SPECIAL FEATURE
CABLING & CABLE MANAGEMENT
ENGINEERING CHANGE IN THE CABLE MANAGEMENT MARKET Technological development over the last few years has though been rapid, and according to Ellis Patents’ managing director, Danny Macfarlane, one key change this has led to is that standard product ranges now form the backbone of a far more flexible product offering. He talks to ECN.
“W
hen I first joined Ellis Patents in 2003, we very much had standard product ranges, which specifiers selected from according to their project requirements,” says Danny. “We still have these ranges today, and the likes of our Emperor and Vulcan+ cable cleats remain our bestsellers, but alongside them we have a slew of new, innovative products that have been developed as a result of a major shift in the way the market operates; which in itself has been enabled by technological development.” In the last few years alone Ellis Patents has designed, developed and manufactured a completely new product for a major Siemens offshore wind project; solved installation headaches with bespoke solutions for Balfour Beatty; and consigned a major health and safety issue for National Rail to history with a product that went on to win a number of innovation awards. The Siemens job was the first of these projects, with the company going to Ellis Patents with a need for a new product during a live project situation. The challenge was to develop a way of feeding, and then restraining, seven 117mm diameter cables along a specified route within a fabricated structure that featured a significant number of twists and turns. The Cable Guide Clamp that was designed, developed and manufactured in response not only solved Siemen’s problem, it also secured an order that wouldn’t have been won had the company been relying solely on its standard product offering. And Ellis Patents didn’t stop with that one project, the Cable Guide Clamp has since been developed into a full range that regularly secures orders from around the world. “Our ability to deliver these innovative bespoke solutions, some of which were done in live project situations, is something we’re immensely proud of,” says Danny. “But without the technology we simply wouldn’t have been able to turn our ideas into fully functioning products in such pressurised, time-sensitive situations.
28 | April 2021
Cabling & Cable Management – Ellis Patents.indd 28
Installation innovation – a bespoke product developed by Ellis Patents is installed during the electrification of the Severn Tunnel
“Traditionally, creating a production ready prototype would have required the development of injection moulding tools, which involved significant investment in time and resource, and typically took six to eight weeks to manufacture. And once received only small changes to the tools were feasible, meaning any major alterations could add another six to eight weeks to the already lengthy process. “Now, thanks to 3D CAD and rapid prototyping 3D printing, we can take products from an idea in a brainstorm to a fully functional, production ready prototype in less than a fortnight – something we have done on a number of occasions. And it’s a combination of the growing availability of rapid product development technology and ever-growing levels of in-house engineering expertise amongst manufacturers that has led to such significant change in the market.”
Ellis Patents’ Cable Guide Clamp, which was developed in response to a complex installation issue during a live project situation
electricalcontractingnews.com
Siemens, for example, didn’t go to Ellis Patents with its complex installation issue because it saw the company as solely a manufacturer of standard products. It was because Ellis had the in-house expertise and technological capacity to solve its problem within the confines of an extremely tight time frame. And it’s this kind of expertise that is playing an ever more important role in the cable management market – in particular amongst those manufacturing cable cleats. “Projects are often far from straightforward and installation and maintenance issues regularly arise, so having the people and the in-house technology to be able to solve problems; firstly on paper and then with an adapted or wholly bespoke product; is now as important as that strong standard product range”, concludes Danny. Ellis Patents, ellispatents.co.uk
@ElecConNews
/electricalcontractingnews
25/03/2021 15:37
