Control cable from Cincinnati packaging line changeouts

Cable that joins one box to another

Control cable in a packaging hall runs between a main panel, a line controller and a row of remote boxes along the conveyor. A run is measured in tens of feet rather than hundreds, and it is cut at both ends when a panel is swapped. The result is forty pieces, each a different length, each carrying a number code printed on every conductor.

The material is usually 16 or 18 AWG, multiconductor, with an overall shield or individually shielded pairs depending on what the line needed. Jackets are PVC or an oil-resistant compound, and the cable often runs in tray or conduit between boxes, which decides how much of it survives removal intact.

Numbered conductors and why the print matters

A control cable is identified by printed conductor numbers, not by color. Black cores with white print reading 1 through 12 are what a panel builder expects. If the print has rubbed away, somebody has to buzz out every core to learn what is what, and that labor is the difference between reusable cable and copper.

• 16 AWG seven-conductor, overall shield
• 18 AWG twelve-conductor, numbered black
• Shielded twisted pairs for analogue signals
• Oil-resistant jacket, tray rated
• Cut lengths from fifteen to sixty feet

Lengths that fit no standard pull

The awkward fact about changeout control cable is that a twenty-two-foot piece with a connector cut off one end is of little use on a new installation. What gives it value is a buyer who needs exactly that: a repair, a like-for-like replacement, a spare for a line still running the older control scheme.

Lengths are therefore listed one by one. A mixed pile is reviewed as a bundle by weight. A lot where the lengths are written down, say eighteen pieces between twenty and sixty feet all 16 AWG seven-conductor, is reviewed as salvage and moves for more. Sorting by construction first and length second is what makes that possible.

Sorting has a cost and it is worth naming. Two hundred unlabelled pieces take a morning to lay out, measure and bundle by construction, and a seller who has already done that has removed the buyer's largest doubt. A seller who hands over a gaylord of loosely coiled cable is handing over a weight, and the review will treat it as one.

Review on a hillside plant

Cincinnati's plants sit on grades, with switchback drives and docks at one level while production runs at another. Cable coming out of a basement panel room goes up a ramp or a stair before it reaches a trailer, and a changeout lot is usually staged wherever the contractor could find room.

Review starts with the constructions present and the shield arrangement, since a shielded twelve-conductor and an unshielded one are different products. Samples come off the cut ends, the print is checked, and lengths are either measured or read from the as-built. Terms in writing come next; then the coils are strapped to a pallet.