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T su re • STJ 600 Volt Cable
Is tu • The Challenge of the Decades
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F • The Sound of Quality
• Classified Ads - Help Wanted, Excess Inventory & Used Machinery
January
February
2012
South Star Corp
Growing, profitable, and progressive
By
Fred Noer
_________________________________
“I love what I do. I enjoy coming to
work every day.”
Based on those words by South Star
Corp. owner and president Lisa Peters,
you probably can imagine what kind of
company she has – growing, profitable,
progressive, free of debt and certified by
ISO.Those attributes mean her firm is an
outstanding place to work, so employee
turnover is low and quality is high.
One more characteristic about Peters
aligns her with her company – respect.
“We treat everybody with respect,” she
said. “I’ve been very fortunate because
we have good employees who do quali-
ty work. We bend over backwards to
please our customers.”
South Star Corp. (SSC) manufactures
wiring harnesses, control cabinets, cable
assemblies and instrument panels. The
products are used in buses, semi trucks,
transformers in power substations and
heavy-duty equipment such as peanut
combines and air-conditioning units.
The firm, which has $3 million in
annual sales, is located in Elliston, Va., a
village of 900 residents approximately
15 miles southwest of Roanoke.The SSC
facility measures 25,000 square feet and
was constructed new in 1998 specifical-
ly for SSC.
“We really like it here in Montgomery
County because there are good people
who really opened their arms to us,”
The Sound of Quality
By
Pressmaster
_________________________________
n the pre-industrial era, the char-
acteristics defining an economic
transaction included both the
quantity and quality of goods for trade.
According to the seventeenth century
economist Nicholas Barbon, “The quali-
ties of wares are known by their colour,
sound, smell, taste, make, or shape; [and]
every man having a good opinion of his
own faculties, it is hard to find a judge to
determine which is best.” (Barbon,
1690). Hence, in Barbon’s view, quality
is considered to be subjective and expe-
riential to the beholder of the goods.
I
This concept of quality was further
acknowledged by American writer and
philosopher Robert Pirsig as his hero
Phaedrus relates “Quality doesn’t have
to be defined. You understand it with-
out definition, ahead of definition.” (Pir-
sig, 1991). Thus the science of engineer-
ing, technology, and manufacturing
became important elements in provid-
ing quality goods.
Ownership and accountability to the
quality of goods gave birth to the trade-
mark, a symbol exclusively identified
with the commercial source or origin of
the product. These marks have become
Melissa Taylor, Janice Caswell and Lisa Peters reviewing drawings.
Peters said.“They wanted our business.
The employee base in the county has
good, capable people.”
Constructing the building is one of
several highlights in SSC history. The
company was started in 1976 by Peters’
parents, Bob and Roma Stverak, in a two-
car garage in Salem, Va. According to
Peters, her father had the expertise, but
her mother had the motivation.
“It was Mom’s idea to do this,” Peter
said about her parents, both of whom
are deceased. “She urged Dad to strike
out on his own. She was the driving
force who said,‘Let’s take the risk.’”
Bob Stverak, 45 years old at the time,
had spent most of his career as an engi-
neer at General Motors in Michigan and
Chicago. Roma Stverak was 43 and had
come to the United States from Lithua-
nia at age 13 with her parents. Her back-
ground was in banking and accounting.
In that Salem garage, which housed
______________ Continued on page 42
STJ 600 Volt Cable
STJ cable is a popular 600 volt high-
performance, high-temperature wire
that can withstand heat up to 200°C. It is
the commercial equivalent of a M27500
or NEMA WC 27500 Type RC-06 wire.
STJ cable is constructed to withstand the
hazards of harsh applications, such as
those encountered in the aerospace
industry. This cable features impressive
physical and electrical properties due to
its strong construction created with
high-quality, high-performance materials.
At Allied Wire & Cable, STJ is manufac-
tured and tested on-site at its Col-
legeville, PA Headquarters, so no one
understands the process of building this
cable better.This article will explore the
manufacturing process, the construction
of the cable, cable testing, and custom
STJ cable options.
STJ Cable Manufacturing
Standard STJ cables start with HP3
Type E (previously M16878/4) inners.
The conductors are stranded silver-plat-
ed copper.The number and size of con-
ductors vary, but most manufacturers
offer a maximum of four to five, ranging
in size from 26 AWG to 10 AWG. Silver-
plated copper is used for its wide oper-
ating temperature range and its excel-
lent conductivity.
The insulation of the conductors is
made of extruded Polytetrafluoroethyl-
ene (PTFE, popularly referred to by its
Dupont brand name, Teflon). PTFE is
commonly used in high-performance
cables for its great physical and dielec-
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STJ Cable is manufactured by Allied Wire & Cable at its Collegeville, Penn-
sylvania headquarters.