SWIVEL KING.AVI

Which Welding Cable Are You?

Have you ever seen the noxious quizzes, particularly on social media sites such as Facebook, that allure you to tap the link to see "Which State Are You?"  or even better "Which Disney Character Will You Marry?"   Guilty as charged..I have sat glued to my LCD screen taking social media quizzes and then posted the result to Facebook like some kind of victory badge.  As I recharge the lost brain cells in this process we switch to the quiz, "Which Welding Cable Are You?"   This may not be a quiz, but it is certainly a question we have attempted to answer on a daily basis.  Identifying welding cables in the field can be challenging particularly if you are dealing with a customer via email or on the phone and cannot personally inspect the welding equipment.  There are, however, a few things that you can do to correctly identify your customer's cable sight unseen.

Measuring the cable.  This is probably the simplest way to identify a welding cable in the field.  Utilizing a tape measure, having the customer measure the length of the cable hole center to hole center will provide the overall length.  Identifying the circular mill size or width of the cable can be determined by measuring the circumference of the cable even with the nonconductive black hose covering.

Visual identification.  All welding cables should be clearly stamped with the circular mill size and length.  A visual identification will tell you if the nonconductive black hose covering is clamped on or sits loose.  If the covering is clamped on with bands, the cable is water cooled.  If the covering is sitting loose on the cable it is an air cooled cable.

Terminal ends are a little bit more tricky to identify; however, once it is established whether the cable is air cooled or water cooled, the terminal ends are a little easier to identify.

Copper terminals are always utilized on welding cables; however, they may be silver plated.  The terminals are all engraved with the circular mill size on one end.  Over time and with use, this may become a little more difficult to see, but it should still be visible.  Measuring the flat surface of the cable is important as well as identification of the holes (for attachments onto the machine and with water ports).

Charts for weld ampacity.  When the information above is unavailable, it is possible to configure the weld ampacities and identify an appropriate cable utilizing a formula:

To determine the required MCM rating, it is first necessary to know: (1) the duty cycle, (2) current to be used and (3) length of the cable to be used, measured bolt hole center to bolt hole center.

Once this has been determined, proceed as follows:

1. Find the closest duty cycle shown on the multiplier chart to the left. Take your current level and multiply it times the multiplier shown. This will give you the continuous duty current of the cable.

2. Refer to the chart below. Looking up from the length of your required cable, find the angular line closest to the continuous current level you just established. Then follow the angular line to the right for the MCM rating.

Identifying a welding cable for a customer can be frustrating when you are behind a computer or on the phone; however, asking a few simple questions, much like the noxious quizzes in social media, you can identify the correct welding cable. With technology and "Smart" phones, mobile photographs can also be extremely helpful to identify a part.  Technical support from the team at CAL is always available when you need a behind the scenes "expert" to sort out the correct cable information - let us make you the heroine in your customer's "Welding Cable Quiz".

Early Winters - 'Count Me In'

Copper Bar Stock

Calcables uses a variety of different types of copper products for resistance welding cables, consumables.  Understanding the difference between them is an important factor not only in the product we produce, but the process of the product we produce.

Tellerium - Interesting Facts:

ATOMIC NUMBER - 52

ATOMIC SYMBOL: Te

ATOMIC WEIGHT 127.60

MELTING POINT 841.1 F

BOILING POINT: 1,810.4 F

 PHOTO:  Shows a NEW cable utilizing Tellurium - the machining process is cleaner, we use less in the way of saw blades to cut bar stock and have far less in the way of rejected parts.

This is 110 copper bar stock, shown on a USED cable.  I wanted to show a cable that has had some use so you can see that 110 cooper bar stock is not a bad choice and does, in fact, hold up very well in the welding environment.

The word Tellerium comes from the Latin word tellus which means earth.  Tellerium was discovered in 1782 by Muller von Reichenstein.  It was named by a German chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1798.

Tellurium is a silvery-white metalloid, its pure version has a metallic luster.  Crystalline tellurium is easily pulverised.  In its molten state, tellurium is corrosive to copper, iron and stainless stell.

Tellerium Used In Resistance Welding versus 110 Copper Bar Stock:

That scientific information is all fine and good, but when it comes to resistance welding cables, why does this matter?

Tellurium copper is readily available in the world wide market in rod, hex and rectangle (C14500). Tellurium is added to copper for machine-ability. The tellurium serves the same purpose as lead in free machining brass (C36000). Both lead and tellurium enter the grain boundaries to act as a chip release. Without tellurium in pure copper, machining is very gummy and chips will string. When detailed machining is needed, tellurium copper (C14500) is needed for high volume and detailed machining applications.You pay about $1.00/lbs. more for the C14500 but you will save yourself machining time and headaches.

