Every industrial revolution is inseparable from the technological revolution. In the field of manufacturing industry in our country, it is the wire and cable industry that is second only to the automobile industry. With the expansion of national investment in infrastructure, the wire and cable industry is facing development opportunities.

        Recently, a seminar on the application of new technologies in cable conductors was held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. Document Jun, vice president of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, said that China's annual capacity of electrolytic aluminium exceeds 25 million tons, which has been seriously surplus. And 97% of the cable market is dominated by copper cables. "It is of strategic significance for the country to promote the replacement of copper with aluminium in the cable industry."

        "Big but not strong"

        Not long ago, the National Development and Reform Commission opened 80 projects to social capital, including clean energy projects and information infrastructure, in addition to transportation facilities such as railways and ports. The wire and cable industry will benefit from the rapid development of power transmission, communication transmission, rail transit, metallurgical machinery, household appliances, aerospace and other industries.

        The current situation of cable industry is that although the total scale of cable industry is the largest in the world and the total output value of cable production reaches 120 billion yuan every year, the domestic industry has been facing problems of high quality fluctuations and technical barriers to exports. Wei Chuanzhong, deputy director of the State Administration of Quality Supervision and Inspection, said: "The overall success of China's wire and cable industry is still based on quantity, and the popularization of the concept of quality, transformation and upgrading still has a long way to go. We must enhance our competitiveness and achieve high-end product manufacturing.

        "The cable industry consumes more than 50% of China's copper resources, and 60% of copper resources depend on imports every year," Documentary Army said. China's proven reserves of aluminium resources are about 3 billion tons, far more than copper. Aluminum electrolysis is also expected to produce new capacity, which provides conditions for the promotion of aluminium alloy cables.

        According to reporters, China's demand for aluminium alloy cables is significantly higher than that of the United States and Europe. In recent years, some domestic enterprises have also strengthened research and development, and developed new products to enhance added value. Taking Hebei as an example, because of the introduction of Xinyi Company, an aluminium alloy cable manufacturer, in 2012, Wang Chang, director of the Hebei Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, said, "Shijiazhuang's goal is to build the world's largest production base of aluminium-substituted copper cables and to form a high-end industrial group of aluminium-substituted copper."

Innovation driven

        An innovation in Engineering Science and technology can give birth to an industry that can influence and even change the world. The theme of this seminar is "Aluminum for Copper, Innovation Driven".

        "Because copper price is controlled by international monopoly enterprises and aluminium price is relatively low, on the premise of ensuring safety and reliability, replacing copper with aluminium will become a new trend in the development of cable industry." Literature army said. In the past, aluminum can not replace copper cable, because it is difficult to meet the requirements of conductivity and flexibility. For this reason, Xinyi Cable employs Lei Qingquan, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and expert of insulation materials, as its technical consultant.

        Yu Guiliang, president of Hebei Xinyi Cable Co., Ltd., said, "We have independent intellectual property rights of rare earth high iron aluminium alloy conductors, which can replace copper cables in the market. Compared with copper cables, they are not inferior in conductivity and flexibility, and the comprehensive use cost is 40% lower than copper cables." The popularization and application of aluminium alloy cable will be of great benefit to the construction of a conservation-oriented society in China.

        Yu Guiliang also said that cable access to the U.S. market must pass UL certification, to Europe to meet European Union standards. Xinyi cable has been exported to the United States for 8 years.

Participants said that the cable industry needs to reach a consensus that attention should be paid to technological innovation, sustainable use of raw materials, as well as reducing environmental pollution, effectively improving the utilization of resources and reducing costs. While enterprises are constantly strengthening the quality and brand building of wire and cable products, government agencies need to pay attention to the standardization of access mechanism and the construction of market environment of telecommunication cable industry, and strengthen supervision at the same time. Products should not only be sold domestically, but also expand the global market. For example, in Africa, countries need more cable products because of the increased demand for networks and the start-up of large-scale power infrastructure in some countries.