Technical Cable Applications uses high quality MoldMan thermoplastic molding centers, to help with our molded cable assemblies for thousands of orders. We have been doing excellent, high quality cable molding work since 2002 but have only increased the speed of that work exponentially since then. Just in 2022 alone, we increased our molding cable capacity by 33% with an additional molding center purchase, along with increasing our entire facility’s real estate by 50%. We are always seeking to increase our molding, crimping and assembly capabilities, while continuing to have the same excellent quality control we’ve always maintained since starting in Auburn 20 years ago. Our facility in King County, WA is in an excellent location to help us serve customers on the West Coast and British Columbia, and the rest of the United States as well.
We use custom tools called dies, sometimes based off a customer’s existing cable drawing if we’re just building cable assemblies based on it, and sometimes with an entirely new setup based on the requirements of a new concept that we’ve already prototyped and prepared for production. These dies allow us to not only repeat the same shape and size of cable to exact specifications, but are also flexible and help produce different variations of the same cable molding as needed, up to 12 per die. This is extremely helpful when we need to produce the same cable assembly but in a different orientation or angle. M12 connector dies can also have even more room for configuration, which is very helpful considering the vast number of different industries that use them for all kinds of purposes.
Custom Molded Cables
The materials we use for thermoplastic molding will be unaffected by heat all the way up to 475 degrees Fahrenheit, and we keep the materials environmentally sealed before using them in cable assemblies to make sure there will be no issue with the final product due to environmental factors in our facility. The main molding machines we use can apply up to 2 tons of clamping force and use an extremely precise timed process for injection, that allows us to control the temperature and pressure settings to the requirements for any given cable. We even have a special molding tool that we use to crimp very large power cables, like AWC’s DLO-4/0 wire. As noted in one of our blog posts, our CT-3001/CCP Li+ Cut / Crimp / Punch tool has a crimping power of 6.7 tons! Ultimately, all of this allows us to make excellent cables that can be molded and crimped to meet our customers’ needs, and will last through all the strenuous conditions they may have in their field. You can trust our cable molding to last throughout whatever you throw at it.
Not only do we use top of the line materials and molding centers, we also employ the best staff available for our engineering and molding needs. If a cable requires new dies or very specific requirements for pressure, our team is the best in the business at making the adjustments needed so that the new cable solution will be highly reliable and durable. We give our engineers and production team members excellent benefits to ensure that they are always at their best capacity to make fantastic cable assemblies and moldings for our clients around the country. With the best equipment and resources available, we have full faith in our engineers to create excellent custom cables and assemblies for special requirements. There is no need to work with multiple companies if you have a custom need for molded assemblies, unlike what you might think. Technical Cable Applications can draw, prototype, fabricate, test, and manufacture your custom cable all in our facility according to your specifications, and then ship it out to you once your order is ready so you don’t need to hassle with multiple vendors for getting your idea prototyped, then finding another company to manufacture it. We’ll be your best partner for your cable needs!
Custom Overmolded Cable Assemblies
If a customer comes to us with a need for a custom molded cable assembly, we always follow these main steps to understand their needs and plan an order:
- Come to an agreement on the objective of the new custom cable’s performance and applications. If our customer doesn’t have a completed cable drawing/finished cable available for us to base the full production run on, we can offer advice and help get it to a more ready state.
- Confirm the manufacturing time required and steps involved for the custom molded cable assemblies. We will determine whether we have an existing cable die ready for the project, or if we need to create a new die concept that will have multiple configurations. We also will confirm whether there is a need for the use of pre-molding epoxy for additional protection of shielding, flow through current or exposed conductors, and finally an estimate of the time required for manufacturing each assembly to complete the production.
- Decide which cable material will be most optimal for the cable assembly need. One of the most common materials we use at the time of writing is the Macromelt OM 946, which is a type of polyamide. It’s rated as 92A on the hardness scale and can operate safely without any problems at temperatures as low as 40 degrees Celsius, or as high as 125 degrees Celsius.
Our molded cable assemblies are utilized by clients all over the country to improve their products and ensure that they will work even when affected by water, tough weather conditions, ultraviolet rays, corrosive chemicals, and constant use. We are ISO 9001:2015 and UL certified for cable assembly manufacturing, meaning that whether your company is based in the United States, Canada or elsewhere internationally, we are highly qualified to produce the off-the-shelf or custom molded cables and assemblies you need. Call us today for your custom overmolding and cable molding needs, or send in a contact form with your cable assembly specifications so we can see what you need and get working on a prototype.