What is a Custom Cable Assembly?

April 8, 2011 - PRLog -- Custom, that word is used so often today it is often hard to know what it truly means.  This as true for a custom cable assembly as it is for any other product. Exactly what is a custom cable assembly? Hopefully the following information will help you know if the cable assembly you need is custom or not.

If you were driving down the street and saw a vehicle that had the front end of a sports car, the middle section of a family sedan and the rear end of a pick up truck you would know instantly it was custom.  However if a standard compact was next to you, well you would know that car was definitely not custom.

So how do you tell a custom cable assembly from a standard cable assembly?  Really there are three things that will tell you and they can be summed up as follows; the ends, the middle and the inside.

Let’s start with the ends.  Most often these are connectors, but they could be any kind of termination.  We have all seen cable assemblies at big box retailers and know most of the connectors used.  If you need a cable assembly with typical connectors, then odds are the cable assembly is not custom.  We recently had a customer that needed their cable terminated with a housing that had a switch and circuit board inside.  And on the circuit board, in addition to circuitry, there was an LED that needed to project through a light pipe.  This was decidedly custom and not available at their local store.

The middle of a cable assembly is sort of the sedan in between the sports car and pick up truck.  Let’s say you need a standard cable, but you need a different length.  Or better yet you need a place in the middle to have another cable come out, because you need to connect to something else.  This month we had a request for a USB cable.  Simple enough until the customer said they need to connect the ground of the cable assembly to an AC power outlet.  That is truly a custom cable assembly.

The inside of a cable assembly is the cable itself.  We can all go onto to the internet and search for cables.  Try this, search for a cable assembly made with twelve 18 awg conductors, one shielded 18 awg conductor and 1 RG 316 coaxial cable, all with a polyurethane jacket.  Odds are you won’t find this, except on our website.  Or say you need a cable with three 20 awg conductors and five 26 awg conductors, in a flat, not round, shape.  These are truly custom cables and you will find these and more on our website.

To summarize,  if your cable assembly needs a special end, requires something special in the middle or must have something special inside then you need a custom cable assembly.  Meridian Cable has designed thousands of custom cable assemblies and all you need to do is call or email us.

Bud Kinzalow –Meridian Cable

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Meridian Cable makes standard and custom cable, cable assemblies and cord sets. Our U.S.-owned-and-managed company designs, manufactures and delivers on a dime without cutting corners – all while reducing your costs by an average 25% compared to our competitors.