WTM at Wire 2024: the state of the art of PTFE taping lines for small cables

The technological evolution in the cable industry does not stop, and it pushes the manufacturers to create increasingly thinner cables with high-performance insulation. Sectors such as the aeronautical, high-speed data cables and medical as well, impose selective production targets that require sophisticated solutions and excellent technical knowledge to achieve them.

WTM, who is always oriented to accept Customers' challenges, has developed solutions suited to these specific applications and exploited them to produce top-level taping machines, capable of processing even small-sized cables with very sensitive tapes, with high-level production quality and process efficiency.

At Wire 2024 edition, we will present a complete line for the insulation of small cables using PTFE tapes, fully equipped with solutions aimed at improving the process and optimizing the production efficiency and reliability.

The key points of the machine are:

• A compact and versatile pay-off, equipped with dancer control, that guarantees and monitors minimum tension values, thanks to a load cell.
• A taping unit equipped with a fully motorized taping head that includes the dynamic dancer, capable of ensuring constant tension on the tape regardless of process variables.
• A pulling capstan with a backlash-free motor-gear that ensures a perfect control of the line speed, fully synchronized with the rotation of the taping head for the maximum precision of the taping pitch and angle.
• A traversing take-up with torque tension control, able to reduce the stress on the finished cable during final collection.
• Sophisticated devices for the process control and analysis through the line, such as laser gauges and camera system to control the diameter of the final product, the pitch and the taping angle during the head rotation. The data are logged by those devices, as well as other production parameters (cable tension, tape tension, rotation and line speed) and processed on-line and off-line to obtain the analysis of statistical indices (Cpk, standard deviation) and the frequency trend (FFT analysis), thanks to the original dedicated WTM software.

We invite you to come to our stand 11D78 to see this machine and to discuss your production needs with our specialists, to find the best solution to take your production a step forward.