Cable ties have many uses, which are actually countless. However, what are the common uses? Typically, you can find cable ties in any place where you need to organize wiring or fixtures. The scope ranges from transport line, all the way down to cable tie for your audio/visual cable in-house. What we want to talk about is how to choose the cable tie correctly because there are many things might affect. If you are working outdoors or in harshly environment, many factors need be taken into consideration when choosing cable ties. Basically it comes down to four points, tie design, length, where you’re going to install the tie, and how strong you need.
Tie Design
There are a variety of cable ties, and each of them is applied for a different thing. Standard nylon cable tie is a basic cable tie people might use every day. These can be used for various applications such as managing and securing wire harnesses, strain relief and wire management in solar energy industry, desktop and video cable management, or even temporary child locks in your cabinets! There are also cable ties with metal barbs in the head which reinforces the locking mechanism, usually, these ties require infinite adjustment locations since griping teeth are not used. These are also perfect when a more rugged latching mechanism is required under extreme temperatures.Now let’s see the contour cable tie, teeth are fixed on the outside, which helps reduce abrasion to wire insulation under vibration,so it’s the primary choice for aerospace industry.
Length
Cable tie length can vary greatly. Try to think that you have an application that requires a cable tie of 4 inches’ long, but you just owe a cable tie of 1″ long,this is not workable, you have to match the maximum length of cable ties. So always be aware of your application before select a cable tie, then you’ll not buy a one that is too short, but you can cut it off a little if it’s too long. Economically, selecting the proper length will create the best value for your customer. Certainly, you won’t like to use 36″ cable tie to fix some or several wires.
Environment
Many things shall be taken into consideration according to environment before selecting a cable tie. Will you install the cable tie in outdoors? Will it expose directly in the sun? Are you working in a dangerous environment like a chemical lab where the cable ties might be touched with various chemicals or acids? Is it a high temperature matched application where the flammability and thermal properties might become a problem? You have to figure it out all the influencing factors before making the final decision.
For example, a standard cable tie is usually made of Nylon 6.6. Nylon 6.6 is made of a hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid, giving Nylon 6.6 a total of 12 carbon atoms, hence the name Nylon 6.6. Uses for these ties can vary, as we mentioned above, but there are a great number of nylon, it’s vital to get a correct one.If your application exposes to some elements or is under high temperature, you’ll be thinking of a weather resistant Nylon 6.6 material, or a Heat Stabilized Nylon 6.6 material. With Weather Resistant Nylon 6.6, you’ll have a average 7-9 years life expectancy with regards to UV resistance, as opposed to 1-2 years with standard Nylon 6.6. Heat Stabilized Nylon 6.6 has a continuous temperature range of -76°F – 239°F, which is 54 degrees higher than standard Nylon 6.6. Knowing material properties is pretty important before selecting a tie so that you may make the best choice for your application.
Strength
As soon as you’re clear of what environment the cable tie will be used in, then you can make sure what strength of the cable tie that needs.To get the tensile
strength, you’ll be able to measure the cable tie strength. Tensile strength is measured by Newton or pounds which is basically the breaking point of a cable tie,tensile strength determines strength of a cable tie, if the former strengthen, the latter follows.As a leading manufacturer of cable ties, Hont Electrical Co.,Ltd, develops cable ties of which the tensile strength ranges from 18lbs all the way up to 250lbs, which means it can bear more than 250lbs of pressure so as to break the latching mechanism on cable tie.It’s the key to secure mission critical wire harnesses.