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What Is a Cable Coiler? A Guide for Electrical Wholesalers
Electrical distributors sold more than $20 billion worth of wire and cable in 2023, a figure that’s only expected to rise through 2030.
That represents a lot of cable and wire deliveries. These materials may be packaged in a number of ways. Larger orders typically ship on reels — or even on jack stands or Parallel Reel Payouts, ready for installation right off the truck.
Smaller orders, however, may simply be concentric loops of cable, secured with tape or zip ties, without a shaft, spool, or reel at the center. We call these coils. You may ship them in boxes, bags, loaded onto Wire Coil Carts, or simply loose.
Whether or not you use a reel, however, filling cable orders can be time-consuming. It also creates ergonomic risks for employees: repetitive motion, reaching, pulling, overhead work, heavy lifting, and more.
Luckily, there’s a safer, more efficient way to fill coil orders: Use a cable coiler.
But what is a cable coiler? How is it different from related electrical material handling equipment like cable reelers or spool winders? And which solution do you need to boost safety and efficiency at your electrical distribution center?
Keep reading to find out. If you’re looking for a way to improve productivity at your electrical supply warehouse, coiling and spooling machines are the solution. This introductory guide to cable coilers is a great place to start your research — starting with a simple definition of the term cable coiler.
What Is A Cable Coiler? An Introduction to Coiling Equipment
A cable coiler is an industrial machine that winds cable, wire, and other rope-like materials into loose coils. Other terms for this machinery include cable coiling systems, coiling machines, or take-up coilers.
For the typical electrical wholesaler, cable coilers work by pulling cable from a master supply reel while wrapping it neatly around a circular frame. Once the coil is complete, the user ties the product together and removes it from the frame, often by taking off or collapsing a front flange or guardrail.
Most cable coilers accomplish this task of coiling by rotating the take-up frame via electric motor. Manual cable coilers allow users to rotate the take-up frame by hand, often with a crank mechanism.
Strictly speaking, cable coilers aren’t designed to fill cable reels. They only create loose coils. However, in practice, there’s a lot of overlap between cable coilers and spool-winding equipment — so much so that you’ll often find the terms used interchangeably.
Related: Cable Reeling Equipment: What It Is and Why It Matters
In fact, many cable handling solutions can create loose coils or fill cable reels, depending on how you use them. Before we start blurring the lines between these material handling machines, however, let’s look at the technical difference between a cable coiler and a spooling or reeling machine
Cable Coilers Vs. Reeling Machines
The main difference between a cable coiler and a cable reeler is the presence or absence of a take-up reel. A spooling or reeling machine (interchangeable terms) rotates a take-up reel to fill a cable order. A cable coiler rotates a coiling frame instead.
The basic rule is this: If you can remove the coil from a shaft or frame to ship it without any central support, you’re working with a cable coiler. If the equipment is designed to fill a reel, consider it a reeling machine.
Given these definitions, you can often convert your cable coiler into a reeling machine and vice versa: Simply use a reel with a removable flange to create a coil. Or replace the coil frame with a delivery reel and your coiler becomes a spooler.
Of course, not every cable coiler doubles as a reel-filling machine. It depends on the design of the coiling mechanism. There are a few ways to accomplish the rotation that creates a coil or a full cable reel. We’ll look at these options next.
Shaft Drive, Shaftless, and Rim Drive Coiling and Spooling
Today’s coiling equipment typically comes in one of three designs:
- Shaft drive coilers rotate a central shaft to create their coils. A shaft drive spool winder does the same, which requires users to remove the shaft, load the take-up reel, and replace the shaft in the machine before filling an order.
- Shaftless reeling machines rotate take-up reels without requiring a central shaft. Instead, they secure to the reel’s spindle holes on either side, then rotate the entire reel. This design still requires heavy material handling, as you have to bring the reel to the machine. To build loose coils with such a machine, you need a reel with a removable flange.
- Rim drive spool winders don’t require you to load reels at all. They don’t depend on a shaft or spindle hole to rotate the take-up device. These machines rotate take-up reels by turning rollers that press against the reel’s flanges. They turn the whole reel by its rim, which is why we use the term “rim drive” to describe them.
A rim drive spool winder can operate as a cable coiler as long as you have a simple way to remove the coil from the take-up reel. Again, all that takes is a removable flange or, better yet, a specialized coiling frame.
Related: Cable Take Up Machines: An Introduction for Every Industry
Whether you ship coils, reels, or both, however, every electrical wholesaler can benefit from the technological shift to Industry 4.0. In other words, you can save time and cost on every cable order by using the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
IIoT for Coiling and Spooling Cable
The Industrial Internet of Things can help electrical wholesalers automate some order-filling tasks, leading to higher productivity, fewer errors, and stronger business insights. What does that look like for a cable coiler?
The IIoT Spool Winding Trolley from BHS, Inc. is a rim drive cable coiler/spooler/take-up machine that’s wired for automatic data collection, complete with a user portal that allows you to program jobs and study analytics from anywhere.
A series of IIoT sensors and wireless connectivity allows cable dealers to:
- Digitally track linear footage for every order
- Verify order accuracy from the mobile IIoT portal
- Remotely program and assign jobs for each workstation
- Track cable cuts, alarms, and overall equipment effectiveness
- View data and reports within the IIoT portal
The data you collect with an IIoT Spool Winding Trolley can even help you optimize your operation. You can spot waste before it happens, track equipment usage trends, and simplify inventory analysis — all without manual data management.
Learn more about IIoT Cable Winding Equipment from BHS, Inc.
With or without IIoT capabilities, Spool Winding Trolleys offer a great advantage over most other coiling machines on the market: They reduce the ergonomic risk of lifting cable reels.
The Spool Winding Trolley uses a unique overhead rim drive to spin reels where they are, on the jack stand or Parallel Reel Payout. This reduces the set-up time and keeps employees safer than a rim-drive or even other shaftless alternatives.
Explore Spool Winding Trolleys from BHS, Inc.
Of course, Spool Winding Trolleys are designed for warehouses, factories, and fulfillment centers. What if your customers need a way to wind coils or reels at the job site?
Mobile Cable Reeling and Coiling Equipment
You probably won’t load a Spool Winding Trolley onto a truck and deliver it to an electrician’s job site. But that doesn’t mean you can’t offer a way to spool reels, build coils, or even assist in payout.
The Spooling Caddy from BHS, Inc. packs a strong electric motor into a compact frame, delivering efficient, safe cable reeling just about anywhere. Four heavy duty casters make positioning simple, while an adjustable-height rotator unit ensures compatibility with spools, reels, and shafts of just about any size.
This is technically a shaft-drive spooling machine. Its rotator unit terminates in a coupling that locks onto a shaft. That shaft may hold up a take-up reel, a payout reel, or even a coil-winding frame. Either way, the Spooling Caddy offers a top speed of 195 RPM (intermittent) or 155 RPM (continuous) for quick work.
Get more details about the Spooling Caddy from BHS, Inc.
Like other equipment we’ve mentioned, the Spooling Caddy can easily serve as a cable coiler, too. Earlier in the article, we defined a cable coiler as a machine that’s specifically designed to create coils and coils alone.
Taking cable handling equipment from BHS into account, however, we might broaden our definition: We can also say that a cable coiler is a machine that winds wire and cable, whether you use a reel or not. With this definition, your cable handling equipment becomes more flexible so it can deliver greater value in the warehouse or at the job site.
Learn more about cable coilers, spoolers, and other wire-and-cable-handling equipment from BHS by dialing 1.800.247.9500.