New in the Shop: Wire Stripping and Cutting Technology
At UCEC, new technology is an important part of how we craft electrical control panels. Photos by Garrod Massey.
By Garrod Massey
A great new piece of technology has joined the shop earlier in the month: a Schleuniger wire stripping and cutting machine. Made of three components, the new tech allows us to improve our wire consistency and greatly increase efficiency.
The “new” way of stripping and cutting wires beats the “old” way. Previously, an employee on my team would need to walk over to a wire spool and pull the wires they needed, then cut them to the same length. Finally, they would have to strip the ends of the wires to a desired length. This took a lot of time and energy because it’s common to need 200 identical pieces of wire for a job.
Now, with the Schleuniger machine, we load up a spool and input the wire gauge; how long we want our pieces; and whether or not we want the ends stripped. The machine feeds the wire in; cuts and strips it; and then places them neatly on a wire stacker.
As with anything new, it took us a few days to get the machine dialed in, but now we’re reaping the benefits of the new tech. So, what used to take a lot of time now takes about five minutes of prep work before the machine takes over and does the job in just minutes. While the machine is working, we’ll walk over to our wire labeling machine and type/print our heat shrink tags, and by the time we’re done with that task, our wires are ready.
Zach and I spotted this technology about two years ago in Chicago at a large tradeshow. We were investing in the Steinhauer machine at the time. Then, earlier this year, John Beattie and I went to a wire stripping and cutting trade show in Milwaukee. We started to meet reps and eventually went with Schleuniger. It’s been a great decision so far.
Every efficiency we enjoy is passed on to our customers; when we work more efficiently, our customers receive their projects faster. We take great pride in our work, and having the latest technology is just one more way we can produce the best handcrafted electrical control panels anywhere.
Garrod is an Operations Support Manager at UCEC. Want to receive our blog posts by email? Sign up over here.
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In October, UCEC will celebrate its 60th anniversary.
From the beginning, the founder of UCEC, Howard Lacy, felt that he could make a better control panel at a better value than the control panels he was purchasing from others. My father-in-law, Chris Kitsos, took this concept beyond the municipal markets, and provided even better control panels and customer service to the private industry. It is amazing to think about how far UCEC and industrial control panels have come since 1958. We can all be proud of the role UCEC has played as a leader in our industry.