Cable Assembly

[drawoh]

I am looking at a design the probably requires us to assemble cables. I am running SolidWorks here. We don't have the fancy routing software that generates flat pegboard drawings. I am thinking that if I have a 3D[ ]model of the cable, I should be able to design and print out a 3D cable assembly fixture that mimics the position of the cables in the final assembly.

Does this sound like a good idea? It is rather obvious. Is anybody doing it?

--
JHG

 

[3DDave]

I'm sure someone is doing that. I have seen cables where there is an overmold to force a 3D path on the finished assembly; in particular it was a poured urethane.

The advantage over pegboard is that if the cables have a lot of conductors that are constrained by heatshrink the differential path length can put a lot of strain on the wires/crimps/solder cups when a cable is moved from the pegboard to the installation - typically offset by having an overall twist to allow the helical path to equalize that differential path length through the bends. On a 3D they can be placed parallel without adding the complexity of the helical twist.