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Welcome to Wire Insights, the podcast of the latest developments, innovations and trends at voestalpine Wire Technology. From cutting-edge materials to sustainable production processes. Experience exciting insights into current projects that are revolutionizing the industry and find out how innovations made of wire are changing the world.
Whether you are a technology enthusiast, an industry professional or just curious about the future, this podcast is for you. Tune in and join us. Welcome to Wire Insights, the podcast where we explore the fascinating journey of wire production, innovation and expertise.
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Today we turn our attention to the focus topic from raw material to excellent wire. My name is Dieter Danko, I'm your host and today we are joined by three outstanding guests who each bring unique perspectives from across the wire technology. Before we dive into today's topics, let's start by getting to know our guests.
Could each of you briefly introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about your role and what drives your passion for wire? Let's begin with you Mr. Huemer. Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your role at voestalpine Stahl Donawitz and how it connects to the broader wire production process?
Yeah, thank you. I'd love to. I'm the melt shop manager in the steel plant and together with my team I'm also involved in the development process. As steelmaker we supply the material bases for rails, for seamless tubes and for high quality wire products. You can say we are kind of translating our customer needs in the steel making process.
Mr. Tischler, what's your background and what parts do you play in shaping the journey from steel to wire within the voestalpine Wire Technology? First of all, hello to everybody. I am key account manager at the voestalpine Wire Rod Austria in St. Peter/Freienstein. I'm mainly responsible for the key accounts in Middle and East Europe and we produce wire rod at the highest level in the world's modernst rolling mill here in St. Peter/Freienstein.
Interesting for me is from iron ore to the finished wire we deliver quality wire rod with tight tolerances with an excellent surface and also this in maximum flexibility. We have different state-of-the-art technologies, integrated heat and surface treatment and very important for us is the worldwide unique R&D department or R&D center.
And finally Mr. Strohhaeussl, tell us a bit about your current role and what excites you most about working in the world of wire technology.
I'm Head of Sales and Application Engineering departments at the wire drawing plant in Bruck an der Mur. In this role I am responsible for all customer interactions at both on technical and commercial level. What excites me most about our work is that wire appears very inconspicuous at the first glance.
On a closer inspection you realize what a high performance product we actually manufacture with properties that are precisely tailored to customer requirements. That fascinates me anew every day. Thank you all for those great introductions Mr. Huemer, Mr. Tischler and Mr. Strohhaeussl.
It's a pleasure to have you with us today and we are looking forward to diving deeper into your areas of expertise.
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Let's start right at the beginning of the value chain with the raw material. Mr. Huemer, voestalpine Stahl Donawitz plays a key role in supplying high quality steel for voestalpine Wire Technology.
From your perspective what are the essential contributions your site makes to ensure the foundation for excellent wire products? Well, I would say the first thing is to listen what the customer needs, to have a bigger picture or a good picture of the best solution for his product. And I would really say this is a strength of our value chain here within voestalpine. Our partners can really benefit from our short throughput times which allow us to react very quickly to customer requirements.
We can offer customized development and production processes. For example, development can take place in a laboratory scale or up to our unique 5 ton trial steel plant of which we're very proud by the way. Our different steel production routes are always aligned to the required product properties and not to forget the customer needs for his processing of the steel.
And let me add one more thing. We may be aware of our long history here in Donawitz but as our predecessors we have a focus on the future and this is a clear commitment to the future of steel production with a significant reduced carbon footprint.
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Mr. Tischler, your wire rod is produced at voestalpine Wire Rod Austria in St. Peter/Freienstein in the world's most advanced wire rolling mill.
On your website the wire rod is emphasized for the highest quality standards. Can you tell us more about this? Yeah, highest quality from the world's most modern rolling mill. Our world is the world of wire.
We are specialized in customer-oriented and tailor-made wire production. As an innovative partner with a unique research infrastructure we can guarantee you high quality material solutions in the market environment. Based on our core values of quality, flexibility, innovation and sustainability we live out performance in wire at every stage of the process.
You guarantee the highest quality, the tightest tolerances and maximum flexibility. Do you have more details about this? Wire rod at the highest quality requirements for us integrated production in a value chain that is unique in the industry from the ore to the finished wire product. Best mechanical and technological properties.
Extended dimensional range from 5 millimeters to 52 millimeters is wire rod in coils. Best surface quality and tight diameter tolerances. We have also the possibility coil weights up to three tons and we have also an integrated surface and heat treatment production here in St. Peter/Freienstein.
