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INTERCONNECTION FEATURE


Tying down the industry B


From cable assemblies for cancer diagnosing scanners to powering lifeboats and electric quad bikes, Convert’s cable looms and harnesses fit a variety of applications


ased in Kent, Convert supplies the automotive, transport, marine and scientific sectors, servicing both low and high-volume requirements. Consider the automotive sector: to meet the IATF automotive quality management standard, the global technical specification and quality management standard for the automotive industry, Convert has recently carried out pre-series development work for a new electric German sports car, designing its rear light cable harness. Other examples of automotive work include designing a waterproof grommet for a British luxury and high-performance sports car manufacturer, and designing and manufacturing cable assemblies used to power electric all terrain quad bikes. Comprising 28 cable assemblies for both two and four-wheel drive quadbikes, the cable assemblies vary in complexity and wire size - from 0.5mm² to 35mm² - and support two applications, one the main control system and the other to support the connection of the batteries to run the bike via the control system motor. Used by police in the Cayman Islands to coffee farmers in Costa Rica, as well as the National Trust and RSPB, the quad bikes are environmentally beneficial due to zero emissions, and animal friendly because of the low noise level. When it comes to the medical sector, Convert has worked with FFEI - manufacturer of digital inkjet and life science technology - which builds the scanners for a multinational healthcare company. Convert designed and manufactured cable assemblies for 200 slide scanners used to detect cancer.


Each scanner required 25 cable assemblies, comprising a mixture of discrete, multicore and ribbon cables connected to LEDs, stepper motors and a variety of sensors.


Andy Cook, CEO at FFEI, said: “We chose Convert as we have worked with them on legacy projects in the past. MD Dave Lord and his team provided design and development support for the cable


assemblies that combined with our line-scan camera. Their tracking expertise has resulted in us being able to deliver a digital pathology scanner that offers strong scanning performance with high speed and image quality.”


From saving lives, thanks to the early detection of cancer, to saving lives at sea, lifeboats are another key area where Convert has provided its looms and harnesses – specifically, to enable the powering of these lifeboats’ engines. Working with Marine and Industrial Transmissions (MIT), Convert produced 15 port and starboard cable assemblies. “We worked closely with MIT to reverse engineer the assemblies from samples”, explains Dave Lord, managing director, Convert: “It’s fair to say it wasn’t straightforward, as each life support vessel consists of two engines - one port and one starboard - but the cable assembly for the port engine is slightly different to that of the


Convert’s rear light cable harness for new electric German sports car


starboard. This meant each had to be treated as a separate part. But Convert enjoys challenges, so this project was right up our street.”


“Convert designed and manufactured cable assemblies for 200 slide scanners used to detect cancer...”


All-terrain quad bikes are one of the automotive targets for Convert’s cable assembly services


Approximately 75 metres of cable was used for the port engine loom, making 32 connections in the main loom, which itself was over two metres long. The starboard engine used around 70 metres of cable with 30 connections. Both had further connections on the fuse board. On a whole, the length of cabling amounted to 147 metres, almost equivalent to the length of three Olympic sized swimming pools. Dave Little, sales and application manager, MIT, said, “With design and delivery key to this project, Convert was able to supply bespoke cable looms and harnesses, manufactured according to our customer’s application, all while exceeding agreed lead-times.” Last year, Convert invested in additional premises that doubled their assembly area to 11,000 square foot. Capacity has also doubled after investing in a second CR-11 automatic cable processing machine, which is 18 per cent faster than previous models, feeding wires at five metres per second. On top of this, cable harness testing has been bolstered following the purchase of Cirrus 4200 series harness testers.


Convert www.convertltd.co.uk / ELECTRONICS ELECTRONICS | APRIL 2020 17


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