AWI attracts attention at Chicago show

Hundreds of delegates from USA, Canada and Mexico at the Chicago show visited the UK’s leading manufacturer of round, flat and profile wire to discuss the Brierley Hill firm’s new INCONEL alloy 686 and to tap into its technical knowledge.

Spring manufacturers were keen to discuss exciting projects destined for the aerospace, automotive, chemical and petrochemical processing, oil and gas extraction and marine environments.

There was a common thread throughout the conversations, which focused on the need for earlier development support and having availability of material in short lead times, something AWI currently has access to due to its unprecedented investment in maintaining 400 tonnes of stock at any one time.

“It was excellent to meet so many existing and potential new customers face-to-face and CASMI certainly didn’t disappoint in terms of footfall and the quality of visitors,” explained Stephen Olley, sales executive at AWI.

“Our clients require material that can work in all types of demanding applications from intense heat and sub-zero temperatures to highly corrosive environments. That is why we were so pleased to launch INCONEL alloy 686 after months of trials and testing.

“This single-phase, austenitic alloy delivers excellent resistance to general and stress corrosion cracking that can occur in aggressive liquids and gases and, judging by the conversations we were having, there appears to be a lot of opportunities for us to supply this material.”

He continued: “It was also great having Andrew Du Plessis there to talk in-depth about technical requirements. This included finer details of our nickel alloys, such as heat treatments to achieve a certain tensile strength after ageing and which alloys are better suited to working in different, corrosive environments.”

Alloy Wire International provides more than 62 exotic alloys to more than 7500 customers across the world, with material available in sizes ranging from .001in (0.025mm) to .197in (5.00mm) and lead times often within three weeks of the order being placed.

The company, which celebrated 75 years in business in 2021, recently promoted Tom Mander to managing director, with previous MD Mark Venables moving upstairs to the position of chairman.

This is an exciting next step in the AWI journey and will accelerate its ambition to increase sales from its current £13 million level to £15m by the end of the year, with most orders now coming from clients overseas.