Document pBVGELbN66eGRdk7vg6RYqkNX

What's Ahead in the Significant Sixties? K Wire and Cable This article represents the views oi the authors and it should not be concluded that these view.> are necessarily shared bx the authors' firm. A or should it be assumed that work is hemp con ducted at the authors' company in the areas discussed. The first significant thing to be said about wire and cable in the decade to come is that greater amounts of it will be used. Population increase, higher living standard, and ever-widening application of elec tronics provide a firm foundation for forecasting continued expansion of production in this field. Projected statistics indicate doubling of the dollar-value of the electronic market. In our speculations about "What's Ahead in the Significant Sixties'" we shall survey the function uses of wire products in (1) consumer products. (2) industrial applications, and (3> military applications, including in the latter the area of space research. Most of it An obvious and less glamorous fact is that the major portion of wire and cable produced in the next 10 years will be made of materials now known and in use, and by processes now com monplace in the industry. Consumer products ( home, business houses, and schools: see table I) for the most part do not have requirements in the ex treme ranges of operating conditions (temperature et al) ; therefore, the exotic, ultra-new insulating materials are not likely to find extensive service in this highly competitive field. To a lesser degree, this applies to the in dustrial market as well and, as will be seen, is true in part of the military field. This is not to preclude improve ments in degree which will be made, some of them relatively soon. There will be available during the period elastomers with greatly improved re sistance to ozone. Thermoplastics more resistant to thermal effects are in the offing, while improvements in the process of applying insulation will avoid certain internal stresses which are now set up by processing. Changes in manufacturing equipment Bv Robert E. Sharp and Merton Scott. Electronic Wire and Cable Rrsearch and Development Group. Belden Manufacturing Co.. Chieaso. 111. and Richmond, Ind. Robert E. Sharp is 31. married, and lias two sons aged 1 and 6. and one daughter aged 5. He has been empioyed in Belden Mfg. Co. for the past two years as a product engineer in the Electronic Wire and Cable Research and Development Group. He previously was with Chicago Standard Transformer Corp. as a develop ment engineer. He is a graduate of Illinois Institute of Technology. His favorite hobby is HO gauge model railroading. Merton Scott is 42. married and has two daughters. 10 and 17 years of age. He has been with Belden Mfg. Co. for the past three years as a product engineer in the Electronic Wire and Cable Research and Development Group. He is operator of W9WRL amateur radio station which he constructed him self. He attended junior college in Kansas City. Friends I niversitv, and Earlham College. come slowly due to the investment in volved. It is likely that some develop ments that have been in process will come to fruition, bringing higher rates of production, closer controls on dimensions, and improved quality of product. Factory sales of consumer products increased approximately 16^c during the past eight years. The rate of in crease will be greater in the sixties, but with the bulk of sales moving from the top of the list in table I toward the lower half. Tie Growth oi If Factor}' sales of electronic equip ment for industrial applications quadrupled from 1950 to 1958. In dustrial and commercial electronic sales are currently approximately onehalf the dollar volume of consumer sales and servicing. During 1960 to 1969, industrial use of electronics will overtake and surpass the con sumer field. This carries the implica tion that the quality standards which the wire and cable industry must meet will grow increasingly stringent. This, in addition to environmental require ments, will demand materials to meet higher temperatures, lower tempera tures. and other physically and elec trically rigorous conditions. Relia bility here has priority over the com petitive market position that per tains in the consumer area. The need for reliability and the high cost of manpower for installa tions may indicate a greater use of factorv assembled cables and har nesses with connectors attached. This is simplified with the emphasis on unit or modular construction of equip ment. Tiie Types of it The types of wire and cable enu merated below are expected to change in the decade ahead as indicated. 1. Hook-up wire -- thinner walls, higher voltage breakdown, higher temperature stability, improved stress crack resistance. 2. Lead wire -- higher temperature:(150-200C at much lower cost than "Teflon"' or silicone), greater flexi bility and flexing life, ease of proc essing. 