APTP Articles

Celebrating 25 Years of Two Great Australian Companies: Sicame Australia & T&D Magazine

We were there at the start and are still going strong! Since our first new product announcement of multi-service connectors for LVABC in the first ever T&D edition back in 1996, we have continued to develop new products in support of the local power distribution industry.

Products designed, developed, tested, and manufactured right here in Australia which still continues to this day. More recently, we have developed our export markets to the USA, South Korea, The Netherlands, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan with a suite of unique connection solutions.

House Service Connector

It all started the with LVABC multi-service connector developed in 1996. This continued with the now industry-standard house service connector (HSC), waterproof IPC connectors for LVABC services to bare mains (CAW, CCW) and the waterproof IPC multi-port connector (MUCI) for underground services. All of these products have become industry standards and are still being manufactured in our Queensland factory complex.

The innovation continued with a major product development project to take the waterproof IPC multi-port concept to the United States. We identified American Utilities with similar climatic conditions and product applications as we have in Australia. The product was upscaled from the humble 50sqmm, right up to 300sqmm LV insulated cables. As a result, the Piranha™ product range was born. Today, our Piranha™ exports to the USA and South Korea form a large portion of our sales revenue and earns valuable export dollars for Australia with Products designed, developed, and manufactured right here in Australia.

At the other end of the scale, the development of a ‘micro’ in-line IPC for 1.5sqmm underground live-working applications in the Netherlands has enabled us to break into European markets
and compete with the European connector manufacturers at their own game.

Not all the action has been underground. Look above you around Australia and the USA these days and you will probably see the unique Sicame Mecha-Splice™. The world’s first full-tension sleeve for bare distribution class overhead conductors to utilise ultra-reliable torque-controlled shear-bolt technology, as an alternative to compression technology requiring cumbersome installation equipment. Nearly 10 years in development, this product is rapidly becoming our No.1 export product. A product designed, developed, tested, and manufactured right here in Australia.

The focus by Australian utilities on cost saving through procurement practices, rather than technical innovation in this space has seen their willingness to partner with local manufacturers to develop new products diminish significantly. The growth of our business is based on new products and innovation. Recently, we have turned increasingly to overseas markets for product development inspiration. KEPCO in South Korea and Florida Light and Power in the USA are just two examples where overseas utilities have actively sought our input and expertise in product development.

Despite our remote location in relation to larger global markets, Sicame Australia has become a successful exporter of Australian manufactured products internationally. No matter where a market is located, it takes mutual cooperation from end users and product developers to work together to find new and innovative solutions. With the full support of Group Sicame, we are keen to work with local customers to develop new products for the Australian market as well.

Sicame Australia