More information on OCC:
An Interview with Steven Huang of Audio Sensibility - Dagogo
The rapid development of the electronics industry in Japan in the 1970’s led to the aggressive miniaturization of electronic components. This in turn drove the demand to draw wire of increasingly fine gauge. It became evident to Dr. Ohno that it would be necessary to develop metal materials with no casting defects or crystal grain boundaries to continue the miniaturization.
This became the motivation for his research which led to the patenting of the Ohno Continuous Casting process in 1986. Actually Dr. Ohno was granted five patents related to his continuous casting process between 1985 and 1981.
By using a heated mold with the temperature profile carefully selected, and drawing the material at a very slow rate it is possible to cause the solidification process to start from the inside-out resulting in the formation of very long crystals in the metal, rather than the many short crystals that form in conventional casting when the material cools from the outside-in.
Because of the requirement of very high purity metal (to prevent premature crystallization) and cast at very slow speeds, the cost of manufacture of OCC product is much more expensive than using conventional casting.
The OCC process was initially licensed to Furukawa Electric of Japan.
It soon became evident that the metallurgical properties of OCC copper were also advantageous for audio applications. The initial use of OCC copper wire in audio began in 1988 by a company called Furutech (no relation to Furukawa Electric) with Audioquest soon following in 1989 with its cables using Perfect Surface Copper (PSC).
The OCC process made a small fortune for Dr. Ohno, and in gratitude to his alma mater he made a generous research endowment to the University of Toronto in 1989.
University of Toronto OCC Research Lab
The UofT Department of Metallurgical Engineering established an OCC research lab in recognition of the donation. Today the Chiba Institute of Technology and University of Toronto remain the two leading OCC research centers in the world.
Dr. Ohno who is now in his mid eighties, is a Professor Emeritus at both Chiba and Toronto, and continues to keep in touch with researchers at the two institutions on a weekly basis. He remains in good health and was fortunately not affected by the recent earthquake in Japan.
Today there are three companies who cast OCC metals and an ever increasing number of audio companies using OCC copper and silver in their very best cables.
