Fully Automated Processing of Network Cable Wires

To save costs, a globally active company commissioned Metzner Maschinenbau to automate the manufacturing process of its network cable wires, including the preparation for connector assembly. The specially developed production line can unwind, label, roughen, cut to length, strip, wind, bind and automatically deposit the cable wires. The material to be processed is unwound by a motorised unwinder from the Metzner partner company Ramatech and fed to a thermal transfer printer via a straightener. The latter prints the cable with two QR codes and a serial number. This ensures that each cable can be identified throughout the entire processing and manufacturing process and assigned to the stations which have already passed through. This traceability offers great advantages – for example in the diagnosis of faults. The cable then passes through a roughening station, which lightly roughens the material surface so that the connector overmoulding adheres better later on. An AM 3550 from Metzner Maschinenbau cuts to length and strips the cable, which is then transported to the winding station and onwards by a gripper to the binding machine. The latter winds the cable according to customer specifications to form a cable ring which is bound together on two opposite sides, such that the two cable ends protrude from the ring by a defined length. This specific winding pattern is the prerequisite for further automated processing of the material with another machine.

Fully automated processing line

The special Metzner development is a fully automatic machinery which can unwind, label, roughen, cut to length, strip, wind, bind and automatically deposit network cable wires. Our product video will give you an insight into the machining process.