Leading global suppliers of production technology to the wire, cable, pipe and tube industries, Maillefer, aims to cash in on a plethora of opportunities provided by infrastructure development in India. This was revealed by Mr. Lars Fagerholm, President, Maillefer, in his interaction with the Wire & Cable India magazine.
Wire & Cable India: Kindly tell us something about Maillefer.
Lars Fagerholm: We are the global leaders in wire, cable, pipe, and tube production technologies. We offer over 50 technologies and the widest services portfolio in the industry to cover nearly 20 applications, ranging from building wire to high voltage cables, irrigation, and heating & plumbing, to special pipe applications.
As an industry innovator, we are constantly seeking new ways to improve existing practices. We are not satisfied with the status quo and strive to question today’s habits to discover the hidden potential of modern manufacturing. Digitalization is the key driver of a smarter tomorrow. With us, increasing the value of your business can take many forms. For curious and ambitious people, Maillefer offers a perfect platform to grow.
WCI: How has Maillefer evolved over the years?
LF: The path we are on and the way we look at the business hasn’t changed in the big picture. We are still moving forward and looking at the opportunities where we can make a difference and innovate new technology. We are pretty much looking into why we are doing everything the way we have done it before, and why couldn’t we make cables in a new way? We are looking into how we can improve the performance of the wire & cable machinery and its processes, so that we are able to give a sustainable value to our customers. We believe that one of the big solutions to this is to implement more digitalization and AI solutions to the process controls in order to reduce scrap, be more efficient in energy consumption, and increase our speeds. So, this in itself may not be completely new, but it is something that is much stronger at present in the way we look at where we are heading.
WCI: What kind of efforts are you putting in or intend to put in, to make your customers’ operations more sustainable?
LF: We believe we are very fortunate as an industry and also as suppliers because we are a part of what is going on in the world and through green electrification, we are actually making a difference in making this world a better place. As a global company, we understand the high priority that sustainability holds alongside safety, quality, and productivity for all responsible businesses. Our innovative technology helps address the complex problems we all face, including reliable and sustainable energy services, as well as resilient infrastructure.
Maillefer offers production systems and know-how that maximize production efficiency and reduce scrap during the manufacturing process. Five to seven megatons of plastic are processed annually through our huge installed base worldwide. With the latest technology and upgrades, customers can decrease the amount of overuse and scrap by almost 10 percent. That corresponds to material savings equivalent to the amount used for plastic bags in all of Europe—550 kilotons. Maillefer technology helps save raw materials in remarkable ways and works towards building a more sustainable future.
With manufacturing productivity increasing, so does the need for more precise process controls. We offer AI enhanced systems to assist operation and optimize the process. Increased efficiency and quality go hand in hand with notable material savings. Our technological solutions, both on component and line scale, are based on long-lasting and reliable components. Maillefer machines are designed to last for decades. The life cycles of our offerings are remarkably long, thus guaranteeing sustainable investments and an optimum carbon footprint.
We live our commitments as an employer and equipment manufacturer on a daily basis. For example, 100 percent renewable energy is used in our operations. Sustainability is a journey that involves the collective efforts of the entire supply chain to achieve common goals.
When you come to specific customers, specific sites, and specific production lines, then what we can do directly for our customers is very much around material utilization. So it’s really about reducing the scrap, starting up lines, and making style and quality changes. Efficiency has always been a priority for us. The faster you run a line, the less energy it will typically use, and it will also give you a better level in terms of sustainability. If you go and have a look at our components, we are actually specifying each component so that it gives the customer not only technical value but also sustainable value.
“We believe that one of the big solutions is to implement more digitalization and AI solutions to the process controls in order to reduce scrap, be more efficient in energy consumption and increase our speeds.“
WCI: Kindly share the new technologies developed by Maillefer.
LF: We have been working on a few things for a few years now. It is interesting to see how it is breaking through the new standards in high-voltage manufacturing. It is something we call the round premium, which is more about technology and process control. In this, we adjust the process after the extruder in order to be able to increase the speed of the line by 30 percent to make a cable, which is much rounder and of higher quality. As its roundness is perfect, making a joint on a big cable is much easier and faster. Also, the risk of having a quality failure is much lower and this has really become a breakthrough.
