In this Q&A Tom Mander, managing director of Alloy Wire International (AWI) a leading UK manufacturer of round, flat and profile wire in more than 60 exotic alloys, discusses with Ed Hill its 20 years plus involvement with the aerospace sector.

There are not many manufacturing businesses like Alloy Wire International (AWI), a critical supplier of round, flat and profile wire to a 6,000-strong global customer base spanning eighteen different markets. From its state-of-the-art facility in the Black Country, the company has proved it leads the world when it comes to quality, lead-times and technical expertise, crucial when delivering material for safety critical applications in a wide range of sectors.

People are at the heart of the business, and it recently expanded its ‘Employee Ownership’ further when the most recent management buyout was completed by Tom Mander, Adam Shaw and Andrew Du Plessis.

Many staff are shareholders in the company and have a vested interest in promoting the AWI culture and improving its operational/commercial performance. This is reflected in everything the company does: from the management team’s desire for integrity and the highest standards to the accuracy of wire in the 60-strong alloys that it ships around the world.

Q) What quality and performance accreditations do you have that enable you to supply into the aerospace sector?

‘Manufacturing quality - delivering reliability’ is our mantra and this is strengthened by accreditations, including AS:9100 (Aerospace), ISO:9001 (Quality), ISO:13485 (Medical), ISO:14001 (Environmental) and ISO:45001 (Health & Safety).

AWI specialises in the manufacture of round wire, profile wire, wire rope and straight bars in nickel-based alloys, often referred to as ‘High Performance’ or ‘Exotic’ alloys.

Each AWI order is custom-made to the required specification

We procure our raw material from high quality melt sources in Europe and North America, who are all accredited to the world class standards required by our customers, and this is further boosted by a four-strong technical team that completes our testing in-house.

The six-point AWI difference, includes: 1. Each order is custom-made to specification; 2. Customers can order the exact quantity of wire they need, from just 3m in length to 3,000kg; 3. They can order any wire size from 0.025mm to 21mm; 4. We provide short lead-times of just three weeks from the order being placed; 5. We have a large range of Alloys – 400 tonnes of more than 60 alloys always available for fast conversion; 6. We provide an emergency manufacturing service (EMS) for customer orders that are required in just a few days.

Q) How long has AWI been supplying into the aerospace sector? Is it an important market for the company?

Aerospace is a hugely important market for us and accounts for approximately 7-10% of our business. We have been supplying to the sector for 20 years+ and have held AS9100, the dedicated quality accreditation for the industry, since 2013.

The last twelve months have seen a real resurgence in the volume of air passenger traffic, and this has transcended into a massive boost in orders through all parts of the supply chain. It takes a while for it to cascade down from the primes and tier 1s, but I feel it is safe to say that all links of the chain are now benefitting.

Q) What sorts of materials do you supply for aerospace and what sorts of applications are they used for?

Nimonic 90, Waspaloy, Haynes 282 and Inconel 600 are our most popular materials and are commonly used for fuselage frames, sealing rings and fuel pipes hoses amongst other things.

All grades are chosen for their heat and corrosion resistant properties and because they perform in some of the most demanding and harshest operating environments in the world. There is no margin for error in aerospace.

Q) What would you say are your biggest assets as a supplier into the aerospace sector for your type of materials?

Our greatest strength is our customer service and that stems from initial technical support at pre-order stage to delivering the material in an industry-leading three-week window; this is by far the quickest in our space.

AWI’s facility in Brierley Hill supplies exotic alloy wire to aerospace companies around the world

There is also a willingness to support clients through trial stages by supplying samples and offering bespoke products to validate initial material selections or to allow them to explore different options. On numerous occasions, this has saved clients time and expenditure by getting the process right at the first time of asking.

We have also invested heavily in our testing departing, boosting our dedicated technical team and brining in new equipment, which means we can ‘test’ everything in-house.

Q) You recently won a large contract to supply a US company with a nickel cobalt alloy wire, can you say a little more about that and the application?

That was some contract to pull off. At $400,000, it represents the largest single export deal we have ever signed and is from a US-based springmaker looking for a high strength nickel cobalt alloy. The DFARS-compliant material will be used in an aerospace application that requires heat and corrosion resistance, with AWI chosen for our world class quality and the ability to process the order in just a matter of weeks. None of our rivals could match those timelines.

Q) How do you comply to the certification requirements and what role does traceability play for both you and your customers?

We have a strong internal Quality Management System that is adhered to by all our 33-strong workforce, and this helps us deliver our ethos of ‘Manufacturing quality – delivering reliability’. It also plays a big role in us holding five national quality accreditations, mentioned above. Traceability of the material - from the mill it was sourced to the various processes we complete at our factories in the West Midlands and Yorkshire – is vitally important and the bedrock that underpins our quality.

Q) What role does R&D play in your supply and service to customers and how are you expanding its extent for future business?

We take a multi-faceted approach to R&D, which starts by seeking out specific industry needs that are not being met and then, by reviewing our own processes, we determine if we can develop new processes or products that can offer a possible solution. Without the end application, any innovation will fall flat on its face. So many companies fall into this trap and end up wasting lots of money.

AWI specialise in the manufacture of round and profile wire, wire rope and straight bars in nickel-based high-performance alloys

There are occasions when AWI will take a more ambitious R&D approach and, in recent years, we have been exploring how our wire can be used in additive manufacturing – a potential growth area and one rich for us to disrupt. With this in mind, we are increasingly selling our Exotic nickel alloy wire to the 3D printing industry as more suppliers tap into the desire for cost effective rapid production of parts.

We can manufacture wire for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), a process that produces near net shape components that require less machining and wastes less material than conventional methods. This process can also provide quicker lead-times than conventional forging or casting without the need for complex tooling, moulds or dies.

Q) Are there trends in aerospace such as electrification, lightweighting, sustainability that you are addressing?

Lightweighting is key, and this has seen some of the major plane makers and tier 1s examine different material usage in order to gain those all-important weight savings. We are seeing these enquiries firsthand and there is a definite appetite within industry to test and validate alternative materials.

Another change we noticed early on was the desire for the supply chain to be greener and more sustainable. This is now an important part of the tendering process and one that we got ahead of the game in by becoming Carbon Neutral in 2021. Not only is this the right thing to do (in our opinion), but it is also now paying off financially with contract wins.

Q) What do you see as the biggest challenges in the future? Recruitment, ramp up, automation, Industry 4.0 - how will you maintain your position as one of the leading suppliers in the market?  

Recruitment is an issue for everyone in manufacturing but as a people-centric company, we focus on employing good human beings. Provided they have the right attitude and willingness to work, we can train people up in-house. In fact, it is more important that they share our values and our unique AWI culture.

The business is completely employee-owned, a decision we made as soon as we completed the latest MBO eighteen months ago. This means everyone is invested in what we do and how we do it.

Alloy Wire International will be exhibiting at the Farnborough International Airshow in hall 1, stand 320.

www.alloywire.com