3. Power cords--for small appliances, improved plastics will largely replace rubber. Power tools and much flexible sendee will find elastomers with hish Insulation, December. )9r>u fi." ozone resistance. Three conductor cords will become standard every where as they now are in some states. 4. High voltage leads--higher break down, longer life due to improvement in corona resistance i better materials and changed construction). 5. TV antenna lead-in--little change in currently available constructions without changes in input impedance of receivers. 6. RF cables--impedance can be modified on specific applications and Terion or ceramics used for higher temperatures but little improvement is in sight on the general temperature and frequency stability of polyethy lene. 7. Audio cables--slightly smaller in size to give better space factor, im proved shielding methods. 8- Control circuit ivire--same points apply as on No. I and No. 2 with special applications in nuclear fields requiring materials with higher radia tion resistance. 9. Microphone cables--flexibility and [lex life, low capacitance (though this will be less important due to the low input impedance of semi-conductor circuits), improved shielding and low noise generation in cable. 10. Camera cables--smaller diame ters with special applications using materials to give high radiation resist ance. 11. Multi-conductor cables -- paired cables: thinner walls, smaller diame ters. shielded pairs having good shield isolation. Unpaired cables: Dimen sion factors same as paired cables, and with other points of No. 1. No. 2. and No. 8. Fiat parallel conductor cables will be used in many applications, both as pre-cut harness and as inter connecting cable. 12. Strain gauge cables*--Smaller diameters, low noise generation, radi ation resistance. *Applies to many instrumentation cables. Meeting the above requirements is obviously going to mean modification of present materials and the develop ment of new ones. Alloyed, plated and composite con ductors will increasingly be used to provide longer flexing life, greater tensile strength and. in some cases, operation capability at higher temper ature extremes. Increased resistivity of some of the ailovs will introduce problems of heating and voltage drop which will have lo be considered by equipment designers. The past five years have seen the cracking of the lid on a virtual Pan dora's Box in the field of chemical synthesis. The work of Karl Ziegler in Germany. Giulio N'atta in Italy, and a series of researchers in this country reached a climax of 20 years iabor with the development of methods of "tailor-making" the molecules of substances to produce characteristics which had been Nature's secrets be fore. Variously termed "stereo-spe cific polymerizations'' and "graft and block polymerization,'' the processes can produce results such as the new synthetic rubber with most of the desired characteristics of natural rub ber. A further development of this meth od is the addition of desired proper ties to a substance by combining hitherto inorganic elements into the complex molecules of organic type compounds, which means that mate rials can be compounded with proper ties "to order." The silicones are a beginning point. The addition of phenyls or other cyclic structures pro vide greater radiation resistance. The mechanical toughness, abrasion resist ance, and oil resistance of silicone can all be improved by this method and will eliminate the braids and other protective coatings now used over wire insulations of silicone tvpes. We have yet to see the properties of substances using tin where silicon is now the radical. The phosphinoboranes likewise promise valuable properties. Thus a basic change in meeting higher temperature require ments will be to move from strict!v organic compounds to semi-organic or inorganic polymer chains. Low temperature range and manv general purpose insulations will be high molecular weight materials that do not require vulcanization or plas ticization in the processor's plant. Polyurethanes or polvisobutvlenes are examples of very high molecular weight materials. Tabi* I Coaiiwtr Pradvcis Home and Business Radiosand TV (entertainment broadcast' Recording equipment Hi Fi--mono and stereo Electronic appliances Air fibers Temperature controls RF ovens Intercom : Annunciator Music svstems * Alarm svstems 'm Closed circuit TV i theft protec tion) * Bookkeeping computer systems Schools Language systems TV classrooms Paging svstems Automotive Ignition, lighting, accessories Tobla Jl--Industrial Application* Control systems . Automation Temperature i environment) Processes Punched cards or tapes ,, y Magnetic tapes Two-way radio s| Instrumentation Data processing Computers Telephone systems Aircraft controls (commercial), navigation, landing Nuclear systems Power Medicine Tracing Corrosive surface treatments lur to anodizing of aluminum will produce some excellent it tions with iittie or no diameter tion. ' With regret, we must say that] commercial availability of A* ceramics will be deferred to the: of the Sixties or into the "Si Age Seventies." Whether used with civilian or tary equipment, applications of 66 fntnlruiun. lO^Q tncal wire can }*> reduced to either 7obie HI Military Application transmission of power or transmission 0f a signal. The consumer and indu?