Hand Tooling

Operator comfort and wire positioning are equally important for hand, and semi automatic, tooling.

The best hand tools have tool steel, parallel action jaws which operate via a ratchet controlled,full closure mechanism. Scissor action tools often squeeze the crimp terminal away from the fulcrum point causing irregular extrusion, hence these are not recommended for use in critical applications. To ensure that crimps are produced to a similar standard as those achieved using applicators, it is essential that the jaws are ground and polished. The crimp height is also crucial.

When specifying hand crimp tools it is important to check that the conductor pull forces meet the relevant standard. The same high specification tooling is available for use with electric or pneumatic base modules. This helps alleviate operator fatigue and reduces production time.

Upgrading from Hand to Automatic?

Most hand tools, whilst initially appearing to offer an economic option, will only be able to cope with a limited range of wire and terminal sizes and any attempt to extend this may lead to poor quality crimps. If the crimp requirement is limited than hand crimping may be the most appropriate method; but, where the demand is increasing, it is a simple exercise to carry out a cost comparison and work out at what stage investment in automatic machinery becomes worthwhile.

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