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Technical Cable Applications

Technical Cable Applications is a contract cable manufacturer specializing in the field of custom cable assemblies and wiring harnesses. With a huge selection of automated and manual tools to prepare outsourcing products, Technical Cable can build your custom cables and inspect the finished goods for perfection. Our engineers and technicians are highly qualified and trained, and we have experts for each part of the, prototyping, manufacturing, and testing processes that any full cable project requires.

At Technical Cable Applications, the first and most important step of the cable manufacturing process is your specifications. Manufacturing cables and harness assemblies requires custom solutions. Each assembly production is different, and each cable project brings forth new and exciting engineering. We are constantly innovating and investing in new solutions and tools to speed up and improve our manufacturing processes. We also hire only the best engineers and technicians to prototype new builds, so that we can continually push the envelope and grow our manufacturing and custom wire capabilities each year.

Technical Cable Application's team works with highly qualified cable manufacturers. Together, they work to make sure that the services and parts needed are assembled and delivered perfectly. TCA performs manufacturing solutions quickly, and without losing sight of the customer’s need for custom services and high-quality results. We keep the parts and tools on hand for most typical cable styles and connectors so that we can get to work right away on bulk orders of pre-existing parts, while also keeping our innovative engineers on site to assist with every new project we take on and maintaining relationships with materials providers so that we can order anything additional needed for a project quickly.

Cable Manufacturers

With your specifications, TCA orders the parts needed to begin proper cable assembly production. Automation has been developed for aspects of contract cable and harness assembly like automated wire cutting, stripping, crimping, 3D printing, and injection molding. Much of the work is custom and hand made as well, by IPC certified and trained cable technicians when necessary. Our team of technicians are experienced and qualified, and always ensure that every wire and cable they touch is assembled properly and carefully.

At TCA, wire cutting is often the beginning of many projects if the drawing is already in place. This phase is mostly automated with our robotic despoiling and wire cutting machines to produce the correct lengths. Followed by stripping and adding custom connectors, the cable is stripped back to reveal its core so the next steps of assembly can be completed. This automation and the special machines that utilize it allows us to start with an extremely solid beginning for every cable and wire before further steps are completed.

With the cores exposed, custom connectors can be added. Doing this includes crimping and soldering the wire into the proper connections. Many manufacturing steps are automated, and those that cannot be automated are done by hand by skilled custom operators. We are continually improving our crimping and soldering processes by acquiring new tools and machines, including the Schleuniger 36SP Crimp Center that we started using in 2021. Using the best and most powerful machines for precise work means that quality assurance is involved in every step of our manufacturing processes.

After the crimping and soldering processes have been completed, the terminated wires are gathered up and crafted into the contract harnesses themselves. This step requires most of the manual wire. Each wire is fed through or bundled together, taped off and measured to make sure the dimensions match the manufacturer specifications. TCA adds coverings, braiding, heat shrinkable tubing, transition boots, and tubing products as required.

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Cable Manufacturing Company

When the cable manufacturing or custom wire harness is finished, thorough inspection is completed to all assemblies, to inspect to the drawing for dimensions, continuity, and note compliance. Each step in the product inspection procedure is monitored and tracked. In the event of any failure to pass our strict tests for quality, we will immediately address and locate the issue, make it right, and ship quickly to ensure minimal delays. Any manufacturing failures are always fixed, the parts are retested, and moved to shipping when the manufacturing is approved.

Founded in 2002 and operating out of Auburn, WA in Washington state, Technical Cable Applications is a manufacturer for tens of thousands of completely custom contract cables, and many high quality wiring harnesses projects per month. We work with clients all over the United States in dozens of industries, including construction, telecommunications, aerospace, healthcare, industrial manufacturing and many more. If you have a large project requiring custom cables or a bulk order of high quality harnesses, we have you covered as your one-stop cable manufacturing expert. There's no need to work with multiple manufacturers all over the place when Technical Cable Applications can take care of the entire project on your behalf.

Whether you need high transmission ethernet cables to utilize your business' fiber Internet access, complex harnesses for huge construction projects that must be extremely durable to survive outside, or a custom coaxial cable solution to power your telecommunications company's expansion efforts, Technical Cable Applications is the trusted American cable manufacturer to turn to. Our facility is in the Pacific Northwest which is an excellent place to work, but we serve the whole country and can ship all over as you require it for your cable needs.

Call TCA today for any needs involving custom cables or bulk cable, wire and harness orders!

Call 253-289-5572

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Services and Products We Provide

Cable Assembly

Technical Cable Applications has been in business since 2002 and is constantly pushing the boundaries on cable assembly.

Wire Harness Manufacturer

collaborative thinking to further the overall value proposition.

Custom Wire Harness

Technical Cable Applications can build very simple harnesses or extremely complex harnesses with hundreds of harnesses.

RF Cable Assemblies

Coax cables are typically point to point assemblies designed to carry a radio frequency signal from one point to another.

Cable Molding

TCA utilizes MoldMan thermoplastic machines to over mold assemblies for cables by the thousands.

