• 2017 WHMA Shines in San Antonio • Think. Plan. Do. Measure What Gets Done • Creating Competition in the Deal Process • Basic Guide for Tensile Testing of Crimped Wire Terminals • Steady Growth and Diversification: Keys to Success at TCP Cable • Mitigating EMI, Stray Ground Currents and Voltage Reflections in VFD Systems May June 2017 Steady Growth and Diversification: Keys to Success at TCP Cable By Joe Tito Wiring Harness News _____________________________ F or over 40 years, TCP Cable has been manufacturing wire and cable assemblies for the specialty automotive, military, industrial/commercial, and home appliance sectors. As the second largest harness supplier in Canada, TCP has a plethora of OEM and tier 1 customers throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico. TCP is actually a holding company formed as a result of the 2008 merg- er between Terminal & Cable Inc. of Canada, and Prodam (Canada) along with Prodam’s Mexico assembly arm known as Promamex SA de CV. WHN recently caught up with Marc April, President of TCP Cable and Denis Coderre, Vice President, about the history of the company and the stra- Basic Guide for Tensile Testing of Crimped Wire Terminals By Andie Davidson for Wiring Harness News _____________________________ W ire harnesses and looms are used ev- erywhere in connect- ing electrical and electronic equip- ment, from aerospace to domestic machines. Whilst some are power conductors, many are signalling, con- necting electronic controls and com- Cross sectional testing at Prodamex. tegic rationale for the creation of the group. Marc shared the company’s hum- ble beginnings in the garage of a Mr. Millette. He made cable assemblies for the fledgling snowmobile indus- try in the early 1970s. Having moved to a bespoke facility in Carignan, Quebec, Marc’s father purchased Mr. Millette’s shares in 1976. Tough times were ahead, though, as the snowmo- bile market flattened. “Everyone who wanted one had one, inflation was high, and the industry had a difficult period,” Marc revealed. They began to diversify and expand and Marc’s father began to turn things around. In 1980, the company began a facil- ity improvement phase of six expan- sions over the next 12 years. Along the way, Marc acquired shares in the company, and com- _____________ Continued on page 38 ponents. Predesigned for easy fitting, most are pre-bound and assembled with a variety of push-on connectors, and may include permanent splices. This enables rapid assembly in mass production lines, and complete elec- trical pre-testing of all connectors. Simple wire connectors, with ter- minals on both ends may be made semi-manually with bench presses, or _____________ Continued on page 26 Wire processing station at Prodamex. The 2017 WHMA Shines in San Antonio By Joe Tito Wiring Harness News _____________________________ I Typical setup for motorized crimp pull testing. f you’ve ever visited San Anto- nio, you no doubt remember the beautiful sights, rich his- tory and the delicious food. But if you attended the 24th annual Wire Har- ness Manufacturers Association An- nual Conference this past March, you also came away enriched by fresh relevant seminars, and the many new connections you made. Some 170 at- tendees were on hand for the event, with a record setting 42 first time at- tendees. There were 34 exhibitors on hand, which is the second highest for the event. The Conference Planning Com- mittee goes to great lengths to cre- ate a compelling seminar schedule designed for attendees to reflect on their operations, and return home with many new tools for improve- ment. This year was certainly no ex- ception. Joe Theismann The keynote speaker was legend- ary quarterback Joe Theismann, who gave a riveting and inspiring speech on leadership. He related his success- es on and off the field and also spoke of tough lessons he learned along the way. He was quick to point out that he has never had a failure, “just edu- cational experiences that didn’t go as planned.” _____________ Continued on page 17