Safety Wire - Proprietary Methods

Proprietary Methods

Safety cable is an alternative to safety wire. Safety cable is defined as a group of strands right-hand helically twisted without a core. This eliminates the need for twisting during installation, as is required with safety wire. Several companies manufacture safety cable, and it is becoming an industry standard due to easier control of critical inputs and reduced installation time. Installation and quality requirements of safety cable are governed by SAE AS4536.

One safety cable manufacturer Daniels Manufacturing Corporation of Orlando, Florida. Daniels manufactures a product called Safe-T-Cable, which they advertise as, "The complete fastener retention system."

The Daniels system works by providing pre-cut lengths of safety wire that have a large cap on one end. The cable is threaded through a hole on the fastener to be secured, which is large enough to accommodate the wire but too small for the cap on the other end of the cable to pass through it. After the other end of the wire is passed through the anchor point, the technician takes an extra end cap and the special tool that is available from Daniels and crimps the cap on to that end of the wire. Again, the end cap is too large to pass through the hole that the wire passed through, and thus the cable is secured.