High quality telecom cable assemblies are the humble workhorses that keep enterprises running, through even the most uncertain times. At Meridian, we design and manufacture assemblies used around the world to keep our global society connected. In today’s LiveWire deep dive, we’ll be taking a look at what all goes into custom cable assemblies for telecommunications and the top benefits of having a trusted cable manufacturer partnership.
What is a Cable Assembly Used in Telecommunications?
The telecommunications industry understandably has some pretty tight requirements. Literally, telecom cable assemblies are going in some extremely tight spaces such as between the walls and floors in large commercial buildings. They may be subject to heat or friction, moisture or caustic chemicals, altitude, and 1,001 other environmental factors. They’re also subjected to various forms of interference like electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI).
All of these factors have to be planned for and mitigated against with the right combination of conductor, insulators, fillers, connectors, terminations, sheaths, and more. Going further down this rabbit hole, all of those components have to themselves be made to a high level of quality, and preferably should be UL-listed so that integrity and safety are maintained. With all of the right parts and pieces, a cable assembly used in telecommunications can provide unfettered transfer of data, signal, and power around the world and even beyond.
Aerospace and military telecommunications are some of the most demanding applications; however even the infrastructure required to maintain today’s global communications networks itself requires the highest level of quality humanly possible in their assemblies.
Benefits of Working with a Telecom Cable Assembly Manufacturer
When you choose to get your custom telecom cable assembly from an experienced manufacturer, you’re going to get a lot of beneys that add value and produce measurable returns for the investment made.
A few of the benefits you can expect to see with your new custom cable assembly can include:
- More Accurate Specifications: we are a design firm that manufactures custom cable assemblies. Our engineers work to provide perfect specifications which can then be implemented during manufacturing. For example, we have both the technology and the skilled personnel to be able to provide incredibly precise soldering specifications, even to within .015 pitch. Our testing capabilities are also off the chart with Cirris testing units that can spot the smallest imperfections and even custom testing units to make sure that never-before-seen assemblies can perform under whatever conditions are expected of them.
- Ability to Meet Quantities All the Way to Volume Manufacturing: we can produce qualification samples, do prototyping runs, and offer full-production testing before moving all the way to volume manufacturing. Not every manufacturer can produce small batch and volume manufacturing side-by-side in the same facility but with our expansive tooling inventory and advanced systems, we can produce whatever is needed to meet the individual demands of the project.
- Better Flexibility in Design & Manufacturing: telecom cable assemblies have to be inherently flexible and we most definitely have a vast array of tests to meet even the strictest flexural requirements. But we also have flexibility in our manufacturing process because we have two wholly owned and operated UL-approved manufacturing facilities in both the U.S. and in China. This is what’s allowed us to pivot to the changing needs of the project and deliver the perfect solution.
- Next-Level Quality Assurance: from the top down, our entire organization is built around quality. It’s a part of literally everything we do. In order to maintain our ISO 9001:2015, we have to be able to demonstrate an actionable quality assurance plan is in place, is working, and itself is being continuously improved upon. That level of accountability lends itself to better cable assemblies.
Whether you have an older set-up that needs a cable assembly not being produced anymore or you need an entirely new custom cable assembly for your application, partnering with a trusted telecommunication cable assembly manufacturer is going to multiply the value your assembly project provides.
Where to Get UL Recognized Cable Assemblies for Telecom
UL, LLC, formerly Underwriters Laboratories (UL), is one of only a handful of safety certification agencies approved by the U.S. Government to create and test safety standards across many different industries. UL standards for wires and cables are stringent because these components are so vital to just about every facet of modern life. The UL wire and cable testing and certification process is able to test and evaluate nearly 100 different wire and cable categories to both national and international standards. These pertain mostly to safety and performance thresholds that need to be met with today’s telecom assemblies.
Using UL certified wire and cables in our designs means our engineers are using something that has known specifications and has been tested for safety. This makes for a better design and a better product. Because we are a UL-approved manufacturing facility, we can help put the coveted “UL” mark of quality on the bottom of a product and can even help get products certified through many different agencies. Meridian is also an approved wire and cable extruder which means literally from the first strand of copper onward, our products are built to the highest specifications from the most demanding certification agency in the world.
For single conductor wires, multi-conductor cables, and more being certified by UL to produce our own components to this superior level of quality permeates into every single cable assembly for telecom projects we undertake.
How Can You Use Telecom Cable Assemblies?
The telecommunications industry is a very broad sector with a myriad of companies and agencies seeking to transmit data and signal, whether that’s video, audio, text, or otherwise, around the world. The equipment making global communication possible holds some of the most technologically advanced systems in the world.
Just a few of the many different applications and ancillary uses around the telecom sector include the following:
- Transmission and Switch Controls – lines that are transmitting are switched both in and out of a network so that the efficiency of an electrical system is optimized. Cable assemblies make this possible.
- Telecommunications Systems – covers a wide variety of transmission methods through different mediums including wires and radio signal, optical, and electromagnetic systems. Without cable assemblies for telecommunications systems, none of this transmission could occur.
- Transmitting Video – the wireless transmission of video across locations is accomplished because a wired video signal can be converted into a wireless signal. All of this is accomplished through, you guessed it, telecom cable assemblies.
- Antenna Connectivity – distributed antenna systems (DAS) can be vast networks of different nodes that are run to a common source between them via a wireless transport medium. Once again, cable assemblies for telecom help make this marvel of modern engineering possible.
- Distribution Board – in order to get electricity safely into a building, you need a distribution board. The cable assemblies help provide the distribution board the power that’s then distributed around to different breakers and secondary circuits.
- Networking Cores – this is the heart of modern telecommunication systems, allowing for the service that governments, businesses, and consumers alike rely on to be connected via an access network.
- Internet exchange point (IXP) – this is the physical location from which telecom infrastructure companies like internet service providers and communication providers connect and “exchange” internet traffic.
To accommodate growing demand for connectivity, ever-more sophisticated systems need to be engineered to meet even the most stringent requirements. As a design-first manufacturer, we rely on our vast experience and massive tooling inventory to produce the one-of-a-kind solution the world may have never seen before. In fact, we design more than 70 percent of the products we manufacture which is why our capabilities in custom telecom cable assemblies are so far reaching.
Sectors Rely on Quality Telecom Cable Assemblies to Get the Job Done
As a whole, the telecommunications industry is responsible for providing telephone, TV, internet, and other communications mediums to the world. Consumers are everyone from governments to businesses, and individual users. Whether it’s for local data transfer, longer geographical distances, the internet, wireless data, or private lines, the telecommunications infrastructure our cable assemblies help to connect is vital to our modern way of life.
That’s why quality matters when it comes to telecom cable assemblies. You want a manufacturer that has the proven track record of delivering the best-in-class assemblies that can be relied on cycle-after-cycle. With decades of global telecom cable assembly manufacturing under our belts, this is exactly what our clients have come to expect from our team.
Start with a Trusted Cable Assembly Manufacturer
At Meridian, our expansive capability was born from decades of designing and manufacturing the highest quality telecom cable assemblies available. Whatever your project demands, we have the tooling inventory, processes, and people to deliver effective solutions. Contact us today to start reviewing your project’s specs with our team. We’ll review all the options available to deliver your perfect telecommunications cable assembly on-time and on-budget.