It’s a big deal when we change what we’re doing across the board with crimping dies for our manual and pneumatic cable crimpers. After all, we've been selling the same dies for years, so what’s up?
There are a lot more cable types now than there used to be. And the cable manufacturers are squeezing the specs right down to the minimum in a lot of cases because copper can be a volatile commodity—its price can fluctuate wildly. So cable wire diameter is not as consistent as it used to be and that makes cable crimping more of a challenge.
The barrel diameter of a terminal has to be large enough to accept cable at the maximum diameter for a particular gauge size, but as that cable size varies among types and manufacturers, the same crimping force doesn't produce the same clamping force, and the risk is the cable can pull out of the terminal.
To help make sure that you can get quality crimps on all terminals and cable types, our engineering team developed a new series of crimping dies that have enough setting possibilities to handle virtually any crimping challenge you’re likely to come across.
Our universal die set consists of two A dies and two B dies, so you can match A and A, A and B or B and B to get 78 possible crimp settings. That allows us to create specs for cast copper, MagnaLug, MAX lug and even contacts for SB housings using the same set of dies.
An obvious benefit is you don’t need a dedicated MAX lug crimper any more.
Along with the new universal dies comes a new quick-change system for manual crimpers and pneumatic crimpers to make it much easier to change die sets—you don’t need special tools, and it just takes seconds.
Best of all, the universal dies and quick change pins for manual crimpers are an easy retrofit to existing crimpers.
Remember the good old days when you had a simple choice between battery cable and welding cable? Battery cable was the stiffer stuff that had the hard plastic PVC jacket that was resistant to solvents and abrasion. Welding cable had that rubber insulation and was fine wire so it really flexed well in cold weather. Battery cable was great for under the hood and welding cable made great booster cables.
Well now there are more kinds of battery cable and you have choices to make.
The first step was marine battery cable. It is a fine stranded cable similar to welding cable, and like welding cable is rated to 600V while basic battery cable is only rated to 60V. Most importantly, the copper strands are tin plated for added corrosion resistance in marine environments.
In the latest Quick Cable catalog, there are two new battery cable choices: SGX High Temperature Rated Battery Cable and Fine Stranded Battery Cable that performs well at low temperatures. Both are fine stranded cables rated to 600V.
The insulator on SGX cable is a polyolefin and it is designed for underhood temperatures up to 257°.
The insulator on Fine Stranded Battery Cable is SGT thermoplastic rubber; the cable is very flexible like welding cable but more resistant to solvents and abrasion. It would be a good choice for making up booster cables—it stays flexible to -50°C.
Things may not be as simple as they used to be, but you have more choices for the right cable in any environment.
