personnel with adequate training on cable technology and production, project and application who are suitable for an economy of this size and importance? What may be the efficiency of trained personnel in project, manufacturing, design , quality control and sales functionalities of an actual economic activity. It is quite visible that besides a very serious international competition, local manufacturers as well, try to kill each other in overseas markets.
We are aware of a few companies that was forced to go out of business solely because of this internal competition. Some large scale companies are acquired, smaller companies changed shareholders even more frequently based on this situation. It is also known that from overseas markets some manufacturers’ cables have been returned due to very simple and avoidable defects and missing details. Some have been accepted only after paying compensation to the buyers.
Instead of concentrating on cost cutting operations such as increasing efficiency in workshop, economical supplying of raw material and inputs, deploying new technologies through research and development and specializing in specific sub-segments, giving away discounts in spite of losing profit levels and showing unethical competitional behavior is common among manufacturers. This brings upfront the need of organized approach through well educated staff. Classical master-apprentice style relations will not be suitable for overcoming handicaps. Through staff trained on cable, energy and information transmission theories, well prepared for R&D activities these problems may be solved and necessary competitive qualities can be gained. Alas, is it possible to find employees suitably trained for these necessary qualities? I was not able to find any specific educational subjects regarding conductor and cable technology and manufacturing in either junior technical colleges or universities. Altough there are some undergraduate projects and graduate thesis based on cable, there are none which is able to define an end product improvement.
Energy production transmission distribution and end user investments consist on generator, aerial lines, transformers bare conductors and cables. Out of this, a total of 35 per cent is conductors and cables. Altough institutes provide education regarding generators, motors and transformers under the topic of “Electrical Machines” and there are separate educational modules for gas, water and wind tirbunes there is no such education about cables.
Regardless of investigating the real causes of fire accidents in various buildings, residential, industrial or historical throughly, the anouncements are made showing “short circuit” as the main cause of such, in attemtp to cover-up. There are no personnel trained specifically about cable types who would be able to identify and clarify the problems and contribute on preventive measures for them. In recent years, parallel to the developments in the field of material science and technology the amount of inflammable material, special isolation and sheath material suitable to use in solar and wind power generation have increased significantly. Theoretically any metal or non-metal material can burn. Given that there is enough oxygen and necessary heat in the medium. Inflammable materials used in cable technology are taking only longer time and energy to burn and once the soure of heat is put away their flame dies quickly. This material type is signified as HFFR-LS (Halogen free –Flame retardant – Low smoke) The compound of this material, altough could be obtained from local sources, is due to lack of esearch and development in this field all imported from overseas and our manufacturers try to compete with the manufacturers of these countries. I beileve universities and suppliers of raw material such as PETKIM can easily develop means to produce these compounds locally.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND STANDARDS
Standards in cable are defined via International Electrical Commitee (IEC) and various countries regarding their needs and production abilities, modify their own standards based on the recommendations of IEC. The foremost standard regulations are ASTM, UL, BS, DIN and Harmonized of the EU.
Due to lack of following the technologies and scientific research underlying these standards and lack of educated manpower, Contributions for forming these standards are at a minimum and only in observer basis. In Turkey, based on the translation of the international standards, Turkish standards are formed and controlling is done according to these.
Since there is no available educated manpower on cable to employ in the Turkish Standards Institute(TSE), the controllers are in constant distress and could be manipulated by the manufacturers they are supposed to control. Foreign customers with the actual knowledge of the situation would consider the reports of private auditing consultants rather than TSE resulting in higher costs for the manufacturers and damaging delays in delivery.
EDUCATION
Since in the conditions mentioned above there is no chance of educating specialists on cable, new institutions and programs for education should be established. I believe it is necessary to open programs targeting technical education on subjects including cable technology, design, manufacturing and material technology, alongside the theory of Energy and data transmission. These procrams can be distributed among technical high schools, junior college, undergraduate and graduate programs. In case of an University deciding to open a program focused on this, the necessarry support will come from the leaders of the industry and the associations of cable manufacturers and traders.
These supporters will have to consider;
– Establishing Laboratories,
– Suplying necessary test and measurement equipment,
– Establishing a pilot manufacturing facility to experiment on production development and prototyping
– To enable trials in their current facilities,
– Share experiences of their personnel with the university,
– Open their Labs for conducting some type tests,
– Most importantly providing feedback from the field on suggested applications ad further requirements.
– Providing support from retired engineers with long and sustained expertise.
University-industry cooperation can be established by opening the labs of the university to conduct tests for type and standards. Further consultancy can be provideded by the university to the industry. Cable manufacturers can benefit from necessary theoretic advisory.
Instıtutes active in Electrical power generation, transmission, distribution and telecommunications would benefit from information and application support on defining standards and requirements about projects and supplying based on new technologies. Further vocational programs should be deployed on cable installation, cable machinery and technology, measurement and testing for mid level technician development. Through these educations, the need of cable industry for skilled employment would be satisfied by preparing students to be ready to take immediate responsibility in cable production.