Cable ties: more than meets the eye

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Cable ties: more than meets the eye

You?ˉll find cable ties in the toolbox of every electrical contractor, and probably also in almost every house in South Africa. They are used in cars, in aeroplanes, and even in space shuttles. The common cable tie, normally made of nylon, has a flexible tape section with teeth that engage with a pawl in the head to form a ratchet so that as the free end of the tape section is pulled the cable tie tightens and does not come undone (although some ties include a tab that can be depressed to release the ratchet so that the tie can be loosened or removed, and possibly reused). Nylon Cable Gland

Cable ties More than meets the eyeCable ties were first invented by Thomas & Betts, an electrical company, in 1958 under the brand name Ty-Rap. Initially they were designed for airplane wire harnesses. The design has, over the years, been extended and developed into numerous spin-off products. One example was a self-locking loop developed as an alternative to purse-string suture in colon anastomosis.

The idea of the cable tie came to inventor, Maurus C. Logan, while touring a Boeing aircraft manufacturing facility in 1956. Aircraft wiring was a cumbersome and detailed undertaking, involving thousands of feet of wire organised on sheets of 50-foot long plywood and held in place with knotted, wax coated, braided nylon cord. Each knot had to be pulled tight by wrapping the cord around one's finger which sometimes cut the operator's fingers until they developed thick calluses or "hamburger hands." Logan was convinced there had to be an easier, more forgiving, way to accomplish this critical task. For the next couple of years, he experimented with various tools and materials. On June24 and 1958, a patent for the Ty-Rap cable tie was submitted.

Claude Middleton from HellermannTyton, the world's leading manufacturer of cable ties notes that it's very hard to innovate on a cable tie. A cable tie is probably the simplest perceived design, which has the best effect you could desire, from strapping parts into racing cars to fishing rods on a roof rack to holding dog kennels together to holding cables up around the world.Having said that, HellermannTyton Global did patent a change to the head of the cable tie in 2012. Q-ties allow time savings of more than 25% which can be attributed to two characteristics of the cable tie. One of these is the innovative open-head design which allows particularly fast and easy installation. There is no need to thread the strap the narrow end of the strap is simply inserted from above into the open head.