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Wire harness article page 124

Leoni AG announced that it is opening a plant in Jining in northeast China's Shandong province to produce wire harnesses for General Motors Co. and other customers.

Kia Motors, South Korea's second largest automotive manufacturer, announced that it is recalling 35,000 Souls and Sorentos because of a fire hazard. The auto maker said that its 2010 Soul with the Advanced Lighting Speakers and the 2011 Sorento with the Interior Accent Illumination have a defect with the wiring harness that could cause an electrical short and possibly a fire. Until a repair could be made, Kia advised drivers to turn off the lights. The company sold more than 1.6 million cars in 2009.

Delphi, the wiring harness manufacturer, plans to shut down its Czech unit. The plant is located at Ceska Lipa, 90 km north of Prague, and serves auto makers such as BMW and Audi. The job cuts will take place in stages until the closure will be completed by the end of May 2011. As a result, all 1,400 employees will be affected. The trade union commented that the company plans to relocate to lower cost places. The Czech Republic has attracted foreign investment related to the automotive industry; however, due to rising costs, some companies decided to relocate.

Onamba Co., Ltd. has announced that it will shut down and absorb two domestic plants that produce electric wire and wire harnesses. The decision will be implemented in H1 of FY2009 and is attributed to the weakening economic environment, the appreciation of the yen and the increased market competition. The company employs 130 staff.

Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Yazaki Corp. and other automotive wiring harness manufacturers have temporarily shut down some of their production lines in Thailand. This follows the severe flooding which directly led to Honda Motor Co. closing down local assembly lines at its factory in Bangkok as well as Toyota Motor Co. shutting down its three plants in Eastern Thailand due to parts shortages.

JX Nippon Mining & Metals, an integrated Japan-based refined copper and semi-finished products fabricator, began full-scale production of an ultrathin rolled copper foil, measuring between 6 and 9 microns in thickness. The new products are suitable for use in smartphones and tablet PCs. Advances made in the company's rolling and surface roughening process technology led to the development of the new products. The company estimates that it holds a 75% global market share of treated rolled copper foil, which finds its main application in flexible printed circuit boards for mobile devices.

SuperPower Inc, a subsidiary of Furukawa Electric, announced on 7th December that it plans to double the production capacity of superconducting wirerod at its US plant in 2013. The company said it anticipates demand for the wirerod, which is used in areas such as superconducting magnetic energy storage, will increase over the next four to five years, and that it is intending to raise production to meet the new demand.

It was reported that Yazaki will start assembling wiring harnesses for Volvo trucks at its plant in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Yazaki Wiring Technologies Lietuva said the above means that the company will not close down and that it will continue to operate. Even though the size of the order remains unknown, it is expected that it will last at least two years. The Klaipeda-based company is currently making wiring sets for Renault cars.

A number of Japanese companies have halted operations in Egypt due to the recent turmoil. It was reported that Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) decided to temporarily close its automotive wiring harness plant in Egypt. The plant employs around 700, 19 of which are Japanese and expected to be evacuated to Europe. Other major Japanese companies the operations of which have been affected include Nissan Motor, Suzuki Motor, Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsui & Co.

Japanese Yokowo plans to construct a US$12.3M wiring harness and automotive communication equipment factory outside of Hanoi, Vietnam. Operations at the 10,000 sq. m plant are due to commence in August 2012. The move to Vietnam will allow Yokowo to diversify geographical risk, benefit from lower labour costs, form links with Vietnam's growing automotive sector, and utilise advantageous trade agreements between Vietnam and the US.

Delphi Automotive, the wiring harness and component maker, is opening a new manufacturing facility at Moldova Noua, in the southwest region of Romania. The site will enable the company to produce wiring harness modules to meet increasing demand from vehicle manufacturers across Europe and will work closely with other Delphi facilities in the country to ensure efficiency and flexibility for its customers. Plant operations are being deployed over two phases, the company initially opened the Moldova Noua facility for testing on the 4th April and intends to open the additional 2,400 square metres of the facility in September 2011.

""We have developed several new solutions, which can provide clear weight and cost saving opportunities to manufacturers of such commercial vehicles as trucks, buses as well as agricultural, industrial and construction equipment", stated Dr Andreas Brand, member of Leoni AG's Management Board with responsibility for the Wiring Systems Division. "We are confident that we will grow our business with the CV industry by more than five per cent per year until 2025." Alternative conductors save weight and cost In terms of weight optimisation, Leoni can reduce the harnesses' weight by replacing conventional wires. Alongside copper wires with smaller cross-sections, the Company provides the CV market with a range of wires made of aluminium for the power segment, i.e. with a cross-section between 10 mm2 and 110 mm2 and even larger. Although the aluminium conductors have a larger cross-section in order to deliver the same electrical conductivity, aluminium technology results in a noticeable weight reduction. On its booth, Leoni will show its busbar, a solid aluminium conductor, which can be bent in three dimensions and weighs only about half as much as the conventional copper component. Leoni will also show various conductor solutions based on copper. These can be used where mechanical strength as well as electrical conductivity is required. For example, a copper wire with a cross-section of 0.75 mm² could potentially be replaced by a smaller wire cross section, such as a 0.50 mm² or a 0.35 mm². Thanks to the use of less conductor material, Leoni's customers can not just reduce the weight of their vehicles, but also benefit in terms of cost savings."