Top 3 Reasons People chose Custom Wire

Super Flexible Custom Wire

Why would anyone need custom wire?  Wire is constructed differently, it is important to use a wire that was made for your type of application. There are many reasons people turn to custom wire. Custom wire can be manufactured to meet specific requirements such as, high voltage, extreme temperatures, high flex cycles and improved flexibility to name a few.

Three of the most common reasons people turn to custom hook up and lead wire are:

• “My existing wire keeps breaking.” Wires that break and fail are usually not designed to be repeatedly flexed or bent. High flex custom wire is normally made with high strand count conductors and sometimes with alloys. Hook up and lead wires that are off the shelf are normally available in solid core, 7 or 19 strand. This wire is intended for static installations where the wire is not required to move once it is installed and is not intended for repetitive movement and high flex applications. As the fine strands break loss of conductivity and complete failure will occur. High strand count conductors will withstand this type of environment due to the construction and number of strands. High strand count wire can sometimes be purchased off the shelf, but in most cases need to be purchased from a custom wire and cable manufacturer. Custom lead wires can be manufactured with the application in mind using materials intended to withstand movement such as robotic /automation, handheld devices, and other applications.

• “I need a more flexible wire for my project.” Ultra flexible wires are are manufactured using very high strand count conductors and flexible insulation and jacket materials which are hard to find ready-made and off the shelf. Custom wire and cable manufactures specializing in super flexible wire and cable can assist you with your flexibility requirements. There are several types of insulation that can be used to make a wire extremely flexible. Silicone insulated wires are probably the most flexible wire available together with high strand count conductors the wire can be extremely limp even described as “noodle wire” even in the larger gauge sizes.

• “I can’t find the wire I need anywhere.”  This is usually the case when a small gauge wire is needed, retrofitting and repairs, or a wire becomes obsolete.  Wire gauges smaller than 30AWG can be difficult to find off the shelf, turning to a custom wire manufacturer that works with small gauges is usually the only option. Custom wire can be made smaller than 50AWG by some custom wire manufacturers.  Often we have requests for hookup wire and cables for equipment that needs to be repaired, updated, or overhauled. This type of situation the existing wire can’t be identified or the existing wire needs to have improved performance. Custom cable manufacturers can reverse engineer existing wire and suggest better construction or materials to achieve the improved performance and longevity of the wire.

Contact a custom wire and cable manufacturer to find out if a custom wire is needed for your application. Starting out with the right wire will save time and money in returns, repairs and redesign. They may tell you that a custom wire design is not needed and an off the shelf wire will work just fine for your application.

Custom Wire and Cable Made to Your Specifications

Custom wire and cable is needed more often than not. There are a variety of reasons design engineers turn to custom wire and cable for their projects, but the main reason is simply they cannot find a ready- made cable that meets all their requirements.

Unique requirements may be as simple as needing:

• Very small or odd gauge wire.
• Special materials.
• Unique construction.
• More flexibility.
• Custom colors, jacket finish, or custom printing.

More complicated custom cable requirements may involve complex construction such as, composite cables or hybrid cables. Many applications have unique requirements that can only be met with a custom cable made specifically for that application.

Getting started with a custom cable design.
Custom wire and cable manufacturers take the application into consideration when designing a custom cable. The more your custom cable manufacturer knows about the environment and usage of the wire and cable the better the performance of the custom cable will be.

Gather your data.
Have all the information about your project ready and include as much information as possible. You may not have or know all the information your cable manufacturer should be able to assist you.

Information to have:

• Number, size and plating of conductors
• Cable O.D.
• Voltage, operating temperature
• Impedance, EMI requirements
• Other requirements- Certifications, bio-compatibility, flex cycles, flammability.
• Include a description of how the cable will be used.

Don't forget to include small details like jacket finish (matte or glossy), custom colors, smooth, etc...

Finding a custom cable manufacturer.
The wire and cable industry is relatively small. Get a recommendation from your contract manufacturer, industry friends and even Google. Each custom cable manufacturer has their own specialty or niche. Be sure your cable manufacturer has experience with the type of application you are working with for example, aerospace/space cables, low smoke materials, medical cables, implantable wire and cable and others. Experienced in manufacturing for your type of application will save you in delays and problems down the line.
When you get a quote from more than one, make sure the cable designs are similar. If not, find out why.  It is always a good idea to compare the designs and cable components and ask questions in ensure nothing was missed with your custom cable design.

Custom wire and cable advantage
The benefits of using a custom cable over a readily available cable are many. The two main benefits of using wire and cable designed specifically for your product is going to outlast and outperform an off the shelf solution in most cases.
Readily available wire and cable is mass produced to cover a wide range of usage in a variety of industries. A generic robotic cable may work well in one robotic application may not work in a medical or aerospace robotic application. Often when using generic cables concessions are made in order to accommodate the cable.

The Growing Importance of Custom Medical Cables

While medical devices are incredibly important in the medical world, without medical cables to run them, those incredibly important medical devices would be rendered useless. In that respect, it is already quite obvious to see why functional, effective, and reliable medical cables are an absolute necessity for an evermore technology-dependent medical field.

There are many different types of medical cables that are needed during everyday medical practices- a medical wire that connects a medical ventilator to a power source or something as simple as a medical cable that connects a specialized printer to print out custom patient reports and the like.

However, these days, the medical technologies used to treat patients have become more advanced as well as highly customized, which means that the computerized apparatus that are currently being used to treat patients need to be created from parts that have been specialized for certain procedures and applications.

Take, for example, MRI machines. Although the basic function of MRI machines are the same- to visualize internal bodily structures using a medical imaging technique- there now exist needs to tweak an MRI machine to make it capable of taking more specialized images for internal bodily structures. In order to do this, however, specialized medical cables are needed.

Just like a specialized MRI machine, there are, and will be, many medical devices that are needed for more and more specialized reasons, calling for the need for customized parts, especially cables. This is because medical cables are what powers the machines and relays information from one part of the machine to the other.

Medical cables can be composed of so many different materials such as cadmium copper, beryllium copper, and carbon fiber. But each type of material has very specific strengths and weaknesses. For example, carbon fiber has the property of being almost invisible with MRIs and other medical imaging procedures as well as the property of being radio translucent, making them the near perfect material with which to make EKG leads or wiring in defibrillators.

The complexity and variety of medical cables necessitates the need for specialists who are highly capable of creating effective and trustworthy custom medical cables. Not only does the complexity and variety of medical cables dictate a need for specialist, but the fact that a good amount of medical environments need sterilized medical devices shows that medical cables need to be made by trained and trusted specialists.

There are custom medical cable specialists who can help figure out how to develop medical cables according to virtually any specification. These cable specialists can help create custom cables and wiring for medical devices such as devices used during surgery and even specialized devices such as laser eye surgery devices and tools.