When a cable tie goes bye-bye in the private household, it is usually not too tragic. After all, the broken pieces are quickly cleared away and the universal fastener can be replaced for little money. In industry, however, things are quite different: Outdoors, for example, cable ties sometimes have to withstand extreme heat, cold, UV radiation and fluctuating humidity. If they slip or break due to high stress, this can cause equipment to fail or even cable tie fragments to end up in the product in question – which is quite a problem, especially in the food and beverage industry.
For these reasons, price is not a valid argument for buying cable ties either – instead, it pays to invest in quality in the long term. In our catalog, therefore, you will find only high-quality cable ties with steel lugs, as we obtain them from ABB. Only recently, a renowned technology company analyzed in an extensive test how high-performance cable ties with steel nose closure react to extreme conditions compared to all-plastic cable ties. The test of a total of ten cable ties consisted of four different test series. ABB conducted the cable tie test in the company’s own laboratories, which are approved by the independent safety and testing organization Underwriters Laboratories.
In the first test run, the testers gradually cooled ten cable ties in a chamber down to minus 60 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, they attached ten cable ties to an aluminum mandrel to simulate an installation in cold weather. The result: The colder the chamber, the more of the conventional cable ties exhibited breakage or failure points. ABB steel nose cable ties withstood all temperatures with ease.
In the second test run, the focus was on how tensile the cable ties remained under high temperatures. The result: The steel-nose cable ties remained tension-proof even at high temperatures; at the failure limit, they only slipped. In contrast, the heads of most of the plastic binders broke off, so that the broken pieces could have ended up in industrial products under real conditions.
In the third test run, the testers simulated UV irradiation for up to 5,000 hours. They then exposed smaller cable ties to 23 degrees Celsius and fifty percent humidity for 15 days and larger ones for 30 days before testing the tensile strength. The result: most of the cable ties failed only at the nominal load specified by the manufacturer – but fragments were produced. The steel nose truss, on the other hand, only slipped.
In the fourth test run, the testers attached the cable ties to horizontal and vertical split test mandrels and let them shake on an XY vibration table for a total of 72 hours. The result: Especially on the vertical test mandrel, numerous competitor products slipped down. The ABB cable tie, on the other hand, was convincing due to its stabilizing ribs and nubs on the inside.
Thus, we can recommend ABB’s steel nose cable ties with a clear conscience. You can find them in our marking systems catalog on our website in product group 3.
