Recommended Tolerances

When it comes to manufacturing cable assemblies there are many processes involved, many of which can affect your wire length measurement. Stretching of swaged ends, imprecision when cutting wire rope and tail length for loops and swaged ends are all vectors in which inaccuracies can happen.

Luckily, we at Tyler Madison have 25 years of industry experience, and are illuminated in the art of bending these forces to our will.

When designing a cable assembly, it is important to put thought into one’s acceptable length tolerance, as It can greatly affect manufacturing cost. At what range of lengths will your assembly still function at 100%?

For example, our electronic cutter can easily stay within the bounds of a +/- 1/8 tolerance for a 5.1 to 10 foot cable, while a +/- 1/16 tolerance will require someone to be checking length often to make sure the machine is cutting perfectly, and if you need a +/- 1/32 tolerance the assemblies will most likely need to be cut by hand.

As we head into the future world of automation, the rule seems to be (and perhaps always has been) that in manufacturing: human time and labor is a most precious resource. If it can be automated, you should. At Tyler Madison we believe in embracing automation in order to lower customer costs as well as make the job easier on our employees’ minds, hearts and bodies.

Remember, the following list of steel cable tolerances is only a recommendation. If you need something more precise than the measurements below let us know! As one of the top custom cable manufacturers, we always find a way. You can also refer to our recommended cable measurement points guide for more information.

Cable Length (in feet)

Precision

Tight

Standard

.1 – 2.0

1/64

1/32

1/16

2.1 – 5.0

1/32

1/16

3/32

5.1 – 10

1/16

3/32

1/8

10.1 – 20.0

3/32

3/16

1/4

20.1 – 40

3/16

3/8

3/4

40 – 60

3/4

1

2