Silver State is a wire harness shop that specializes in wire, cable and tubing. It provides custom cable, hookup wire, magnetic wire and heat-shrink tubing. The company can print and cut to custom specifications. It also offers special services, such as custom cable, striping, marking, shielding, braiding, extrusion, cut and strip, tinning, twisting, cabling and custom spooling. The workload includes many custom military jobs for such companies as Boeing and Raytheon, as well for companies that make everything from automobiles to slot machines.

"Silver State successfully addresses the requirements of a varied customer base while keeping costs down," says Lee. "We leverage every investment, especially capital equipment investments. As a small business, we can’t afford to buy a machine and have it sit idle."

With this focus, the company has built a reputation for providing quality products, at the right price with on-time delivery. To maintain its reputation, the company has purchased the bulk of its equipment from Eubanks Engineering Co. (Monrovia, CA), a manufacturer of wire processing equipment.

"The more versatile the machine is, the better the economics for Silver State and for its customers," says Lee.

Eubanks wire marking machines mark wire and tubing clearly and permanently by using marking foil and heated printing discs. Computer-controlled, automatic and manual models are available. These can perform many functions, including marking, feeding, cutting and stripping wire.

"The versatility offered by these products led us to purchase and install four AutoStrip8000s, which are electronic, belt-driven cut-and-strip machines, as well as four Model 2700 pneumatic machines," says Lee. "We also have one tubing cutter for heat-shrink tubing."

The AutoStrip 8000 is a fully programmable wire stripper. It has programmable strip depth and strip lengths and can store 90 programs. It operates with an RS232C interface. Rubber belt drives provide accuracy. The machine cuts and strips wire in sizes up to 4 AWG and multiconductor cable as large as 9/16 inch in diameter or width. It can produce strip lengths up to 20 inches on each end of a wire.

The machine is versatile, which is important to Silver State. The company handles 4 AWG wire down to 30 AWG wire to accommodate the needs of building companies, contractors and military customers.

"The 8000 can accommodate a wide range of different sizes of wire. It’s a versatile machine that has had a positive impact on our productivity," says Lee.

For high-volume jobs, Silver State relies on a pneumatic stripper. The 2700 can cut and strip solid and stranded conductor wire and multi-conductor cable, with a variety of insulation types, in various sizes and lengths. It does this at speeds up to 10,800 pieces per hour. It is microprocessor-controlled and can be converted from inch to metric measurements via the machine’s keyboard.

"The Model 2700s are reliable machines, especially if you have a constant run of hundreds of thousands of pieces," says Lee. "They take a little longer to set up, but they can handle repetitive jobs day in and day out."

Up to 1,000 programs containing separate wire length, batch quantity and mark spacing combinations can be stored in the machine. From its console, the operator can select and run programs, run the machine through a complete cycle and switch from single to multiple action.

One of the services the company offers is heat-shrink tubing. "Many of our customers that use heat-shrink tubing have a certain length they want cut. They also want to save a little money," says Lee. "We can sell them the heat-shrink tubing and cut it as well."

For heat-shrink tubing requirements, the company uses a Model 4600 flat cable and tubing cutter. This computer-controlled machine cuts plastic tubing, wire, ribbon cable, tape and other linear material to preset lengths ranging from 0.02 to 999.98 inches in increments of either 0.2 inch or 1 millimeter.

For more information on wire processing, call 626-357-7011 or visit www.eubanks.com.