The relationship
“Here you can see two connectors with a multi-cable attached,” Martin van Aperloo explains. “One assembly is an extremely flexible connection for a harbor crane, while the other is used in an electron microscope. One cable has an outer diameter of 7 cm and the other only 2.5 mm. However, both cables fit about as many connections, because the thick cable contains 20 wires of 2.5 mm and another three wire pairs for a CAN bus system, while the thin fiber optic cable fits 24 Multimode or Singelmode fibers. The copper cable is 95 meters long and weighs 368 kg on the reel. The fiber optic cable is only 10 cm long and weighs only a few grams.”
Precision work down to the last detail
However, both solutions are purely custom-made and high demands are placed on both cables. Both are crucial connections in their own application. When a crane cable causes malfunctions, this means, for example, that fewer sea containers can be unloaded and a ship stays in port for too long. If the fiber optic cable in the electron microscope is not perfect, it may mean that a laboratory cannot continue its research with all the consequences that entails. The high quality requirement is therefore one of the main reasons for customers to have cables assembled by MCAP.
Tested thoroughly
“We pay a lot of attention to all our cables,” Martin continues. “After a copper cable or fiber optic cable has been assembled, it is visually inspected and extensively tested. So no cable leaves before it has passed our rigorous testing procedure. In the case of fiber optic cables, even a microscopic deviation can have major consequences. As a result, in addition to the usual optical fiber test equipment for measuring attenuation and reflection, we also use a special interferometer for this MTP connector to assess the quality of the end face per fiber.”
Whether a customer needs heavy copper cables, thin fragile fiber optic cables or something in between doesn’t matter to MCAP. As soon as the quality must be high or different requirements are set for a connection, they are the right partner.
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