Headquartered in Bremen, Germany, SIKORA AG is a well-known developer and supplier of measuring and control technologies, inspection, sorting, and analysis systems. SIKORA has been serving the Indian market for over 20 years. During an interview with Wire & Cable India magazine, Mr. Holger Lieder, Executive Board, SIKORA AG talked about their plans to expand their local presence in India to cater to the rising demand in the energy cable market.
Wire & Cable India: Please tell us about recent developments at SIKORA.
Holger Lieder: We are here, at the Wire Dusseldorf 2024, to present our newly launched non-contact length and speed measuring system LM SMART using the well-proven Laser Doppler Technology. Additionally, we are showcasing a new series of diameter measuring systems, the LASER PRO series, for three different diameter ranges up to 51 mm, all with an extremely high measuring frequency. The diffraction analysis in combination with pulse-controlled laser diodes results in an impressive 500,000 measuring points per second per measuring axis in the entire measuring field. This results in 5,000 accurately measured values per second per measuring axis which makes this device outstanding in the market.
We are also unveiling a new device, CENTERVIEW PRO, for eccentricity measurement in addition to diameter and ovality measurement. The new model series is based on the trusted Centerview predecessor – a benchmark that is used thousands of times worldwide. The new model has been made with a completely new industrial design with waterproof industrial interfacing. The display of the measured eccentricity values is viewed among others as a scatter plot. Each point in the scatter plot corresponds to a highly precise individual value of the eccentricity and represents the distribution of short-term variations. We offer two models, CENTERVIEW 10 and CENTERVIEW 25 which tell the maximum diameter that each one can measure.
“A lot of Indian cable factories are now investing in new machines and there have been heavy investments for modernization as the demand has rapidly increased post Covid.”
WCI: What are your views on the Indian market? How is SIKORA performing in the Indian market?
HL: The Indian market has been booming. We have been present in India for more than 20 years now with our first office in Delhi and then Mumbai as we believe that India is a rising star in the global market. Since inception, we have had good sales and turnover in India but the real breakthrough in the cable industry was waiting. The change in the political area and the presence of a strong political leader has made a drastic change in the industry. A lot of Indian cable factories are now investing in new machines and there have been heavy investments for modernization as the demand has rapidly increased post Covid. That is a starting point for us where we see businesses going up. We have seen this already in the first four months of 2024 and are confident that the rest of the months will be even better. India has all the technological know-how in the country, and I believe India is self-sufficient and has to rely less on imports.
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WCI: How do you foresee the future of the Indian wire and cable industry? What are SIKORA’s future plans for the Indian market?
HL: There have been a lot of infrastructure projects taking place in India. India is promoting the 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) and investing heavily in green projects. The Indian companies are expected to grow further in 2025-2026. We want to expand and enlarge our offices in India, and we want to enable our subsidiary in India to make direct imports because currently, we have to always supply to the end customer. Our idea is to have the Indian offices registered to import our equipment to make local service even better. In the future, we want to expand our existing service facilities in India, enabling them to make almost all repairs in India itself rather than sending devices back to Germany for repair.
WCI: What recent trends are emerging in the wire & cable industry and what innovations can we expect from SIKORA?
HL: There has been a rising trend in the energy cable business where companies are planning to use polypropylene material for medium voltage cables and I believe there is a huge opportunity in high voltage cables as well. We are keeping a close look at this trend and working in that direction by testing materials, for example with the PURITY SCANNER ADVANCED we inspect and sort the material before it enters the extrusion process. Our main focus is to maintain cleanliness while using polypropylene material which is one of the major challenges. Exploiting our strong position in the energy cable market, we are working on providing solutions where the cable manufacturers are facing challenges.
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WCI: Please tell us about your R&D activities. How do you improve the efficiency and quality of your products?
HL: The whole world is talking about plastic waste reduction because of the adverse effects of plastic on our environment. So, all the companies are working to reduce plastic. Similarly, in the extrusion process, we have to manage the dimensions close to a minimum tolerance which will help us to reduce our material consumption. And that is a goal that we are following and sharing with our partners in India, the more measuring technology we use in an extrusion line, the less waste we will have at the end. The cost of recycling a cable is very high and it increases the carbon footprint drastically. Our material consumption on every production line is perfect and optimized helping to maintain the efficiency and quality of the products. The general purpose of SIKORA measuring and control devices is to ensure optimum quality control during extrusion for high-quality products. Our systems help to save material and costs and contribute to sustainability.
