Most telecommunications cable manufacturers and resellers have a variety of lengths available for common cables. For less common cables, there are generally less options for available lengths. In many cases, the “standard” lengths are suitable for a given application, or tools and technicians are available that can cut and attach interfaces in the field. For some applications, cables, and even connector types, using the standard lengths or having a technician attach a connector in the field are not ideal, to code, or even possible. Generally, special tools are needed to attach interface connectors to a given cable. For certain connector types, these tools may be expensive or even hard to find.
In these cases, or when having a cable that is the exact desired length, ordering custom cable configurations is the only option other than setting up a small-scale cable manufacturing setup.
Cables commonly ordered in custom lengths/configurations:
- Fiber Optic cable assemblies
- Low Loss Coaxial cable assemblies
- Telecom/Modular - Ethernet cable assemblies
- Low PIM Coaxial cable assemblies
- RG Style Coaxial cable assemblies
Outside of telecommunication installations, telecommunication equipment manufacturers may also desire custom cable configurations and lengths for the internal cabling within a product. Other use cases for custom cable configurations and lengths are for adapter cables for field technicians that may need to connect a variety of test equipment to a variety of different systems with various interconnects. What is USB-A? And for USB cables, learning more about the USB A pinout can be helpful. And they will need several coax tools and perhaps a Fluke toner test kit to finish the job.
In years past, ordering custom cables often took several weeks just to get a quote for the cables, and several more weeks for a cable manufacturing company to produce the cables and ship them. This, fortunately, is no longer the case with L-com’s rapid fabrication and delivery options for cables ordered through the Custom Cable Configurator.
Check out L-com’s Custom Cable Configuration Tool
