In an effort to reduce costs and increase quality, cable assembly shops are demanding flexible and reliable wire processing automation systems for their high volume jobs.  Typical high volume cable assemblies include coaxial, round or flat multiconductor cables as well as plastic and glass optical fiber cables.  Typical markets served include automotive, telecom, industrial and consumer.

      One problem with most automation systems is that they are usually custom built to automate the assembly of a particular cable.  These custom built systems cannot be easily changed to accommodate different cable assemblies within the same product family and most likely cannot be utilized to assemble a completely different cable. 

      Another problem with dedicated custom built systems is that the customer cannot simply integrate it with their existing wire processing equipment. Custom built systems are usually purpose-built and are not compatible with any existing wire processing equipment.  To solve this problem, Schleuniger has developed an automation platform known as the TransferModule 6000 or “TM6000” for short.  The idea behind the TM6000 was to offer an upgrade path to automation for existing PowerStrip 9500 machine owners. The PowerStrip 9500 is an automatic cutting and stripping machine which measures, cuts and strips wire or cable.  Now it’s possible to transfer a wire or cable from a PowerStrip 9500 to the TM6000 and have it move down the line to additional processing stations.

            The Schleuniger TM6000 closes the gap between standard wire processing machines and custom built automation systems. By offering an economical upgrade path, customers can simply add on to their existing wire processing lines to automate the rest of their cable assembly process.

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