OH Cable

TOKYO, October 14, 2021 -- OKI Electric Cable (President: Hideo Yamaguchi, Headquarters: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture), the OKI Group's electric cable business subsidiary, has developed the OH Cable (*1) for use with food manufacturing equipment. The product offers high resistance to cleaning fluids, disinfectants, and the edible oils and fats used in food manufacturing facilities. Sales began on September 28, 2021, for made-to-order cables whose conductor size, number of cores, and other aspects can be customized to suit the characteristics of specific food manufacturing equipment. The sales target for fiscal 2023 is a minimum of JPY 50 million.

Food manufacturing equipment must meet stringent hygiene management standards to ensure food safety and peace of mind. Equipment cleaning and disinfection are key operations to meet these standards. However, ordinary cables tend to develop cracks in their jacket due to degradation of physical properties such as tensile strength and elongation following contact with hot water, detergents, and disinfectants used to clean food manufacturing equipment. Cracked jacket can lead to concentrations of stress (*2) resulting in disconnection or degradation of insulation performance due to the ingress of chemicals into the cable, which can then result in unforeseen equipment stoppages or failures.

According to Hideo Yamaguchi, OKI Electric Cable president, “The OH Cable developed by OKI Electric Cable incorporates a special elastomer (*3) with outstanding chemical resistance to impart excellent durability against the detergents and disinfectants used in cleaning, as well as against the special machine oils used in the drive components of food manufacturing equipment and the oils and fats generated during food processing. The cable exhibits virtually no physical degradation in accelerated testing simulating 30 years of continuous use under standard operating conditions, which helps improve the reliability of food manufacturing equipment.” To minimize risks associated with contact between the cable and food and contribute to enhanced food safety, the special elastomer used in the jacket complies with requirements set by the FDA (*4) and the Food Sanitation Act.

Comparison of physical property retention rates by accelerated testing equivalent to 30 years under standard operating conditions

• The figure above shows the results of tests of changes in material properties (tensile strength and elongation) after immersing the jacket in cleaning solutions typically used in cleaning food manufacturing equipment.
• The closer the physical property retention ratio is to 100%, the more physical properties before immersion are maintained. The OH Cable jacket has been confirmed to meet and surpass the OKI standard of 90% material property retention rate. The product maintains high cleaning fluid resistance free of degradation even under accelerated testing conditions equivalent to 30 years of use.

Terminology

• *1 :OH Cable

  “OH” stands for OKI Hygienic.

• *2 :Stress

  Force per unit area occurring within an object when subjected to an external force

• *3 :Special elastomer

  Synthetic polymer resin with elastic properties. Resin composition is varied for additional functionality to suit specific applications.

• *4 :FDA

  Abbreviation for Food and Drug Administration (US)

About Oki Electric Industry (OKI)

Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry (OKI) is Japan's leading information and telecommunication manufacturer. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, OKI provides top-quality products, technologies, and solutions to customers through its Solution Systems Business and Components & Platforms Business. Its various business divisions function synergistically to bring to market exciting new products and technologies that meet a wide range of customer needs in various sectors. Visit OKI's global website at https://www.oki.com/.

• * Information in the press releases is current on the date of the press announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice.

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