Tape Wrapping Wire Cable Harnesses Guide

This document describes generic methods for applying insulating, thermal or EMI tape materials. It applies to all tape materials which can be helically wound around a wire and cable bundle. The methods described are typical of industry installations and may or may not apply to customer-specific installation requirements. In-house engineering requirements should always be consulted prior to making any production installation. These instructions are provided as an “idea guide” rather than a rigid requirements document. All procedures described herein have been found to provide good mechanical and electrical performance, however, The Zippertubing® Company cannot guarantee end performance results.Get more news about Wire Harnessing Tape,you can vist our website!

Tape users should be aware that a tape wrap jacketing installation is a highly inefficient and costly harnessing solution. Although the tape materials are extremely versatile and appear inexpensive at the buyer level, the finished assembly cost will generally be high because tape wrapping is a very labor-intensive process. Furthermore, tape wrapping is a “craft sensitive” process and the finished installation can vary from installer to installer. Generally, tape wrapping should be limited to short run lengths, cable branch intersections and cable branch legs. To maximize harness assembly efficiency, long run sections of a cable harness should be jacketed using a wrap-around, zip-on jacket material with tape wrap areas kept to a minimum.

Tapes
You need to define what type of tape is being used and what the purpose of the tape wrap is. Is the material an adhesive-backed, elastic polymer film, a woven fabric or a metal foil? Is it intended to loosely hold a group of wires together so they all follow the same general direction or is it intended to constrict the wiring into the smallest possible bundle diameter and/or provide a secondary performance characteristic? There are specific tape types which are designed to provide additional performance characteristics to cables such as adding abrasion protection, improving dielectric insulation, providing thermal protection, providing EMI shielding or a combination of these. Knowing the intended use will dictate how much coverage is required, how many layers are required and how precise the installation technique needs to be.

Tape Quantity
The most common question customers ask is “how much tape will I need for my project”? This can be a difficult question to answer since no two installations are the same and some material types are thicker than others. Also, EMI and Thermal materials will require greater coverage to perform correctly. The table below provides a rough approximation of the tape length required to cover one linear foot of cable. The values shown are based on mathematical calculations using a 50% overlap, a straight run of cable and using a tape material thickness of zero. Wrapping a cable that has bends in it will increase the quantity of tape required per foot to maintain the 50% coverage. A good rule of thumb is to add 1/3 of the length/foot to all linear tape length values shown in Table 1. Do not fall into the trap of trying to use a wider tape on a small cable to minimize the footage of tape required. Using too wide a tape for the cable diameter will result in large wrinkles and open gap areas which can defeat the functional purpose of the tape as well as look bad cosmetically. Material widths shown in “Red” are generally considered too wide for use on the corresponding cabled diameter.