Business case Case: special cables for the agricultural industry
At ‘electronica 2010’, the Munich trade fair in November 2010, we were approached by a company which is active in the agricultural industry.
Their question: can you build a special cable for a an industrial cutting tool used for agricultural applications?
Eight months later, a complete new, custom made cable has been designed and will be manufactured shortly.
Immediately after the trade fair, we contacted the company and received a preliminary design, a list of demands and the target (price). Our goal was to develop a special cable that met all customers’ requirements within the target.
Since we got the opportunity to add our expertise to the preliminary design, we could come up with our own ideas to improve the quality of this special cable, at the same time reducing the costs. Based on the design and cost reduction offered to the company, we – as well as two other cable manufacturers – were invited to visit the company and discuss the design of the special cable in more detail.
New approach
During the meeting, it became clear that the design we set off with was not compliant anymore; feedback from the market (through field testing) forced the design into a new direction. This direction required a new approach. From that point on we intensified our cooperation.
Due to the nature of the application the following distinct features were mandatory now:
- The cable had to be wear and tear resistant
- The connector had to be waterproof
- The new tool had to be backwards compatible with the current hand tool
- The connector had to be indestructible
- The cable had to be highly flexible
- The tool should be able to mate at least 1000 times without loss of performance.
Order
With this information we designed and offered a special cable which completely met our customers’ needs. After evaluation, the company rewarded us with the first trial order.
At this moment we are in a phase of completing the designs. The next step will be the production of the plastic injection tooling for several parts.
New, self-sealing fixed contact
An interesting aspect of this case is the new contact we developed.
As the contacts in the tool were fixed, the aligning should be totally done by the socket contacts on the cable. This means that the contacts should need a reasonable amount of room to be able to set itself and compensate for the misalignment of the pins.
Too long
Because the connector itself would be overmoulded, the holes would have to be sealed from the back first. In order to provide enough wire on the back to allow for the movement, the connector would become much too long. Another approach was necessary.
Self-sealing
A self-sealing fixed contact was the only way to go. The challenge was to design the contact in such fashion that the structure in itself would be able to compensate for misalignments. The mating end of the contact therefore comprises of several fingers that can shape itself around the male contact.
