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Southwire, Official Wire and Cable Provider of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship

Southwire, one of North America’s leading wire and cable producers and an emerging influence in the electrical industry, will be the title sponsor of the 2023 Southwire Portland E-Prix in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship on Saturday, 24 June. The 2023 Southwire Portland E-Prix will mark the United States debut of the GEN3 – the fastest, lightest, most powerful and efficient electric race car ever built – and the last of four new race locations in Season 9’s 16-race calendar following debuts in Hyderabad, Cape Town and São Paulo. Southwire was recently named as the Official Wire and Cable Provider for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the world’s first all-electric FIA World Championship and the first sport in the world to be certified net zero carbon since its inception. As a part of Southwire’s ongoing collaboration with Formula E the company is committed to developing innovative systems and solutions that are closely aligned to Formula E’s purpose of accelerating change towards an electric and more sustainable future. Richard Oglesby, Senior Vice President of OEM and Industrial, Southwire, said: “Formula E represents innovation and sustainability, which are principles mirrored at Southwire. Our collaboration is an amazing opportunity for future advancements in e-Mobility. We're very proud and excited to be the title sponsor of the 2023 Southwire Portland E-Prix and to support this evolution to electrification.” Matt Scammell, Chief Commercial Officer, Formula E, said: “We are excited that Southwire is strengthening its relationship with the series to become title sponsor of a new race in the key US market. Our partnership is based on positive shared beliefs and values and we are looking forward to exploring new ways to collaborate in an exciting future.” The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship brings dramatic motor racing to the heart of some of the world’s most iconic cities, providing an elite motorsport platform for some of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers such as Jaguar, McLaren, Nissan, Porsche and Maserati to accelerate electric vehicle innovation. The city of Portland is famous for its sporting heritage and love of motorsport, with Indycar races held at its International Raceway as far back as 1984. Other major sporting leagues such as the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association, the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer and the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League are also all based in the city, alongside the global sportswear brand Nike.

