Z-AXIS Expands Custom Wire and Cable Assembly Production

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Z-AXIS, Inc. has expanded its production capacity for custom cable assemblies and wire harnesses, with a $40,000 investment in automated production and test equipment at its contract design and manufacturing center near Rochester, NY. The new equipment includes a Panduit CP Series ferule crimp press, a Kingsing KS-W66 Series heavy duty rotary cable stripper, a Gamma Mark III Plus heat shrink label printer, and a CableEye continuity tester.

“Custom cable assemblies and wire harnesses are essential for commercial, industrial and medical electronic equipment,” said Michael Allen, President of Z-AXIS. “With continuous investment in automation we boost capacity and throughput, keep costs down for our customers, and continue to meet high quality standards. Whether it’s cable assemblies, printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) or full box build services, we support leading customers with electronics manufacturing in the USA.”

The Panduit ferule crimp press supplements existing AMP K presses. It automates wire stripping, ferrule placement, and ferrule crimping with an average cycle time of less than 1.5 seconds. The programmable system with vibratory-bowl feeder accommodates loose-piece ferrules from 24 to 12 AWG. Integral wire stripping eliminates the need to use pre-stripped wire, saving a step and preventing the installation of ferrules onto any turned-back strands, which can result when using pre-stripped wire.

The Kingsing rotary cable stripper is optimized for co-axial, tri-axial, and other multi-layered cable stripping in up to nine layers. It supports full stripping, half stripping, middle stripping and twisting.  It is easily programmable for cable diameter, stripping length and pull-off length. Precision cable centering and rotary blades delivery highly accurate cutting, removing the insulation close to the conductor for reduced pull-off force. It supports complex cable assembly production with high processing speeds.

The Gamma label printer prints on heat shrink tubing at high speeds, up to 11 inches per second, and cuts the tubing to specifications. The tubing is then applied to cables from 1/16” to 2.5” in diameter. High-resolution printing clearly identifies cables, while the heat shrink tubing can be used to provide strain relief.

The CableEye test system checks basic continuity and detects opens, shorts, mis-wires and intermittent connections in a wire harness or cable assembly. It features 128 test points and handles cables with up to 64 conductors. The test bed accommodates more than 200 standard connector types