Cable Assembly Manufacturers

Wire cable assemblies are problem solvers in electrical industries.

M12 Cable

Industrial Ethernet cables are the industry standard for rugged data connections.

Contract Manufacturer

Contract manufacturers are companies that contract with a firm for parts or products.

Custom Cable Manufacturers

Technical Cable Applications — the company of tomorrow connecting you today.

Contact us to learn how our experienced team can build your custom cables, harnesses and assemblies, and inspect the finished goods for perfection.

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10 + years experience in the business

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Learn more about what the Technical Cable Applications team can do for your company.

Bills of Material and Material Callouts

Oct 3 Ian Rutherford

Material callouts

It can be incredibly helpful on a drawing to call out with a pointer where material should be used on the drawing.

Best practice is to callout items numbers on the physical layout, usually with a circled BOM item#.
This makes it much easier to identify which parts should be used together and where they should be used.
It's also sometimes helpful to simply write part numbers directly next to items on a drawing.

Bills of Material

Best practice is to give a table with item numbers, those item numbers can be used for material callouts in the drawing.
Manufacturer part numbers for all components is ideal for all parts, except maybe where we stock generics like UL wire and heatshrink
We can certainly help with simplifying a BOM, but knowing exactly what materials we're expected to use can be very helpful!

The First Article Process

Sep 28 Ward Dutton

The First Article Process is a crucial part of production requirements at Technical Cable Applications. The process confirms that an assembly has been designed as intended and that documentation is complete and interpreted correctly. It verifies that proper assembly techniques and tooling are used and assures that later builds of product are produced without variation.

Quotation

At TCA the first article process starts before an order is ever placed. During the quote process the customer drawings or specifications are carefully reviewed. This assures that all the elements for successful production are included. The bill of materials is evaluated to make certain all the components shown on the drawing are called out and in the correct quantities. They are looking for any obvious material conflicts such as wire size /terminal compatibility. A mismatch like this could be because the insulation diameter or wire AWG is too large or too small for a terminal. Discrepancies like this could affect the integrity of the product or damage tooling. The drawing is checked for clear dimensional criteria and for tolerances that are achievable for cable assemblies. It is also reviewed for references to any documents or quality standards other than IPC. If other quality documents are referenced Technical Cable Applications quotations specialists assure those documents are on file.

Tooling and Test Fixtures

During the quote process tooling requirements are checked for all the components. At Technical Cable Applications the component manufacturers recommendations are checked to assure that the right tools are on hand. It is verified that mating test fixtures are available for all connectors. If either of the tooling or test fixtures are not on hand, they will need to be ordered for the build.

Work instructions

Work instructions are created by Technical Cable Applications production engineers. These seasoned professionals have broad knowledge and training in cable assembly production and quality standards. For cable assemblies this would be to the IPC/WHMA -620B standard. If there are other production or quality standards called out in the customer documentation the production engineers will obtain a copy and make sure they are part of the process. The work instruction lists all the machines, tools, fixtures, and materials used. It contains set up and programming instructions for any equipment used.

A Detailed Accounting

As the production engineers build the first article, they keep a detailed step by step accounting for every process used to build the assembly and in the order it is to be completed. Special instructions and cautionary notes are often part of the instructions with detailed pictures for each step included. The completed work instructions are controlled on a central server and every workstation has a computer terminal with to access the information. In the event the production engineer finds any issue, conflict or has any concerns during the first article build the Sales Specialist is notified, the customer is contacted, and the concern and any resolution are documented.

Test and Inspection

Test and inspection steps are included in the work instruction including inspections where a process might be hidden by a subsequent step. The finished first articles are sent to the Technical Cable Applications quality department where the assembly undergoes a series of dimensional and quality checks to assure that the assembly meets or exceeds the customer specifications. The first article assemblies are tested and sent to packaging to be shipped with first article documentation to the customer.

Validation

Once the first article is inspected, tested, and approved by the customer the work instructions are validated by Technical Cable Applications quality personnel. Production can then be scheduled for the assemblies.

Contact

Technical Cable Applications is an ISO9001:20015 registered company. Please contact the Technical Cable Applications sales team for help with all of you cable assembly needs.

Drawing Cable Assemblies: Physical Layout

Sep 9 Ian Rutherford

Creating a cable drawing that's easy to understand and interpret can be pretty difficult, so here are a few pointers to help.

Right angles are easiest to interpret but not always necessary.
It should be clear where to measure dimensions from, like end of connector or back of connector (dimension lines are great!)
Dimensions should be measurable from places which can be measured on a completed assembly (wire cut lengths can be hard to inspect). We will 100% check these in final inspection.
Length tolerances should be wide enough to be easy to manufacture+/-5% is great. Use a -0 tolerance if nominal length is the shortest acceptable. (IPC has guidelines for this as well)

Labels and heatshrink should appear on the drawing with dimensions and tolerances (or specified as “about” or “TYP”)
Specifying the pinout of the connector, especially with colors, is very helpful. Best practice is 3rd angle projection of the connector face.