C-60 Part 4: Case StudiesThis was about 1992 and we were crestfallen, as this was
after about two years of work ... Ultimately, we decided
to do it ourselves. I wrote their president and said: “If you
don’t want to do this, we do, so license us and we’ll do it
and buy our raw material from you.” For $10,000 and a
royalty for ten years on the cost of the raw material, we
got the whole thing.
It took a couple of years for Fisk Alloy to solve
the engineering issues related to developing the high-
performance wire production process. While this new
process was similar to the processes FAW used for its
original products, it required drawing wire to a much
finer size and electroplating with a finish metal to make it
marketable. The quality requirements were much higher
and more exacting. For market acceptance, the issue
became how to make a product equivalent to the Phelps
Dodge product called PD135, (a unique combination of
strength, conductivity, and elongation). Phelps Dodge
was the only serious competitor in the high-performance
market. Fisk Alloy’s first Percon product, Percon 17, was
close, but it would not make the total scheduled ASTM
profiles. By 1998, the company had developed a product
(called Percon 24) to match PD135, which gave the elec-
tronics industry a second source of a high-performance
product, with the added benefit of being cadmium free.
While developing Percon, Fisk Alloy decided not to use
cadmium due to its known carcinogenic qualities and
environmental issues. Eric Fisk explained how the cad-
mium-free aspect related to Percon:
Cadmium locked up in a copper matrix is fine, it’s not a
problem. But once you take it and try and recycle it, it’s a
waste stream management problem. Anyone that has any
casting skill isn’t going to touch cadmium because of the
recycling problem.... Stranded conductor manufacturers
haven’t been proactive in making more environmentally
responsible alloys that don’t sacrifice performance. Our
experience in producing copper alloy wire, combined with
our manufacturing technology, allows us to make a syn-
ergistic leap into a new product class. We’re taking our
process know-how and applying it to stranded conductors.
The results are next generation products that have better
performance characteristics and are more sensitive to the
environmental considerations.^4
The first actual commercial sale of Percon 24 was
finalized in August of 2000, and sales were slowly build-
ing when the Internet bubble burst in 2001. Fisk Alloy’s
core wire business dropped 40 percent. For the next two
years, the company used the time to perfect the pro-
cess to produce a high-quality finished Percon product.
Eric Fisk described those years:
We were able to build very slowly from 2001 through 2003.
We gained the know-how, optimized the production and
smoothed out the chemistry to make the whole process work.
Things were really tight across the business. We had this nice
big building, and we were making samples and running
around, but in the back there are really only two guys actually
running production machines to fill orders. Brian was person-
ally rebuilding machines and running production.
Potential customers, however, were extremely reluc-
tant to adopt new materials without lengthy qualification
testing. The problem for Fisk Alloy was to show that this
new, cadmium-free Percon material was equivalent to
PD135, which was the industry standard. Both Fisks felt
certification for military usage would validate the prod-
uct. The company approached NAVAIR, since NAVAIR
certified the Qualified Producer Lists (or QPLs) for all
the manufacturers who made wiring for the military. The
company felt that without the certification, the market
would never accept Percon. It took two years to become
certified and when the review was finished, the user
groups agreed that the product met NAVAIR standards
and would be acceptable to Lockheed, Boeing, and others
that bought from QPL suppliers.
Once those problems were solved, the business issue
then became developing the market for high perfor-
mance alloys. Eric continued:We then had to go out and build a market in connectors for
high-performance alloys. The good thing for us in this pro-
cess was that Olin had built an elite position and had done
a lot of the preliminary market education so the alloys
were known, but they just hadn’t been available in wire.
Fisk comes in and we’re known as a quality wire house that
can deliver the goods. Where appropriate, Olin referred
customers to us as a wire provider.
The original intent had been to sell copper alloy wire
as raw material to the stranding market, where it would
be insulated and used in other end products such as
planes and automobiles. Since the cost of the wire was
significantly higher, market acceptance was driven by
performance requirements. Brian Fisk commented:There has to be a compelling reason to use copper alloys
because straight copper is so much cheaper than alloy.
How the wire is used drives the development of the alloy
because different combinations of additives yield different
functionalities, strength, flexibility, heat tolerance, etc. The
value of the wire is a function of the value of the ore plus
the fabrication. In many instances, the value of the ore is a
comparatively inexpensive component; the real value is in
the quality of the manufacturing.