Old Stranding Machines Can’t Handle High-Fiber-Count Orders – Where’s the Problem?
A cable factory owner in Zhejiang, surnamed Chen, had been in the cable business for over a decade. Starting in the second half of last year, overseas orders suddenly surged – especially high-fiber-count cables for data centers, integrating thousands or even tens of thousands of fibers into a single cable.
Mr. Chen had a stranding machine that was nearly ten years old – a significant investment at the time, and it had served him well. But when running high-fiber-count cables, problems emerged – pitch deviation exceeded tolerances, and the scrap rate jumped from 1% to over 8%.
He contacted the manufacturer, who said the equipment was fine and that it was an operator issue. He then hired a third-party inspection firm, whose report concluded that the equipment’s precision had indeed degraded.
Mr. Chen called me: “Old Liu, can this machine still be fixed?”
I asked: “Have you ever changed the oil in the differential gearbox?”
“Yes – last year.”
“Have you inspected the gears?”
“Never opened it up.”
“Then open it and take a look.”
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