Can Electronics Manufacturing Join the Digital Age, Asks IDTechEx

Asked whether electronics is a ‘digital technology’, almost everyone would reply in the affirmative. However, while printed circuit boards (PCBs) enable digital technologies, the manufacturing processes used to produce them are still largely analog. ‘Digital manufacturing’ refers to any method that is directly controlled by a computer – simply using software in the design process doesn’t count. Well-known examples are CNC (computer numerical control) machining, a subtractive method in which a rotational cutting tool selectively removes material, and 3D printing, an additive method that involves selective deposition of metal, plastic, or even ceramic. In both cases, direct computer control means that every part produced can have a different design and even that the design can be adjusted once manufacturing is in progress. In contrast, conventional PCB manufacturing takes an analog approach. The desired pattern is transferred to a mask that is used for photolithography. Regions of material, typically copper laminate on a PCB, that are not coated with the patterned resist are then removed with an etchant. While this approach enables efficient high-yield production, introducing digital manufacturing methods would bring additional benefits. Why Do We Need Digital Electronics Manufacturing? Arguably, the main benefit of digital over analog manufacturing is that every item can be different with no additional setup time or costs. This is why inkjet printers (digital) are used at home since only a single copy is typically needed, whereas offset printing (analog) is used for mass-produced newspapers. With electronics, digital manufacturing enables rapid prototyping, accelerating the design process. It facilitates mass customization, where every circuit has a different design if desired without dramatically increasing production costs. Furthermore, high-resolution digital manufacturing methods can be used in conjunction with conventional photolithography to repair any unwanted circuit breaks. Digital Manufacturing Methods for Electronics Interest in digital manufacturing methods for electronics has increased rapidly over recent years. While inkjet printing is by far the best-established method of digitally depositing conductive ink, there are a variety of emerging techniques that are both digital and additive. They all offer the direct control of digital manufacturing while spanning a range of throughputs, resolutions, material viscosity, and substrate dimensionality. Multiple digital and additive manufacturing methods for printed electronics span a range of resolutions. Source: IDTechEx Print-then-plate utilizes inkjet printing of a thin layer of silver nanoparticle conductive ink to selectively pattern the substrate. This ‘seed layer’ is then fully metalized by electroless plating, producing a copper circuit. This method is already used for mass production. It combines the customizability of digital manufacturing, the reduced waste of additive manufacturing, and the conductivity of copper metal (rather than printed conductive ink). Laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) can be regarded as a hybrid of laser direct structuring (LDS) and inkjet printing. Briefly, a laser heats conductive ink coated underneath a ‘transfer plate’, with evaporating solvent ejecting the ink. The lack of nozzle is a major benefit since it enables viscous inks typically used for screen printing to be used. There is potential for LIFT to be used in tandem with R2R production, enabling rapid, cost-effective production of customized circuits. Aerosol printing is a relatively established technique that is well suited to printing onto 3D surfaces. A low-viscosity ink is atomized and formed into a thin collimated jet within a gas sheath layer, enabling resolutions as fine as 10 um with a working distance of up to 5cm. It’s already being used in the semiconductor packaging production process and will soon be applied to larger area conformal surfaces such as automotive glass. Electrohydrodynamic printing (EHD) uses an electric field to ‘pull’ ink from a nozzle rather than relying on pressure to ‘push’ out the ink. Capable of traces as narrow as 1um, this technique is currently being used to repair defects in TFT backplanes. An emerging approach is to combine hundreds of individually addressable nozzles within a single MEMS (micro electromechanical system) chip promises to break the resolution/throughput trade-off for small-scale additive electronics manufacturing. Impulse printing is an innovative technique in the early stages of development that promises high throughput printing onto 3D surfaces, such as the edges of glass backplanes or 2.5D semiconductor packaging. The approach utilizes a rapid heat pulse from a controllable array of heating elements to expel ink from a flat ‘transfer surface’ onto the target object. Since no nozzle is used, ink can simultaneously be expelled from across the heated ‘transfer surface’. Comprehensive Overview The digital electronics manufacturing methods outlined are predicted to gain further traction, driven by a desire for greater customizability, shorter product development cycles, and demand for 2.5D/3D electronics. IDTechEx’s report, “Manufacturing Printed Electronics 2023-2033”, builds on 20 years of covering printed and flexible electronics to explore these technologies and many others, including roll-to-roll manufacturing. Drawing on information from conference attendance and primary interviews, it outlines the players, capabilities, trends, and requirements across the printed electronics manufacturing space, helping to support choices in product development and when scaling up to mass production. To find out more, including downloadable sample pages, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/ManufacturingPE

Unveiling Vision 357 as the Asia Premiere and Redefining the Modern Sporty Luxury Brand, Marking 75 Years of Porsche Sports Cars