Another innovation is the topography measurement equipment, which measures the equality at the end of the line. When we see the data and the result of what is being measured, knowing the process, we can link this data back and iterate what is exactly causing that failure, which means that we can make the line to self-adjust and self-iterate it to better quality.
We recently launched the automatic centering adjustment on the head, which means that we are collecting data and have an automatic adjustment of centering on the cable.
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WCI: What is your USP, which keeps Maillefer ahead of its competitors in the industry?
LF: With us, you can choose between three different levels of production lines varying in capacity, cost, automation, flexibility, product range and space & maintenance requirements. You can get from us the best technical fit and value, from a single component to a complete factory. We offer compact quality solutions for more sustainable production. We offer affordable investment, which is easy to start and maintain in different production environments. We have lean and proven production solutions for changing market needs. Maillefer guarantees good upgradability and a versatile product range, which are a technical fit for the future.
Our clientele includes large manufacturers, industry newcomers, and small niche businesses. Each customer is unique and regarded exclusively throughout the partnership. We deliver versatile support, from 24/7 problem-solving and spare parts to continuous preventive maintenance and performance reviews according to your lifecycle needs. We systematically develop our component offerings and bring new production value packages to your doorstep.
Our showroom, with the world’s sole vertical pilot line is available for customer trials and joint process development. Each customer is unique and receives exclusive attention throughout our partnership. We are strongly present in all markets worldwide together, and as part of the Davis-Standard company.
We are quite driven and competitive to stay ahead of the game. Maillefer is truly recognized for its ingeniousness and intuitive acumen with respect to technology. This mindset can be traced back to creating such a culture in the organization. In fact, working with this mindset and nurturing this culture has been truly rewarding for us. It gets our adrenaline going. Circling back to what I said earlier, the more we learn, the more we are able to help our customers. This is what essentially we have been doing. Moreover, we have more ideas that we want to implement in R&D. We are always looking for ways in which we can help our customers as efficiently as possible and go one step further in reaching beyond what is possible in today’s world.
Also Read: Empowering India’s Wire & Cable Industry: MFL Group’s Journey of Innovation and Growth
WCI: Please share your insights on the future of the wire and cable industry.
LF: We are currently in a very exciting time, taking into view the opportunities for green electrification and sustainability. If you look at the investment in the wire and cable industry or in wind power, solar power, offshore and onshore, all of this is going to drive the future. The entire world is making investments in sustainability initiatives, including Europe, the US, and India. We believe this is an extremely positive time for Maillefer; whether it’s for medium and high voltage, extra high voltage, or subsea, it has been extremely active for years. So, I’m very optimistic and positive about the wire & cable industry and believe it’s going to be a very good market for a long time to come.
“Digitalization is the key driver of a smarter tomorrow. With us, increasing the value of your business can take many forms. For curious and ambitious people, Maillefer offers a perfect platform to grow.”
WCI: Maillefer is strongly committed to ESG. Please share with us your plans to achieve these goals.
LF: For us, sustainability has many dimensions. We look at it as a responsibility at an individual level, whether at work or off work. We delve into questions such as how this is built, what the company is doing, how we operate our business, how we handle our supply chain, or how we ethically comply with the new regulations. For us, human rights and equal rights, along with all ethical things, are really important. On top of this, the most interesting thing for our engineers is how we can, through our technology, provide improvement in sustainability. There is a very wide scope for all of this. Regarding corporate responsibility, it’s a central thing and we are really good at that. This is something that customers see and appreciate us for. As for a leading supplier, there is absolutely no choice.
WCI: What are your views about the Indian wire & cable industry?
LF: India is really encouraging for us at the moment. We are very happy to see that things are really moving now. We are looking into several projects in India now, which are actively taking shape, and we are happy to be key partners in those. We believe India is just at the starting point, and there is a lot of opportunity for the wire and cable industry and the whole infrastructure development in India, and Maillefer is very positive about this.
