Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Standard medical cables and wires for medical equipments
Monday, January 28, 2013
Customer Wires: The Solution to Your Cable Headaches
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Where to Find Robotics Wire?
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Silicone Ribbon and Flat Cables: More Flexibility
- Aerospace
- Automation/Robotics
- Medical
- Industrial
- Automotive
- Telecommunication
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Custom Wire and Cable Made to Your Specifications
- Very small or odd gauge wire.
- Special materials.
- Unique construction.
- More flexibility.
- Custom colors, jacket finish, or custom printing.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wire and Cable manufacturers: What’s the difference?
Wire and cable manufacturers are not all the same, many have their specialties or niche. Depending on your needs, finding the right wire and cable manufacturer can be difficult. If the wire and cable you need is not easily found through distribution, chances are you will need to find a manufacturer to design and manufacture it. Wire and cable manufacturers can be categorized as follows:
- Commodity - This includes Mil-Spec, industrial, wire and cable. Their products are easily purchased through distribution. Commodity wire and cable manufacturers usually have their manufacturing lines dedicated to the products they produce regularly so when ordering a custom wire or cable from these types of manufacturers usually results in long lead times and high minimum orders. Why? They have to place the custom wire or cable order into their production schedule, set up the equipment, and stop production of their normal product on that line.
- Custom - Custom wire and cable is made to order to your specification. Custom wire and cable manufacturers are basically job shops, they set up the production lines and schedules based on their orders and this is figured into their cost. This is why you can order custom wire and cable in smaller quantities and shorter lead times than from a commodity wire manufacturer. Ordering commodity cables from a custom wire manufacturer can be costly due to the sheer volume commodity manufacturers produce these products. What makes a cable custom can be a simple as a unique color or more flexible design of a commodity cable to complicated composite cable designs.
- Specialty - Specialty wire and cable can include extremely small gauges such as 50AWG or smaller, unusual or molded shapes, or unique materials. These custom cable manufacturers do fall into the custom category but are known for their specialties throughout the industry. Many custom wire and cable manufacturers have a specialty product or a niche market.
Working with custom wire and cable manufacturers is easy, whether you have a design, need a design or are not sure what you need. Most custom wire and cable design engineers can assist you in choosing the right materials and construction to meet your requirements. Finding the right manufacture is not difficult by using Google or Global Spec you can do keyword search or ask other industry professionals. It's a small industry.





