Who Makes Customized Cords and Components with 1-Week U.S. Lead Times? Interpower^®

Customized Labels & Packaging

MTO personnel can be found at stations stocked with racks of tools that are mostly used for wiring, tightening, torquing, and testing, such as custom wiring APS and PDU housings and tightening them to just the right torque. But accessory power is just one aspect of MTO—employees move to and from various cells, machines, and equipment to assemble, crimp, test, cut cords to specific lengths, and provide customized labels and barcodes for cords and cord sets. This includes labels that are wrapped, flagged, barcoded, as well as a Unique Device Identification. Cords can come packaged however customers want them: coiled, hanked, tied, bagged, labeled, a variety of barcodes, and of course, boxed. MTO is always fine-tuning processes and products—the department may run separate orders simultaneously while remaining flexible enough to break off a large order to fulfill a smaller one keeping both orders on schedule.

Accessory Power

MTO takes the powder coated metal housings for the APS and PDUs and assembles the wiring which is connected to the customer-specified number of inlets and outlets, circuit breakers, fuses and fuse holders, then inspects and tests them multiple times before shipping. Multiple combinations of inlets and outlets in these devices are available.

Cable Terminations

MTO assembles the cable terminations which come in a variety of configurations: three bare wires; two bare wires with one ring terminal; two bare wires with one spade terminal; three ultrasonic welds; two ultrasonic welds with one ring terminal; three wires fitted with crimped ferrules; and three bare wires fitted with straight-style quick disconnects. Again, more customizations.

Heat-Shrink Tubing

A shrinkable plastic tube is used to insulate wires while providing abrasion resistance and protection for strained and solid wire conductors, connections, and terminals.

Ferrules & Ferrites

A ferrule is an internal component used for better electrical contact in applications where bare strands may spread and cause arcing or loss of continuity issues. Ferrules come in two styles—insulated and uninsulated. The insulated version helps eliminate arcing in the assembly and is added to the “top” of the ferrule. Ferrites are beads that reduce or prevent electromagnetic inference (EMI) from a device or to a device which reduces “noise” in the electrical design.

Customized Barcodes

A 1-D barcode is a machine-readable code printed on a label in the form of numbers or alphanumeric designations and a pattern of parallel lines of varying widths. These identifiers may include location, category, price, and other key details. Typically, barcodes are scanned and automatically entered into a software system. That software data connects to global distribution systems allowing companies to manage inventories and logistics and see what is trending, what items need to be stocked over others, and what items should be discounted to free up more space for products with higher demand.

A 2-D, QR, or micro QR code can direct multi-industry consumers to company websites, products, and other information via a quick scan. The 2-D codes are comprised of boxes or similar shapes with solid lines at the borders while QR codes contain solid boxes at the corners. These blocky box codes may contain hundreds of characters for scanners to read whereas 1-D barcodes contain far less information. The quality and accuracy (how the code is arranged on the label) is yet another quality control at Interpower—it must be accurate, centered and in dark enough font. Interpower uses both wax and paper labels depending on their destination and use. If one vertical bar is too close to the edge, it may not read properly. Centering the label also demonstrates attention to detail before shipping products to the customer.