- Com mu nicalions V trial uses listed above can all be found Telephone ENGINEERED for in military service. However, let us consider the special requirements Radio Teletypewriter TEMPERATURE which military applications will im pose upon wire and cable. Infrared beam Television by GUDEBROD In the next 10 years, the principal Electronic megaphones changes in Armed Forces equipment in which wire is used will involve rriore rigorous environmental re quirements for vehicles i undersea, surface, air. and space) and their associated apparatus, and more com plexity and sophistication of elec tronic equipment. Public address systems Navigation Radar altimeters Radio direction finders Automatic pilots Radio beacons Landing aids 375 C GUOE-GLASS - Flat braided of glass fibers. Gude-glass is recommended for use where high tempera ture is a factor. Available r\ with special finishes for non[ slip characteristics, it is nonh toxic, resists fungus and is l' flexible within us complete Table 111 shows only a few of the rtiiiitarv applications of elec.ronics. Environmental requirements will include even wider extremes of both high and low temperatures and ex posure to cosmic and nuclear radia tion. Capability of operation at 2500 F for a few minutes and 4000F for a few seconds will be needed during the sixties. Vibration, acceleration, -mock, and vacuum arc equipment Fire control and missile guidance Radar Infrared Acoustic Target detection and counter measures Radar Sonar Scatter Infrared ; range: -40C to 375*0. 220C TEMP-LACE - Manufactured of pure <. TEFLON*. Temp-Lace is the latest addition to the Gudebrod line. Chemical!) inert, tt is available in nai. ural finish, with a fungistatic . \ rubber coating or with a sil : icon dispersion finish, in five sizes, it is flexible from -- 40C to 220C. problems which will be magnified as Hydrophone 160C STUR-D-LACE H -pace vehicles become more ambitious and will be shared bv the wire in the equipment in areas not protected for the sake of the human cargo. Most of the progress in environ mental resistance must come from the development of new materials and wavs of applying them. The pressures if the military requirements will lasten the development of materials mentioned above but w'hich might iot be commercially feasible nearly is soon. As more and more functions are iressed into a given amount of space, miniaturization will increase in imiortance. Entirely new methods of urrent transfer will probabiv be de. eloped. Printed circuits have been ith us for some time, and alreadv 'Ork is being done in the field of noietronics. in which complete cirnits are grown into a crystal. Obviously, there is not much room nside a crystal for hook-up wire as >e know it today. However, the most Mine detectors Radioactivity monitors Jammers turized wires and cables will be used in most such applications. In land-based equipment, environ mental problems will not be as severe as in vehicles. However, long-term reliability will be stressed and in increasingly complex data handling equipment miniaturization wfill be important. Actually, as in the case of consumer and industrial products, anv added cost of micro-miniaturization must be justified by some benefit. Therefore, as now. much military wire and cable will be standard types but manufac tured to meet stringent MIL specifica tions. The wire and cable industrv will experience the significant sixties as both prosperous and demanding. Greater volume but with higher stand ards of quality to be met consistently * . Flat braided of DACRON** ; . with non-corrosive rubber .. finish or wax finish. Stur-D; Lace H meets the most l \ severe requirements for [ _ fungus-resistance. It is non ; toxic, knots tightly. is unF. affected by most chemical -l ' solvents. In fivestzes.all with ^ high dielectric strength. 90C GUDELACE The original Gudebrod lac mg tape, flat braided of i~\ nylon with special wax fin ish. Gudelace has become the standard where excessive ' high temperatures are not encountered. In seven sizes, Gudelace also comes in six -i colors for circuit coding. Write for new Data Book with ' ` complete specifications ot All Gudebrod Lacing Tapes. /. ." \ Nas*' *Du Pom s trade mark for ris TFP fluorocarbon fiber "Du Pom's trade mark for ns poivester fiber GUDEBROD BROS. SILK CO., INC. i t niniaturized circuit imaginable is of iO value mounted on the head of a in unless there is a way to get in* urination into it and out of it. Minia will provide a continuing challenge. New materials and methods will be come available as the demands bring them forth. ELECTRONICS DIVISION 225 West 34th Street, New York I. N.Y. EXECUTIVE OFFICES 12 Sooth 12th Street, Philadelphia 7, Pa. Print Ins. 44 on Reeder Service Cord Insulation, December. 1959 67