General Questions
Quick answers to some of the most common questions we hear.
Let’s be honest, custom cable isn’t necessary for every application. However, if you require exacting tolerances, superior electrical performance, special grouping and sub-cables for power, signal, or other components; are dealing with extreme environmental conditions, temperatures, or voltage requirements, or just can’t find something off-the-shelf that meets your project’s needs, then a custom cable may be right for you. If a standard product would adequately work in your application, don’t worry, we’ll tell you. For more details, look here.
All of our cable products are a “made-to-order”, so we carry very little finished good stock. Occasionally, we may have something in our inventory that is “close” to what you need and/or may be suitable if you are in the prototyping stage. We are happy to offer that to you if it’s a good fit. It never hurts to ask!
We do maintain an extensive raw material inventory, which allows us to custom build your product quickly and provide some of the industry’s fastest lead-times.
Because of our manufacturing process, we typically, require a minimum order of 1000 feet of cable. However, if you are prototyping and/or exploring several design options, smaller minimum order quantities may be available.
A less than satisfying answer, but…it depends. Custom cables aren’t all built equal and therefore lead times depend on a variety of factors including cable complexity, raw material requirements, order quantity, and our current capacity load. Products with fewer manufacturing operations using standard and/or stocked raw materials will have a shorter lead time than highly complex cables with multiple operations and using specialty raw materials. With our wide variety of product offerings, it’s difficult to make a general statement regarding lead time, but let’s just say we typically average between 3-12 weeks turnaround on our custom cables, which we are confident are some of the shortest lead times in the industry. Please reach out to discuss your specific needs as lead times can often change.
We know this can be frustrating, but there’s a reason! Nearly all of our part numbers are customer and project specific, and we want to be careful about who we share your proprietary design information with. If you have a quick question about your part number, either ask in the “Looking for a Part Number?” form at the bottom of most of our webpages or reach out using our general contact us form. We promise to get back to you ASAP so you can keep moving forward with your project.
The short answer…sometimes. Material selection, the number of processing operations, along with several other factors all impact cost. It’s important to consider the life-time value of a custom cable – while the initial expense may be higher than an off-the-shelf product, having a cable that is custom designed to your specific application and manufactured with exceptional quality typically leads to better performance, higher efficiency, improved longevity, and incredibly reliable outcomes. Often the initial expense of a custom cable is far less than the long-term savings in time and money with a custom design.
If cost is a key concern and your project is price-sensitive, we’re happy to sit down and discuss ways to minimize expenses.
Unfortunately, no. Custom cable requires a bit of discussion and collaboration to ensure we understand your cable needs before we are prepared to accept your order. If you already have an established New England Wire part number and are looking to reorder, you can reach out to your sales contact/s here via phone or email; or alternatively use the contact us form on our website, send us an email at info@newenglandwire.com, or give us a call at (603) 838-6624.
Great question! We are always happy to talk out the details for your application and project. If you have a specification, drawing, or even a sketch on the back of a napkin we’d love to take a look. You can email us the details, upload specs/drawings via a secure FTP site (we’ll give you the instructions), fill out the Contact Us form on our website, call, or come visit us. If you have samples, we’d love to see those too.
If your request includes sensitive or controlled data, using a secure FTP site to transmit your information or files is a must.
Of course! – and we have a lot of cable experts here! You’ll work directly with our Technical Sales staff during the quote and order process. We also encourage discussion with our Design Engineers as we work together to ensure your specific requirements translate into a custom cable that meets or exceeds performance expectations. We are happy to have conference calls and/or Teams/Zoom meetings to involve both your team members and ours in discussions about your project. Want to see us in person? We can visit you at your facility, connect at a local tradeshow or event, and of course you are always welcome to visit us here in New Hampshire at our facilities.
We sure do! Check here for a list of our more than 20 representative partners located throughout the US and all over the world. Can’t find a rep for your area? Just reach out to us directly – we’re happy to help!
We are proud to say that 100% of our cable products are manufactured right here in northern New Hampshire in the USA!
Absolutely! We love it when customers visit. It gives us the opportunity to showcase our over 385,000 square feet of manufacturing space and allows us show and share additional capabilities we have that you might not even be aware of. Reach out anytime to schedule a visit.
For a quick peek right now, look here.
Technical Questions
A few things we’re often asked.
Yes, we certainly can. Whether you are targeting a specific impedance, looking to minimize capacitance, have requirements for attenuation, or other electrical specifications, we’ve got you covered. While we are at it, our experts will help you meet your size, temperature, and flexibility requirements too.
Knowing the operating frequency helps us to determine the best single end AWG magnet wire to use in a Litz cable. We’ll run the numbers to mitigate skin effect as the goal is to minimize AC resistance losses (as frequency increases eddy currents push the current to the surface of a conductor which means less conductive area and higher resistance). Still have questions? No problem. Reach out to our team and we can collaborate on creating the best Litz cable for your application needs.
For static bend radius where the cable is typically flexed one time (for installation for instance), the standard is 5x the OD of the cable. For dynamic bend radius where the cable is flexed on a repeated cycle, the standard is 10x the OD of the cable. Watch our video where we explain in more detail.
Fun Facts
Just a few quick interesting things about us!
Since 1898 we’ve been manufacturing custom wire and cable on the same campus (plus many additions over the years) right here in Lisbon, New Hampshire, USA.
The first products manufactured by New England Wire (then known as New England Electrical Works) were single and double silk wrapped copper wire (an early form of today’s film insulated magnet wire) for use in the manufacture of magnetic solenoid coils necessary to ring the bells in old-fashioned crank telephones.
Currently, 70 years. Seventy. Years. You read that correctly!
That’s just 14 years shy of the Guiness Book of World’s Records holder, Walter Orthmann.