In data center or field cabling, cables will be a total mess, if they are not carefully organized. However, there are also many excellent well-organized cables which make us feel amazing. They look like the art works of a great master and show the beauty of cabling world thoroughly. This is the magic of cable management. To achieve good cable management, many useful components will be utilized, and this post tends to introduce several of them for you to manage your messy cables.
Before beginning this topic, we have to realize why cable management is important.
- Ease of Use—A high-quality cable management provides easy access not only to the cables themselves, but also to the devices that they are connected to. If cables become tangled, it will take significantly longer amount of time to make sense of them, which will decrease work efficiency, even for a simple task. However, if your cables are well-organized, the time can be greatly shortened.
- Fire Safety—If cables are left unchecked for a long period of time, they can be tangled and more likely to cause sparks, or even a fire. Furthermore, people who walk near a bundle of cables, would be tripped and yank a cable out of its socket, which could also lead to a fire or damage the equipment the cable is connected to. But if you check cables regularly and manage them well, these situations can be avoided.
- Troubleshooting—Testing cables is always the first step in routine troubleshooting to make sure whether the cables are still in good working condition. But if dozens of cables are in disarray, such a simple work will definitely become more complex and you have no ideas how long it will take to finish the job. Thanks to cable management, you can easily swap out cables, and quickly access the cables you need to maintain.
Cable tie is a classic and indispensable product in the world of cable management. It is the starting point and most commonly used one to organize cable mess. Cable tie is designed to secure wire bundles and harness components quickly without slipping. It comes to various types according to their color, length, width, and serration. Proper cable ties provide not only long-life services, but also better cable management, especially in data center and server room. Here is a picture shows fiber optic cable jumpers with cable ties.
Cable lacing bar, also called as lacer bar, is made of a metal bar that mounts to the rear of standard 19” rack or cabinet, behind a patch panel. Each lacing bar occupies 1/3 to 2/3 of a rack space and can manage up to 24 cables in 1 RU. There are many types of cable lacing bars according to different cabling management, including round lacer bar, rectangular lacer bar, horizontal lacer bar, etc. All of these lacer bars are widely used to support and manage cables in telecommunication rooms, providing relief, bend radius control, superior aesthetics and improving organization of cables. The following image shows several types of cable lacing bars.
Typically, cable wire markers are made of cloth, nylon, or polyester. Some markers are RoHS compliant. They are used to label wires and cables to achieve an easy cable identification. There are a large variety of markers available, including an array of sizes (tips: the size of the wires and cables determines the diameter of the marker), colors, and lengths. Cable wire markers have the most noteworthy advantages, such as easy and long-lasting marks, provision of information on critical industrial parameters, and low maintenance requirements, and so on. A picture of cable wire marker is shown below.
Overall, cable management is crucial for maintaining organization, functionality, and a professional environment. This passage has offered useful components to manage your messy cables. After reading it, you should check and use these components for your references to manage your cables well.
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