Cable ties are often used in bundling together groups of wires and/or wiring harnesses in many manufacturing procedures, for example in the manufacturing of aircraft. In the manufacturing of aircraft, zip ties or cable ties are used for securing together bundles of wiring throughout the interior of the aircraft.
The typical cable tie comprises a ratchet head and a length of strap or a tail extending from the ratchet head. The ratchet head includes an open passage through the ratchet head and a resilient pawl inside the open passage. The tail includes a plurality of teeth or a rack extending along the length of one side of the tail. The rack engages the pawl as the tail is extended through the passage of the ratchet head. The pawl prevents the tail from being withdrawn from the passage through the ratchet head.
When attaching a cable tie around a bundle of wiring, the tail of the cable tie is wrapped around the bundle of wiring and then inserted through the cable tie head. Cable ties are generally installed around the wire bundles and loosely attached to a surface of the aircraft interior by hand. Once all of the cable ties are in place on a length of bundled wiring in a particular area or section of the aircraft interior, the technician installing the cable ties uses a tensioning and cutting gun on each of the ties to bring the ties to a specified tension and to cut off the excess length of the tail extending from the ratchet head.
Occasionally, after the tail has been cut, a portion of the tail will extend beyond the ratchet head. This can occur if excess slack in the tail is not removed from the cable tie prior to use of the tensioning and cutting gun. The portion of the tail extending from the head is typically sharp and may cause damage to adjacent components of the aircraft construction. Additionally, the sharp, projecting portion of the tail may cause an injury to a technician that comes in contact with the sharp portion of the tail projecting from the head.
A typical cable tie tensioning and cutting gun has a trigger pivotally coupled to the gun for applying a predetermined tensile force to the tail of the cable tie when tightening the cable tie around a bundle of wiring. With the cable tie attached around the bundle of wiring, the tail projecting from the head of the cable tie is inserted into an end of the gun. The trigger of the gun is squeezed by the technician and the gun pulls the tail from the head of the cable tie and applies a predetermined force to the tail. In applying cable ties to bundles of wiring in the manufacturing of aircraft, it is often necessary that the squeezing motion on the trigger of the gun be repeated many times for each bundle of wiring. A typical shift in the manufacturing of aircraft could see a technician squeezing a gun trigger several thousand times. This presents a major ergonomic concern. Additionally, as the trigger of the gun is squeezed by the technician and rotates about a pivot pin attaching the trigger to the gun, a pinching point is creating between the body of the gun and the trigger. This pinching point may unintentionally cut and/or crimp other wires adjacent the cable tie location.