Welcome to Technical Horsepower Consulting, LLC. (THC)
THC is an international high technology consulting company incorporated by Wayne Kachmar and built on his 40+ years of optical cable industry experience. Work includes consulting for wire companies adding fiber optics line in their manufacturing, cable companies developing and testing new cable designs and assembly houses determining cable specs or incoming cable quality tests programs.
Additional services include program guidance for certified test houses, optical cable spec requirements, independent outside expert review of cables or installations, optical patent attorney support, independent lab support of environmental chamber time, physical tests etc. and United States cable operation set up consulting (specifically for foreign companies) including but not limited to spec conversion, plant operation set-up, overall equipment and product line evaluation.
Technical Horsepower Consulting for
OPTICAL CABLE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Errors in processes can lead to failures and negatively impact long-term reliability
SPECIFICATION EDITING / CREATION
Many times, a company will use a manufacturer’s website data sheet as their purchase specification never realizing that the actual cable they are using significantly meets and exceeds the written specification that the company provides. When a second manufacturer or the original manufacturer changes materials or processes, the product will still meet the original specifications as printed in the data sheet, but the product will be substantially changed.
As a result, it may not be suited for the particular application for which it is being used and may still perform in other applications for which it is used. Such as a cable that meets GR20 but is now using a different type of strength member that performs poorly with a specific splice case termination method. (i.e., crimps the aramid yarn around a post system and the manufacturer switches to fiberglass that is sensitive to compression and cracks at the crimp.) Both pass the tensile requirements of GR 20 but one is significantly less effective with a manufacturers splice case system.
With 40+ years of experience and over 60 patents in cable design we have been involved in a number of different applications. Standard cable designs also require a significant amount of work not only to minimize costs but also to provide operating tolerances for meeting standardized test and qualification requirements. Specialty cables can require significant engineering to meet unique requirements and still be attainable.
In many cases the specialty design is for a limited quantity and running such a cable with totally new processes is likely to drive costs exponentially. In order to create reasonable designs THC can build on a 38+ year history of specialty cable designs that utilizes existing concepts and materials we have worked with in other specialty projects, thus reducing costs and speeding product design time. Having designed cables for use in almost every environment and condition from space-based cables to in vivo applications within the human body provides a specialized database for quickly solving your customer’s unique requirements.
Cables can be purchased based upon meeting a published standard (such as GR409) and is expected to pass specific tests called out in a detail specification i.e., EIA/TIA 455 FOTP (Fiber Optic Test Procedure) as well as fire safety tests. External independent test labs are expensive and use specific procedures to carry out these tests.
Knowing how to prepare a sample and pretesting in your own QC facilities can save significant costs before submitting a sample to a customer or independent test lab as well as avoiding a failure that may be preventable. THC can place our 40+ years of experience at your disposal to allow you to provide a qualified cable design and test result to your customers in a faster time and with less retesting.
Additionally, many customers require both a verification and validation test plan prior to approving a cable design for their use. While these may sound similar, they are very different and meet different portions of the ISO 9001 requirements. THC can provide test plan creation and or sheppard your cables through a test plan or independent lab.
We have capabilities to test to standardized physical and optical tests for most cables as well as the ability to create specialized tests for unique requirements.
Not all cable manufacturing processes are created the same! In many cases each manufacturer prefers to use their proprietary methodology to lock you into their technology. THC can provide an unbiased perspective when looking at existing and new cable manufacturing processes, these include material choices, run speed increases, new machinery specifications, industry best practices, manufacturing environments, as well as design, implementation and commissioning of new processes.
In some cases, you may need the ability of a "hired gun" to move time sensitive projects forward to meet customer’s time frames. THC can provide the technical horsepower to get the job done.
Product design, manufacturing process and equipment design: we have designed many products and processes: handling equipment; fiber production equipment; fiber cable processing lines; curing ovens; facilities; and clean room facilities.
With over 40 years of optical fiber cable experience THC can provide support in all phases of optical cable design, testing, specification creation and installation. Having designed, qualified and installed optical cables for many varied applications as well as for massive volume applications, THC is uniquely qualified to provide any level of support to questions about optical cable design, specifications and fitness for a
particular use.
Also, with over 40 years of optical cable manufacturing experience THC is able to provide many insights into the optical cable manufacturing process from specialized equipment designs to material choices to best practices. Being independent of any cable equipment manufacturer allows THC to provide unbiased recommendations and evaluations of all equipment manufacturers. The same is true in evaluations of cable materials and fiber type choices.
Contact us to learn how our design capabilities and experience can improve your product design or manufacturing lines.
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