Tianjie Technology | Competitiveness may come from product re-engineering

In our inherent cognition, the competitiveness of the product is often framed by the original product cost, efficiency, delivery, quality, etc., so wewill rack our brains to think of how to reduce costs, improve efficiency, andin fact is often the beginning of vicious competition. Product homogeneity is aserious obstacle to the healthy development of the cable industry, to take abantering words: ‘manipulate the heart of selling white flour, earned the moneyselling flour’.

However, a shift in thinking, a precise grasp of the product and customer needs, and then go back and re-examine the product, change the product design may bring us new opportunities.

Market pain

CTL (Shanghai) is a company engaged in the research and development,design, production and sales of automotive sensing connectors, the products aremainly for the General Motors supporting. The wire used is mainly 2-core 0.5mm 2 sensor cable, divided into high, medium and low-end three grades, the main difference lies in the material used in the cable and the thickness of the wire design is not the same. Low-end products, insulation and sheath layer is small,insulation and sheath materials are basically used in automotive line special PVC material, relatively easy to process, low cost. But the shortcomings are also very obvious: poor low temperature resistance, not wear-resistant, low elasticity mould, low mechanical strength, combustion will release black smoke.Therefore, in the high-end automotive sensor cables are gradually replaced byhigh-performance materials. The sheath material of high-end products is TPU,thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU).

Its advantages and disadvantages

Characteristics are: high tensile strength, toughness and aging resistance, with other plastic materials can not be compared to the high strength, good toughness, abrasion resistance, cold resistance, oil resistance,water resistance, aging resistance, weather resistance and other characteristics, but also has a windbreak, antibacterial, anti-mould, warmth,ultraviolet resistance and energy release and many other excellent performance.Its disadvantage is that the price is relatively high, processing has a certain degree of difficulty.

For example, CTL uses high-end sensor cable supplier LOENI, using TPEE insulation plus TPU sheath design, but with CTL senior design engineers to communicate in-depth found that although LOENI cable quality is good, but also encountered a headache. Due to the high strength and toughness of the TPU material, the efficiency in component processing is very low, the sheath can'tbe peeled off at once with shallow depth of the cutter, and when the depth ofthe cutter is deepened, it will hurt the core wire insulation layer and easily damage the processing equipment. Therefore, the volume and qualification rateare stuck, can not really promote.

Innovations and breakth roughs in Tianjie technology.

After the discussion of the partners in the technical department of Tianjie, we re-designed the product, and considered the customer's needs andpain points from various aspects, and developed three options for the CTLR&D engineers to choose from: 1. Improve the hardness of the insulating material, 2. Reduce the hardness of the TPU material, and 3. Make it into theform of a double jacket, extruding PVC inner jacket and then extruding the TPUouter jacket. After repeated discussions with the customer, it was decided to implement the third option for trial samples.

technological innovation

Selection of samples of OD4.6 and OD5.7 sensor cables. The internal core is still made of thin-walled automotive wire to ensure its insulating properties, and food-grade talc with a particle diameter of less than 45µm isused to ensure the peeling performance of the sheath, and the 15D stranding pitch is used to meet the adhesion between the core and the sheath (up to 40N).The outer sheath is extruded with TPU material, using its superior physical properties to make the cable meet the high-end demand. After two changes andconfirmations, the final product was shaped.

The cable has not only been recognised by the customer, solved the processing difficulties, reduced material costs, while still maintaining itsexcellent performance, in the wire value as well as other characteristics with the imported wire is basically the same. Customers said that the low-endproduct market shrinkage is serious, if the middle and high-end products havebeen stuck, the delay in launching the market, the enterprise is facing is will be eliminated risk. Product substitution and cost reduction, and more importantly, to solve the pain point of processing difficulties, is the greatest benefit to product enhancement. At the same time, said for the currentproduct, Tianjie has been their only wire supplier, before the low-end products are basically no longer in production, and LOENI has only become their alternative supplier. The product has also become one of the utility model products invented by Tianjie Industry in 2020.

The manufacturing process of wire and cable products is relatively more complex, involving areas such as: smelting, chemical, mechanical, electricpower, construction, automotive, security, communications, etc., includingdisciplines: metals, polymers, physics, chemistry, and even have to know about theocean, climate, etc., so no one dares to say that he or she is an expert in thewire and cable industry. Only by constantly interacting and communicating withour customers to create more value for them, I believe it is also the servicedirection and future for all of us at Tianjie!