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3D Partstream.net powers online cable assembly catalog

31 Oct, 2003 By: Laracella Sheridan


ISC Engineering LLC simplified and reduced its customers' purchasing decision times from days to minutes with the SolidWorks 3D PartStream.NET service. ISC customers can now quickly find and download 3D mechanical designs of cable assemblies for medical, automotive, and commercial electronics products.

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This is a multi-flex, ribbed strain relief used either as a discrete molded on strain relief for a cable, or an intergral part of an overmold, where the cable exits the overmold body and provides flex and strain relief for the cable.
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This shows the same, just a side view.

ISC manufactures overmold products-plastic products molded around a cable and connector assembly-as well as the overmold tooling systems used to make those products. Customers range from small instrument manufacturers to Fortune 100 commercial electronics makers. ISC customers can choose from 2,500 standard cable assembly products and configure them in millions of different specifications to meet their design needs.

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This is an exploded view of a right angle, overmolded D-sub connector, including an internal pre-mold and separate molded thumbscrews. The overmold is the outer most injection molded part, and the pre-mold the inner part.
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A completed view of the exploded view. This overmold is typically referred to as an overmolded, right angle d-subminiature with pre-mold and final mold and molded thumbscrews.

For example, a customer can access ISC's Web-based catalog to configure and download a 3D model of a plastic cable assembly plug. The customer can see how the plug fits into its computer product designs regardless of the CAD system used. 3D PartStream.NET also enables customers to quickly configure one of millions of different overmold tooling systems they used to manufacture the customized strain relief that allows a cable to bend without being damaged.

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An overmold for a D-subminiature connector.
"Customers used to send us 2D product drawings of their connectors, requiring us to create a 3D model of their design, build one of our plastic overmolds around their design, and send it back to them for review. This could take several days," said Steve Burk, president of ISC.

Customer Vetronix Corp. uses 3D PartStream.NET to reduce the time required to configure customized cable assembly products for its vehicle diagnostic and telematics system products. "Now configuring and customizing an ISC cable assembly takes only a few mouse clicks," said Bob Dial, manager of hardware engineering at Vetronix. That lets us now focus on other aspects of our product engineering."

SolidWorks Corp., Dassault Syst

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