Take a Stand Against Cable Spaghetti with Cable Ties
Fiber optic cable is ubiquitous in data center to achieve the connection between devices and to upgrade the network infrastructures and applications, since it can effectively satisfy the ever-increasing demand for higher bandwidth and faster speed data transmission. With more and more patch cables deployed in data center, if not managed well, it is easy to cause cable spaghetti. Cord spaghetti is not only assaulting to your eyes and dignity, it can also actually impede your ability to troubleshoot IT issues. For example, if someone is experiencing connectivity problems at their desk, pinpointing the problem can be impossibility without labeled and organized cables. Manually tracing a line into cable hell wastes precious time at best and, at worst, drives you to the brink of insanity. So it is time to take a stand against cable spaghetti. Today, I’d like to introduce a simple and easy-handling tool—cable tie for you, to take control of cable chaos.
Cable Ties Overview
Cable tie or tie-wrap is a type of fastener for holding items together, primarily electric cables or wires. It is probably the longest-standing, easiest-to-use and least-expensive form of cable management, finding use in a wide range of applications. Cable tie is a necessity in today’s increasingly cable-crowded data center. It can not only offer great protection for the cables and wires that are tied with them, but also be highly helpful in keeping the wiring/cabling section in a pretty organized manner, thereby, saving more space.
Various Cable Ties for Different Applications
There are various types of cable ties made of different materials available on the market used for different applications. Some deal with extreme temperatures while others provide the ability to hold heavy loads securely. Below are descriptions of three cable tie types we’re going to introduce.
Nylon Cable Tie
Nylon cable tie, as its name suggests, consists of a flexible nylon tape with an integrated gear rack, and on one end a ratchet within a small open case. It has one-piece injection moulded construction, providing maximum strength and adjustability and rounded edges and bend-tip design, which make installation easy, especially for binding several electronic cables or wires together and organizing cables and wires. Nylon cable possesses an outstanding balance of properties, combined strength, moderate stiffness, high service temperature, and a high level of toughness, which makes it inherently susceptible to environmental conditions. But we should keep it in mind that Nylon cable should be stored in cool dry areas, out of direct sunlight, and sealed in the original packaging material. These measures can effectively extend the cable tie performance levels. The following image shows different color-coded Nylon cable ties.
Stainless Steel Cable Tie
Stainless steel cable tie offers self-locking head design that speeds installation and locks into place at any length along the tie body. This type of cable tie is made of stainless steel, which makes it the ultimate solution to install your cables in extreme conditions and hazardous areas, like in the petrochemical and food processing industries, shipbuilding, offshore and other aggressive environments. Combining a high chemical strength with chemical durability and temperature resistance, stainless steel cable tie provides a strong, durable method of bundling, identifying and fastening cables or wires for all indoor, outdoor, underground applications. We can see more detailed information about stainless steel cable tie from the image below.
Velcro Cable Tie
Velcro cable tie as shown below, also referred to as hook and loop cable tie, is made of strong, low profile hook and loop material. It delivers reliability by protecting against over-tension of high-performance fiber and copper cables. Unlike Nylon cable ties, which can only be used once, Velcro cable tie is reusable, thus saving cost, to some extent. These Velcro cable ties come in a roll which are pre-cut for installation and offer a simple solution for areas in need of releasable cable ties. Simply pull one off the roll, loop through the eye and stick it to itself.
Conclusion
Cable ties are indispensable tool to control cable spaghetti in data center. They are small, but it is not easy to choose the right one. We have introduced three commonly used types of cable ties above, you can choose the most appropriate one according to your requirements.
