Stripping thin flat Ribbon cable (like Kapton)
 

I just had the "pleasant experience" of having a ribbon conductor break
in some 1997 vintage ham equipment. It is a ~16 conductor ribbon cable
~1/2" wide which looks a lot like Kapton only it has white insulation,
possibly epoxy. On one end the conductors are factory stripped and plug
directly into a latching receptacle. The other end, where the breakage
occurred was factory stripped and soldered to the surface of the
circuit board. After much angst, heat and scraping I was able to strip
the end of the conductor and resolder to the circuit board. I have to
say, my job doesn't look too bad, but I had to start over once. It burns
easily in a flame, but is hard to melt with soldering iron.

Can someone advise how this stuff is stripped in the factory without
nicking the conductors? Can it be bought in factory made lengths as
opposed to bulk?

--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"

The Lost Deep Thoughts By: Jack Handey
Before a mad scientist goes mad, there's probably a time
when he's only partially mad. And this is the time when he's
going to throw his best parties.

Can someone advise how this stuff is stripped in the factory without
nicking the conductors?

It's a small machine that usually has a long V-shaped blade that comes down
to slice into the insulation from both sides while the rest of the cable is
held firmly by blocks. The cut is made, e.g., 1/4" back from the end of the
cable, and merely pulling on the remaining cable is enough to free the long
end.

At least that's the way the one I've used worked; it was semi-automatic (you
had to manually position and pull the cable -- the slicing action was done
from pneumatically powered pistons). There were numerous set screw
adjustments to get the spacing of everything just right, but once it was set
up, it tended to stay in alginment for a long time. I'm sure the thing
costs thousands of dollars.

Can it be bought in factory made lengths as opposed to bulk?

Yes, even DigiKey will sell you small quantities of pre-stripped cable at
very reasonable prices (well, spendy compared to having your own machine
around, but cheap compared to having to do it by hand).

---Joel Kolstad