So you’re probably used to seeing a blog here, right?
Well after Andy’s new found fame in front of the camera when he was over in Germany for the PMM, we thought we could utilise his talents and introduce a vlog to add a slight difference to your Monday morning.
In this weeks vlog Andy is going to show you how easy it is to use some of his products and how quickly you can achieve exactly what you need in regards to marking and installation.
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
It’s been a while. Two months to be precise. I was starting to get Blog withdrawal symptoms but here I am, back behind my keyboard. So I thought I’d crash land with a big one for you, something exciting! Something more exciting than that little bit of chocolate at the bottom of a Cornetto that you work your way down to (other ice creams are available). I’m here to talk to you about Ferrules! You heard me right, ferrules. Those little things you pop on the end of your cable to terminate into a…well, terminal.
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
Over the last 4 years, I must admit that one of the best parts of my job is looking after the Phoenix Contact tool range. Not just because it comes in handy when changing a plug socket at home, but because there’s something oddly satisfying about playing and testing out top quality tooling on a daily basis. But, then again, I am the guy who couldn’t wait to rip his skirting boards off at home so I had an excuse to buy a new circular saw to fit the new skirting.
But, today, I’m not talking about the ground breaking hand tools such as Crimpfox 4in1 or Crimpfox Centrus (name-drop) but I’m going to talk about an unlikely partnership I’ve noticed over the years occurring in our automatic tool range. I say it’s unlikely because they both do completely different jobs, but work very well together. No, I’m not talking about Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film ‘Twins’ here, I’m talking about The CF 3000 and CUTFOX 10.
What are the CF 3000 and CUTFOX 10? Lets start with the CF 3000. I’ve blogged about this tool before so sorry if I repeat myself here. The CF 3000 will strip and crimp a cable in less than 2 seconds!! I could leave it there but there is more. It can crimp 0.5mm upto 2.5mm cable leaving a square crimping result.
A study showed that the average panel builder can strip and crimp around 5 cables a minute (I have seen a guy do it quicker) whereas the CF 3000 can do up to 25 a minute! With my rough estimations, if you are terminating, say, 700 cables in a panel- I’m going to give the panel builder the benefit of the doubt and say he/she can assemble 8 cables a minute (that’s stripped and crimped)- so it would take approximately 90 minutes to assemble all the cables give or take a minute or two for fiddling about and sipping brews. With the CF 3000, which is bench mounted (requires mains power) so a bit of walking back and forth may be required, straight away the assembly time is reduced to 35 minutes, or let’s say 40-45 minutes as your colleague may have asked you about the football last night. So based on just assembling the cables that’s around a 50% time saving straight away.
So where does the CUTFOX 10 come into this? Some poor sole has to cut all the cable to size. You can forget about the steel ruler you have screwed to your work bench as the CUTFOX 10 will measure it all out for you. There’s a handy little touch screen on the top of the device allowing you to insert quantity and length then just hit ‘start’ and walk off to sweep the floor, maybe. In my opinion, the time saving here is only a slight one between machine and a human cutting the cable, but the point is it’s completely automatic so you can walk off and leave it, that’s where the time saving comes in…and finger saver you might say!
So an unlikely partnership as I said earlier. These two machines have been purchased together more and more as an unofficial set as there is a clear time/cost saving benefit for machine builders and panel builders for compete cable assembly time. We could go one further and say let’s look at our Push-in terminals too, where you would save even more time when it comes to the installation side, but I’ll leave that blog for my colleague Scott 🙂
So if it’s Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger or perhaps even Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe getting the job done, either way if it works it works.
For more information, contact Andy by email aneat@phoenixcontact.com or telephone 07786 252414
Written by Rachel Boyd, E-marketing Specialist
Wow, can it really be that we’ve almost reached the end of 2016 already? I hope that you have enjoyed the team’s blog posts this year, but if there are any that you have missed, I have put together a few highlights for you to look back on. So grab a cup of tea and ease yourself into the festive season…
Beware of cyber attacks
Gareth is the newest member of our blogging team. He is our cyber security specialist, and blogs about the growing awareness of industrial network security. This blog from March really shows that industrial security should be at the top of your list. If you want to know more, join us at one of our Safe & Secure workshops next year where Gareth demonstrates just how easy it can be for hackers to gain access to your networks.
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
Configuration tool on our website
I was looking through my product range looking for a ‘hidden gem’ to write about and found myself looking down an obvious route. I look after Marking Systems, cabinet add-on products (such as din rail, trunking and accessories) and then there is what I’ve always said to be the ‘coolest’ part of my job. I look after the tool range for Phoenix Contact UK Ltd. When I visit customers or exhibit at trade shows, nothing seems to pull in more interest with engineers than tools. So I thought I’d blog about a particular service we offer from our toolfox range.
Some things in life are inevitable. Like England slipping up against Iceland in the last 16 of the Euros or the queue you join at the M6 Toll moving the slowest… tools will go missing. Where they go is unknown. Perhaps to a parallel tool universe where I’m sure I’d find 7 of my Stanley knives that I’ve lost over the years. Although, lets face it, they’re most likely to be stolen by our colleagues.
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
Do you ever look at a cabinet or panel that needs 500+ terminations made off and the thought of all that crimping makes your fingers ache before you even pick up a ferrule?!
I do know that since I broke my right hand trying to be Goalkeeper for my local football team when I was 21, I now resort to using my left (weaker) hand to crimp as the crooked fingers on my right hand simply aren’t fit for purpose…or at least for squeezing a set of 16mm crimping pliers!
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
When talking about ‘less is more’ with tooling, I can’t look anywhere else in my tool kit than at the CRIMPFOX 4in1. If you like that feeling and satisfaction of crimping a cable by hand with a standard crimp tool but want to save time and fuss, then the Crimpfox 4in1 is the tool for you.
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Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
How do you save money when it comes to industrial electrical installations? You may think cheaper materials is the best way, but then you may compromise on quality. One way could be working harder and faster to reduce time, but again quality could decrease and mistakes could be made.
Have you ever thought about automatic tooling?
Here at Phoenix Contact, we have some state of the art automatic tooling devices that will save you time, save you repetitive strain, retain a high quality and most importantly save you money! Let me introduce you to them:
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation.
Something that is becoming more and more apparent to me in the recent years is that there is an increased desire to decrease production time while increasing production quantity, but not compromise on quality.
In my day to day experience, I’m seeing this more and more on-site with panel builders, machine builders, systems integrators and at cable assemblers just to name a few. At this moment in time, they need look no further than Phoenix Contact for some of the most innovative and high quality tooling in the market today. In particular I’d like to introduce the Crimphandy and Crimpfox 4in1.