Seoul - Porsche Korea (Holger Gerrmann, CEO of Porsche Korea Ltd.) exhibited a total of 15 vehicles, including the Asia Premiere ‘Vision 357’, a commemorative design study for the ’75 Years of Porsche Sports Cars’ celebration at the Seoul Mobility Show 2023’. On the morning of the 30th, at a press conference held under the theme of 'Colors of Porsche' with media personnel and officials in attendance, Porsche Korea CEO Holger Gerrmann unveiled the 'Vision 357' and delivered the successful business performance of 2022 and growth roadmap conveying the value and vision of the modern luxury brand. Porsche Korea CEO Holger Gerrmann stated, "We are preparing more active management investments as well as an attractive product portfolio for our customers and fans in the Korean market, grown to be the 6th largest market in the world." He also emphasized, “To celebrate the ’75 Years of Porsche Sports Cars’ at the mobility show, we plan to inspire more people to dream through our motto ‘Driven by Dreams’." Especially, to introduce the 'Vision 357' in-person, Korean designer Woosung Chung from Style Porsche co-led the press conference and garnered attention. Frank Moser, Vice President Model Line 911 and 718 at Porsche AG, on his visit to Korea as one of the first markets in his new role, took the opportunity to take a close look at the mobility show and attended the conference. Porsche Korea emphasized that the brand would continue investments to lead the sports car segment in the domestic market, pursuing the “Porsche Strategy 2030” for sustainable mobility and “Road to 20” for long-term profit goals. Porsche Korea achieved record sales performance of 8,963 units last year, up 6.3 percent on year, with an attractive line-up based on the product strategies of “efficient gasoline,” “high-performance hybrid,” and “all-electric drive.” In line with Porsche AG's electromobility strategy to increase the proportion of all electric vehicle sales to more than 80 percent by 2030, Porsche Korea is concentrating on expanding AC and HPC charging infrastructure in Korea. Infrastructures in relation to sales and service is also planned to be expanded. It was started with the opening of ‘Porsche Studio Bundang’ to strengthen the electrification portfolio, the recent expansion and relocation of ‘Porsche Service Centre Daegu’ and the opening of ‘Porsche Service Centre Songpa’ to further improve consumer contact points. Also, in the eastern part of Seoul the ‘Porsche Store Songpa’ and ‘Porsche Centre Seongsu’ are planned to be added for customers' convenience. In addition, the ‘Porsche Do Dream’ social contribution campaign has been continuously carried out for 6 years and has produced meaningful results in a wide field of activity such as education, culture, art and environment. This year, in celebration of the ’75 years of Porsche sports cars’, Porsche plans to deliver an interesting brand story under the theme of ‘DREAM IN FULL COLOR’. The main stage of this mobility show showcased the concept car 'Vision 357', an homage to the brand's first sports car 'Porsche 356'. The ‘Vision 357’, which brings the monolithic form of the ‘356’ model to the present, emphasizes the importance of the Porsche brand heritage. The body proportions that balance the past, present and future reflect Porsche's unique design DNA, and the details visualize the future design philosophy. An improved light signature embodying a progressive vision of the future is a striking feature, and like all current Porsche models, a four-point light signet is installed. The round design of the headlights is also a throwback to the characteristic lights of the 356. Along with the “75” anniversary logo adorning the doors and the front of the design study like a racing car’s start number, ‘Vision 357’ includes various details for racing. Equipped with a naturally aspirated six-cylinder boxer engine, it theoretically draws 500PS and was designed to also operate on eFuels. Porsche Korea plans to exhibit a total of 15 colorful line-ups, including the ‘Vision 357’, the legendary ‘356A Speedster’, the racing car ‘963 LMDh’, ‘Mission R’, ‘911 RSR “Pink Pig”’, ‘911 Edition 50 Years Porsche Design’, ‘718 Cayman GT4’, ‘Taycan GTS’, and the ‘Panamera 4 Platinum Edition’. In addition to the wide array of line-ups exhibited, various on-site events are also scheduled. Porsche prepared 75th anniversary stickers and Porsche Christophorus magazines (limited quantity) as giveaways to visitors who followed the Porsche Korea’s KakaoTalk channel and the official Instagram account and uploaded a verification photo on a personal Instagram along with the required hashtags (#Porsche #Congratulations on the 75th anniversary of Porsche #drivenbydreams). Furthermore, in the ‘Dream Your Own Porsche’ zone prepared on the Porsche booth, 10 winners of those who posted their colorful Porsche on Instagram will be drawn and awarded with a Porsche model car. In the VIP lounge, special coffees and desserts are provided to commemorate the 75th anniversary, and personal color counselling is arranged. A very special auction to support children’s dream is also taking place. From March 30th to April 10th, one of the ‘Taycan 4S Cross Turismo for Jennie Ruby Jane’ by Sonderwunsch program of Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur is prepared to go on auction, and the actual car is displayed at the exhibition. The auction will be held on April 10th and a portion of the auction is arranged to be donated to Child Fund Korea to aid the children’s dream. More details are provided at BLACKLOT, an online auction site affiliated with Seoul Auction. Meanwhile, a ‘Porsche Design Master Class’ has been planned at the pop-up store ‘Porsche NOW Seongsu’, conducted by designer Woosung Chung from Style Porsche. Targeting media and domestic university students studying automobile design-related courses, the class is filled with various programs including a drawing session, a design talk, and a Q&A session about the past, present, and future of Porsche design - which not only follows its iconic form and function, but has over decades created some of the most fascinating automotive designs.
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