Confronting Coding Challenges in the Cable and Wire Industries

Domino white paper Confronting coding challenges in the cable and wire industries Introduction The global market for wire and cable has enjoyed significant The same trends impact the design of the jacketing growth in recent years. According to Big Market Research, the surrounding the copper, aluminium and optical fibre average annual growth rate between 2007 and 2013 was 9.5%, conductors. PVC, for so long the material of choice, is in and the years leading to 2018 are predicted to see only a decline due to environmental concerns about both its slight slowdown, to 8.8% p.a. Market Watch estimates that the manufacture and end-of-life disposal. As a result, wire and value of the global cable industry will be $297 billion in 2019. cable manufacturers are switching to compounds with better These figures are striking, but so too is the way in which credentials – modified polyphenylene ether (mPPE), for the industry is adapting to changing customer requirements. example, has low-smoke, zero-halogen properties. Other Market trends in both established and emerging industries are materials finding environmental favour include XLPE, PPE, fundamentally changing the construction of wire and cable HDPE, Nylon, Silicon and Teflon. products. Consider the automotive industry, for example: longer, more comprehensive vehicle warranties demand that insulation is more resistant to temperature extremes, chemicals and abrasion. By definition electric/hybrid vehicles contain more wiring and cabling than conventional cars and call for new approaches that meet consumers’ expectations for fuel economy and recyclability. In almost every industry, from aviation to home entertainment, designers are packing more electronic functionality into products, with the result that wires and cables have to do more in the same – or reduced – space. Products are effectively becoming both more complex and more compact. Confronting coding challenges in the cable and wire industries Cracking the code: The changing face of coding and marking Coding and marking plays a pivotal role in manufacturing engineering, where the accurate identification of components is critical to efficient, safe, legal production. They facilitate maintenance and troubleshooting by making it possible to trace a product right back to the original manufacturer. By helping validate the authenticity of a component, codes help ensure product safety: linked to a central database, the code is the DNA of the ‘track and trace’ infrastructures that combat counterfeiting, holding in their alphanumeric hands the entire history of each product. These developments present challenges for wire and cable The more functions the codes have to fulfil, the more manufacturers, particularly for the critical coding and marking complex they are. Many may comprise a single line of data, stage of the production process. Coding systems must be able but that line is likely to be longer to contain additional to print consistently, reliably and to a high quality on a variety information, such as the time/date of production, the specific of different insulating materials. More SKUs (stock keeping production line used, cable composition, performance ratings, units) mean shorter production runs, so cutting changeover fire/abrasion resistance, etc. times between runs is critical to productivity. Tighter A growing number of manufacturers have come to regard regulation means the codes themselves have to contain more cables as a branding medium, so they are likely to carry information about a component’s origins and purpose. brand names and logos, often printed in brand-specific This Domino Guide will help you choose the right equipment colours. To further differentiate their products from those of to meet the coding and marking challenges for wire and cable their competitors, many use different colours for different applications. It explains the major reasons why customers’ applications. requirements for wire and cable products are changing, and how these affect the coding and marking process and influence the choice of printing solution. It also includes an overview of the relevant coding and marking technologies, with particular emphasis on the non-contact systems – continuous ink jet (CIJ) and laser. Confronting coding challenges in the cable and wire industries Deciding which coding solution satisfies these demands is Integration: It costs a lot to build a high-speed cable more difficult than it was when production runs were long extrusion line, and so manufacturers don’t have the option and the codes printed were constant. Some of the key factors of scrapping existing lines to install a state-of-the-art coding to take into account are: solution. So it’s essential that new coding technology can be Legibility: The code has to be readable on a variety of easily integrated with systems that are already in place. materials and different colour backgrounds, and in text that can be as small as 0.8-1.2mm. Contact or Non-Contact? Variety: Logos and graphics add an aesthetic dimension to Weighing up all these different factors to arrive at the right codes. The printer has to reproduce different fonts at the right coding solution is difficult, but there are ways to make it resolution and with the right contrast, and support different simpler. First of all, the nature of the application can be a print heights within the same code. A variable data capability reliable starting point. It will tell you the materials you have to is also becoming essential to meet customer demands for handle, in what quantities, and the performance parameters ‘item-level traceability’, where every individual component they have to meet. Don’t focus solely on what you’re carries an unique identification code. producing now; customers can provide valuable insight and it is always worth keeping an eye on the current trends and Durability: In many applications codes have to remain latest innovations affecting the industries you supply. readable under the most testing conditions, resisting abrasion, water, solvents and extreme temperatures. Secondly, you need to establish whether you will benefit more from a contact or non-contact solution. The principal contact Process resilience: The printing process itself often takes technologies are: place under the most hostile conditions – adjacent to the Hot stamp: extrusion system, for example. Yet despite this the system has The oldest of the processes, hot stamp printing to lay down images that adhere to the insulation instantly and is still in use. Heated character wheels are pressed onto a are robust enough not to smudge when the cable is wound marking foil and engrave the codes on the substrate. The after printing. process is low-cost, the images are legible and durable, and the choice of colours is wide. Throughput is low, however, Speed and reliability: As important as all these factors are, because the wire or cable has to be stationary during printing. at the point of cable processing or extrusion what counts above all are productivity and reliability. Printing must be fast, and coding must be error-free: wire and cable consumes expensive raw materials, and having to scrap product costs money. Reliability matters because if the coding solution breaks down the entire production line stops, resulting in downtime. Ease-of-use: Shorter runs mean more frequent changeovers, so the easier the system is to set up the more productive it will be. Coding solution manufacturers have invested heavily in developing ergonomic user interfaces that speed changeovers while also preventing operator errors. In many cases a single button controls the complete start-up and shutdown procedures. Confronting coding challenges in the cable and wire industries As its name suggests, a continuous stream of droplets is pumped through the print head, each droplet being less than the diameter of a human hair. As the droplets pass through a set of electrodes, individual droplets are intermittently charged. The size of the charge given to each droplet depends how far it will be deflected out of the stream when passing through deflector plates, which determines where the droplet is placed on the product. By placing a collection of droplets close together, different characters are printed as the product passes the print head. Ink droplets not deflected out of the stream are re-circulated to repeat the process – a very efficient use of ink that enables many millions of characters to be printed from a single litre. In addition, get settings such as temperature and pressure The key benefits of CIJ are apparent from this description. wrong and there is the risk of damaging the insulation. Other Being non-contact, CIJ is better able to print on irregularly- drawbacks include the need for a consistent substrate for shaped products, which also do not need to be stationary good contact with the foil, and the fact that changing codes is during imaging. As a digital process, CIJ handles variable data a manual operation. with ease, switching between codes instantly. Codes can be a single line, or multiple lines, and incorporate logos if required. Gravure: The fastest printing process, capable of coding at speeds up to 1500 metres/min, gravure has around 20% of Integrating CIJ into existing production lines is also the market. However, it shares hot stamp’s inability to change straightforward, because today’s print heads take up little codes without stopping the production line. Installing a space and can be positioned wherever is easiest on the line – gravure line also requires a significant capital investment. below, alongside, or above. The major non-contact technologies are continuous inkjet Ink performance is critical to efficient ink jet coding. Not only and laser: does the ink have to withstand the testing conditions of wire and cable extrusion – the heat, dust, moisture, etc – but also Continuous ink jet (CIJ): The leading player in market share, print codes that dry and adhere to the different insulation with over 70% of the market, ink jet is a well-established materials almost instantaneously.

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