Cable Bundling & Wire Management

Proper wire and cable management is cosmetically desirable but also adds to ease of maintenance, adds unique performance characteristics to the group of wires as a whole and can significantly improve system longevity.

Circuit layout at the drawing level is a fairly straight forward affair. However, combining these connections into an efficient and economical package to eliminate a “rats nest” condition and selecting the proper harnessing materials can be a daunting task and should never be minimized. Combining circuits into a compact, efficient and economical package that meets all the design criteria falls to the wire harness fabrication shop. Wire harness fabrication of all but the most simplistic designs is still a human operation and very labor intensive. As a result, the largest cost associated with wire and cable harness fabrication is in the associated labor load and not the materials specified on the electrical design drawing.

 

Most wire and cable management products on the market today are designed to be easily produced by the material manufacture. The manufacture’s goal is to transform a raw polymer material into a finished product by squirting it out of an extrusion die or braiding tool with minimal human intervention. This approach keeps the final material product cost to a minimum but generally results in a product that is not necessarily the most user-friendly or cost effective from a customer labor standpoint. Most cable management materials are tubular in shape and require the electrical wiring to be pulled-thru the tube or sleeve. This can be a daunting task especially when the assembly length becomes long. It also demands extensive sequence planning since some critical harnessing operations cannot be performed until the harnessing sleeve has been installed over the wiring since items like connectors hardware are larger than the harnessing sleeve material itself. This condition also makes rework or last minute circuit changes nearly impossible. These harnessing material design restrictions force the cost of fabrication to be far higher than they need to be. The biggest reductions in wire harness fabrication cost are to be had by using a material that reduces the total installation labor time and not by allowing a buyer to simply procure the least expensive raw material.

Zippertubing’s Cable Management Materials are the solution. 

Zippertubing’s “wrap-around” cable jacketing and management designs eliminate 90 percent of the installation labor time associated with pull-thru alternatives. The flat, open concept allows for easy incorporation of different material types within a single jacket allowing the designer to add EMI shielding, thermal barriers, abrasion protection or electrical properties in different areas as needed. The easy zip-on and reopen capability of this design simplifies the fabrication planning process since the cabling can be fully connectorized and tested prior to closing up the harness jacketing. It also makes last minute system modifications or field retrofitting exercises a snap. Furthermore, the Zippertubing® design allows you to change the closure feature types to fit your specific need and is available in three different shapes; round, flat and rectangular. In all, Zippertubing® can provide close to 150,000 product combinations. Simpler yet, choose one of our many “Proven Solutions” which are standard material combinations that are in wide use. Finally, Zippertubing® can customize all of these materials to meet your most exotic design and material demands. So, when it comes to achieving a cost effective wire harnessing solution, design it in up front with Zippertubing® and you will be saving money in the long run!