We have state-of-the-art logistics concepts from steel production up to the customer. We are very orientated in long-term relationships with our customers. We have a good R&D department in voestalpine Wire Technology which means we have possibilities for individual solutions.
Small-scale productions via METLAB up to the TECHMET and further on to the voestalpine Stahl Donawitz in the steel production continuous casters 3 and 4. voestalpine Wire Rod Austria supplies wire rods with various surface treatments and you are constantly developing new solutions for surface treatments. What is particularly worth mentioning here? In regard of the surface treatment we have the possibilities for pickling, phosphating, liming, soaping and polymer coating and in addition as a sustainable solution a phosphate-free coating. And heat treatments also play a major role.
We have also a heat treatment production for 130 000 tons per year.
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Mr. Strohhaeussl, do you have an example of how all the process steps in your company take place as a one-stop shop? Yes, definitely. Anyone who has perhaps ever had to deal with the task of building a house or similar in their private life understands what it can mean to have to coordinate different trades.
They have probably also experienced what can happen. You often wish for a one-stop shop. Aside from the reduced workload for the customers, however, I see above all the possibility of being able to make adjustments to all aspects of the manufacturing process.
That is the biggest advantage for the customer. It also enables us to implement new creative and innovative approaches in order to find the best possible solution for our customers. What can customers expect when they start a project with voestalpine Wire Technology? Firstly, I would say full commitment.
When we start joint projects we stand behind them and endeavor to implement them in the best possible way. Then I would like to emphasize our holistic expertise. Our teams and departments have a broad range of expertise and are complemented by our technological capabilities.
I think we are certainly top-in-class here. Talking about voestalpine Wire Technology as a supplier doesn't really do your company justice. But what distinguishes your company from a classic wire supplier? I think we are not really just a supplier.
Rather, we are a partner for our customers. We try to live this at all levels. Whether these are development partnerships with our technological capabilities and our expertise or simply partnership-based behavior.
This can also involve short-term requirements such as to win an important new project, which we support and accompany as flexible as possible. This is also reflected in the length of our customer relationships. Just recently we received a gift from one of our long-standing customers for our 60 years partnership.
That makes me very proud. How does the material influence the subsequent wire performance and how do you select it? The material itself is of course one of the most important building blocks for the successful realization of a customer project. However, I also believe that the importance of optimized and coordinated process management should not be underestimated.
I generally follow a personal scheme and start with the rough requirements for the material. For example, there are special requirements for hardenability, strength, wear resistance and so on. This narrows down to the selection further and further.
In the majority of cases, the requirements for the material are summarized in the customer specification. But that's where things start to get tricky, isn't it? In order to really be able to select the ideal material within these boundary conditions, you have to understand what exactly the customer wants to achieve with it. This only works if you have a good dialogue with the customer so that you can also understand their needs.
It is also interesting to note that we should actually believe that we no longer have any control levers as the customer defines the material properties in their specification. Nevertheless, we are still finding ways to fine-tune our materials so that it works even better for our customers. This is also the reason why we offer around 400 different steel grade variants.
Even so, our customers may only request around 100 different ones on paper. Every process step from the raw material to the finished wire solution must be customized to the customer. How do you ensure this? You have three criteria for this.
Yes, that's right. This only works if three criteria are met. Firstly, we must understand our production process down to the last detail.
This is in our own hands. We can look back on decades of experience in this area, but we also continue to learn every day. I think this is also what sets us apart that we are still open to further development and do not believe that we have already reached the end of wisdom.
Secondly, we need to understand exactly what our customer needs are. This requires sometimes intensive clarification and openness on the part of our customers. This is where dialogue is of enormous importance.
The more mutual understanding we build up here, the better solutions can be derived. And last but not least, we are dependent on feedback. Without feedback, we cannot develop further.
In a nutshell, what is your personal guiding principle in customer communication? Let's be courageous together, treat new paths, and find innovative solutions. Because standard or middle class should not be our aspiration. And that brings us to the end of this episode of Wire Insights, from raw material to excellent wire.
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A big thank you to our guests, Mr. Huemer, Mr. Tischler, and Mr. Strohhaeussl, for sharing your expertise and giving us a deeper look into the journey from steel to high-performance wire. Your insights have truly enriched today's discussion. To our listeners, thank you for joining us.
Our upcoming episode will offer new insights and viewpoints as we continue our journey through the world of voestalpine Wire Technology. Stay curious and see you next time on Wire Insights.
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