Ask the experts at Calcables, which cable is right for you and have the peace of mind knowing our products are only the best, while still maintaining excellent price and delivery.

Want to know more about copper products we use?  Contact Calcables

Calcables New Management Team: 4 Business Resolutions for 2014

Calcables New Management Team: 4 Business Resolutions for 2014: Watching television lately, it seems every other commercial is advertising gym equipment or a weight loss plan targeted to a consumer's...

4 Business Resolutions for 2014

Watching television lately, it seems every other commercial is advertising gym equipment or a weight loss plan targeted to a consumer's success in 2014.  Smart advertising, right?  Everyone has their own checklist for making 2014 a better year by losing a few pounds, getting into better physical shape, etc.  Apply that to your business and it is slightly different, but the theme is definitely the same.  What's really "hot" for making business boom in 2014 that is worth a look?

1.  Google Search Engine, Google Plus, Etc.  Google recently stated that they do approximately two tweaks to their algorhithm every day.  If your business has the advertising dollars to spend, Google has the tools to push your website to the stratosphere.  Simply stated, you can outposition your competition just by having a better website, which translates into being able to offer better products, services and enhancing the visitor's experience to your website.

2.  The age of the "Smart Phone".   It can definitely be said that smart phones (Androids, iPhones, etc), have moved into the market and are here to stay.   Busy executives, management are utilizing the tools for "mobile status" to plan their day, execute email, run conferences, etc.  Every smart business owner is looking at the mobile website versions and applications they can offer to make visits to their website user friendly by mobile users.

3.  Actually looking at "Stats, Facts, and Audience" that your website is generating.  Where is your website traffic coming from?  Break that down further into what search engine they use to enter your site.  This is valuable information that Google is smart enough to recognize and make it simple and easy for any tech savvy or non-tech savvy business owner.  This is valuable information and a great tool to tell you what is working with advertising and what is not.

4.  SEO/social media sites and "grouping your statuses"  What does that mean?   Hoot Suite and several others have an all in one "tweet" if you will, to save busy business owners time and money by posting one status or tweet in one place in all of your social media sites all at once.  Hoot Suite is definitely easy to use and saves valuable time logging in to Twitter, Facebook, Google Places, Tumblr, etc., to put up your photos, sales, savings, discounts, new products, etc.  Wish I would have thought of that, but that's a whole different blog.

Of course, there are many other great places to push your business forward and advertise, advertise, advertise, just like Weight Watcher's and Bow Flex, catering to the audience of choice (couch potatoes?) to get them to buy your products.  Okay, so that is an easy example, that we can all understand and relate to, but when it comes to the computer and what tools to use and how to use them to target your market things get a little more difficult.   These are the easiest suggestions we can all use to push our business on the Internet and get going with some new resolutions to strive to thrive in 2014.

Calcables loves social media, but we take our products and customer service seriously!

Plant Manager/Operations Manager - Mirror Challenges at Calcables

Plant Manager/Operations Manager - Face Challenges Together With A Common Sense/Cents Approach:

Learn about the differences between a  plant manager and operations manager.

HOW THEY'RE ALIKE

These two job titles are often used interchangeably and while they do indeed share many common traits, they each have a set of roles and purposes that are entirely unique.  These positions mirror each other, and are interdependent with each other.  The plant manager is considered a subset of operations management because it is just one part of the entire production operation. But they do share a similar end goal: to enhance the bottom line by reducing costs and increasing efficiencies.

How they achieve this at Calcables?

Plant Manager, Russ Hayward, is an integral part of the management at Calcables, pulling together the whole team like a "connect the dots" puzzle.   In a world where businesses are utilizing management techniques such as Kanban, JIT and Kaizen, our smaller business is combining the resources of the plant manager and operations manager with "common sense/cents" management.  It makes sense, because our management team is focused on the value of your "cents."

Operations Manager, Cheryl Benson, holds the giant bucket of fiscal responsibility while overseeing the whole picture and helping assign new development to the team, trusting the management to hone out the fine details and achieve the desired quality results.

Operations management focuses primarily upon activities that happen within a company's walls to manufacture a product or service. This includes formulating policies, managing the daily operations and workflow, overseeing workers, and participating in the design, planning and the physical production of the product. In short, it's the giant bucket that contains all of the smaller buckets of jobs necessary to complete the goal.

Calcables is in an exciting phase of growth  With managers skilled in working with external partners to procure parts and raw materials needed to produce the product, create the inventory, and sell the product to outside markets. Our professionals evaluate suppliers and negotiate contracts with vendors. Because this role is a vital necessity, you can see why our management team thrives under the umbrella of our management team. Without materials, there are no products to manage and no need for workers to make the products.

Get to know our team better and get the inside knowledge of our new products launching in 2014, by contacting our plant manager/operations manager for more details.