From aerospace to banking, from medical imaging to the railroad industry, wire protection techniques are an essential part of every piece of mechanical and electronic equipment. Both electrical and mechanical cables - sometimes miles of them - are part of every vehicle, every computer, every piece of telecommunications equipment. Fasteners like specialized grommets and other protective materials protect against wire damage due to chafing and other wear, and find use in applications ranging from military aircraft to food processing equipment. Chafing and stress fatigue can result from unexpected sources. Even when bundles of cables are wrapped together, presumably to be fixed in one, immovable position, the vibration created by the operation of machinery can still cause chafing and wear, resulting in the failure or malfunction of the affected cables. Materials in protective components have to withstand not only friction and vibration, but also heat and cold, remaining intact in what can be an enormous range of conditions. The failure of wire protection technology in electrical cables can cause dangerous arcing, which can result not only in equipment failure but in an electrocution hazard for anyone in close proximity to the equipment. Other protective components protect not from wear or electrical shorts, but from heat. Delicate electronic computer components, in food processing equipment, for instance, can be adversely affected by excessive heat from food vats; spacing components to prevent heat damage have to themselves be able to resist the heat and vibrational wear resulting from operation of the equipment. Every new equipment design has to take into account the conditions under which the equipment will operate, and the internal dynamics of the equipment which can itself result in potential damage - from friction among moveable parts, from heat or cold, and from internal vibration. Failing to take the complex dynamics of the operation of a piece of equipment can have expensive and sometimes disastrous results. |
