Welding Cable Assemblies with Burndy Lugs

Single conductor portable cord consists of welding cable, DLO cable, Type W, Stage Lighting cable and Super Vu-Tron Welding cable. We cut it to the requested length and crimp Burndy Lugs to one end or both ends depending on the request. We can also add heat shrink tubing to cover the transition between insulation and lug if needed. Copper wire is manufactured to connect from point A to point B so WesBell likes to get actively involved with each customer to see if we can help prepare their wire and cable products before shipping.

Cutting Welding Cable to Length

We buy our cable products direct from the manufacturer on 2500 and 5000 foot spools in order to receive bulk pricing discounts. Many customers have the tooling to prepare cable in-house so they order spools in bulk. We spool wire and cable products for free, so you can request any length while placing your order online. For instance, instead of ordering 500 feet you can order 10 coils of 50 feet at no charge.

For customers that want to prepare their own welding cable assemblies, please remember that you can also buy the Burndy lugs and heat shrink tubing from us as well. As with every industry, the price is determined by the quantity, but we sell one lug at a time to anyone that requests it. If you place an order online for the first time you can take advantage of our 5% discount if you set up a customer account with us. You can also call to let us know you’re placing a larger order over $1000 and we may be able to give you a discount on top of our online pricing.

Removing the Rubber Jacket to Prepare Welding Cable Assemblies

Removing the insulation, or jacket, of rubber cables can be difficult without the right tooling. We have small machines that use automatic blades and a hydraulic press to remove the jacket within seconds. Not only does it save time compared to doing it manually, it also creates a clean cut and gives a lower chance of injury depending on the makeshift tool that one might use. Having these types of tools in-house allows us to give competitive pricing to small companies and individuals that complete the entire process manually. We’re also an ISO 9001-certified company that must follow quality standards by implementing processes that assess and mitigate risk and minimize errors throughout the company.

Once the jacket is removed and the copper is exposed it’s time to use another hydraulic press tool to crimp the Burndy Lugs to each end. The tool is about the size of tree branch trimmers and it needs to be lowered (pressed) about 1-2 times for smaller lugs and 3-4 times for larger lugs. The lug should be pushed tight against the cut insulation to alleviate a gap of exposed copper. A small piece of heat shrink tubing is used to cover the small gap and to protect the copper from being exposed when it is installed in its application. Standard shrinkable tubing products shrink 50% of their original size and adhere to the cable. Upgraded tubing products have an adhesive glue on the inside that slightly melts when heat is applied to create a much more solid adherence to the cable.

Types of Single Conductor Portable Cord for Assemblies

The most standard types of single conductor portable cord that are used to manufacture cable assemblies are welding cable, Super Vu-Tron welding cable, DLO cable, Type W cable and stage lighting cable. Welding cable is the most basic and it’s rated for 600 volts and 105°C. It does the job well but doesn’t come with any UL or CSA approvals or added weather protection. Super Vu-Tron cables come in orange and have added protection and more approvals (UL, CSA, MSHA, etc.). The gauge sizes range from 6 AWG up to 4/0 (or 0000) AWG. DLO cable is rated for 2000 volts so the insulation is much thicker, and it’s also the only one of the group that has tinned copper strands. Type W is also rated for 2000 volts and differs from DLO through its higher level of flexibility and bare copper strands. Finally, stage lighting cable is fairly specific to the entertainment industry for setting up the lighting on stages indoors and outdoors.

Purchasing Welding Cable Assemblies on our Website

When you first arrive to our website you’ll need to choose the Single Conductor Portable Cord section. The first step when you arrive to that page will be to choose between the 5 different product types that have been mentioned throughout this page. Depending on the product you choose there will be a list of gauge (AWG) sizes available to choose from. Each size is in relation to the amount of current that will run through it. As the application gets larger the cable will also get relatively larger. Next, choose the total quantity of cable you need to support all of the assemblies, whereas 10 cables at 50 feet each would be a total quantity of 500 feet. The number of lugs will determine how many cable assemblies we’ll make.

Now that you have chosen the cable, AWG size and quantity you’ll need to choose a type of lug. Most cables have the option of 4 different types of lugs which are either short barrel or long barrel. The short barrel will have two options for the hole size which is used to secure the lug to the application. The long barrel will also have two options for the hole size. Then simply choose the number of lugs you’ll need for the entire job and move to the next step.

Finally, the last step of the process will be to decide if you want us to create and complete the assemblies for you or if you want to do it yourself. This is a simple process of selecting Yes or No under Step 5, “Cut and assemble your order of wire and lugs”. You will see the Services Total change at the bottom, which is different from the product total. Your product total is the cable and lugs while the Services total is the labor it takes for us to build them and quality check them for you. Please make any necessary or applicable notes in the provided notes section but rest assured, we’ll be calling you before we start to complete the order!