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Labelling high temperature wiring


RFguy

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What do people do for labelling wiring stuff under the cowl for wiring ?

IE 200 deg C survival and meeting flammability tests ?

 

I see there are a few systems. None of which I already have.

The printing setup is quite special it seems , the most accessible being a print between Kapton (Polyiamide) 

 

Is there anything such as a Brother P-Touch high temperature  tape ?

-glen

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2 hours ago, RFguy said:

What do people do for labelling wiring stuff under the cowl for wiring ?

IE 200 deg C survival and meeting flammability tests ?

 

I see there are a few systems. None of which I already have.

The printing setup is quite special it seems , the most accessible being a print between Kapton (Polyiamide) 

 

Is there anything such as a Brother P-Touch high temperature  tape ?

-glen

Coloured autocable and a wiring diagramme.

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Why not adapt the system of coloured bands that is used to identify electrical resistors?

image.jpeg.2f56e554ab4ea6a5055ecf96ff4280ce.jpeg

 

Use heat shrink tube on the wires to create a pattern and make up a written record of what wires each pattern represents.

 

It is common to have earth wires solid black, but if you are using white aviation quality wiring, then you would have to use black heat shrink for those wires. As long as your maintenance records have a copy of the Legend for the code, anyone can interpret the rings of heat shrink on a wire. The important thing to do, however, is to indicate which end of the sequence is the start. You could do that by choosing one colour of shrink tube, or by simply putting  on a spot of paint or nail polish (I suggest fluorescent green) at the starting end.

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If money is no object you can get a machine that laser etches the insulation at preset intervals. 

I use a white heatshrink sleeve and label each end of the cable, then I put a clear heatshrink over it, because I found out that every marker I have tried will wear or rub off eventually.

Write the label before shrinking. 

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jim Weir of Kitplanes described using the resistor code colours for marking with shrink wrap. He had a system that had for example all engine wires starting with 1 and all instrument wires with 2 and then a further three numbers. The start end also had to be marked.

Really unless you have a very complex engine there is not much wiring that is not apparent in its purpose firewall forward.Starter cables are heavy, alternator cables a bit less so, CHT and EGT are lightweight and visibly traceable. Wires going to relays can usually be seen easily.

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5 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Please correct! .

Big Boys Outrun Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins

Used to know it off the top of my head, 

spacesailor

We were taught in the RAAF that it was Bitter Beer Rots Our Young Gut But Vodka Goes Well.

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10 minutes ago, tillmanr said:

M61 you were in a better mannered era of the force than I was. Our patter ended with virgins gone west.

Virgins gone West was how it was in the old PMG too.

 

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54 minutes ago, tillmanr said:

M61 you were in a better mannered era of the force than I was. Our patter ended with virgins gone west.

Yes there was another. It would be considered a bit on the racist side these days. Even more so after recent events.

There was one that ended wit "Violet Goes Willingly" or "Virgins Go Wild", but the first bit was the same.

I doubt that any of them would be acceptable in today's defence force.

Edited by M61A1
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22 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

Not sure why you want to label engine compartment cables - they are mostly short runs, that terminate at a point that makes their application obvious.

 

Behind the instrument panel - different story all -together.

It's very handy when you have a whole bunch of wires disconnected, possibly with the engine out. Makes it very easy to ensure that they go back to the correct place.

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1 hour ago, M61A1 said:

It's very handy when you have a whole bunch of wires disconnected, possibly with the engine out. Makes it very easy to ensure that they go back to the correct place.

So you label everything, with whatever system you choose-- before engine removal--- engine reinstalled -- you remove labels as no longer required.😀

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52 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

So you label everything, with whatever system you choose-- before engine removal--- engine reinstalled -- you remove labels as no longer required.😀

Or...Just label it once and never have to do it again. Your choice.

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Seems the original quest was for something that was fire/flame resistant. 
None of these ( except maybe  the use of coloured Tefzel - which is  available. ) But doesn’t really  provide a foolproof easy labelling system ( since you need a copy of the code with you. Inevitably  you have a problem at a far off strip and you end up without your code book or you end up in a loom with multiple wires of the same colour etc ) 

Frankly  I don’t know of one either but I decided to take the risk and just label things in English properly -  use short bits of clear heat shrink with a laser printer printed (size 8 font) paper strip under it. The short bit of heat shrink might be flammable but in the grand scheme of things the heat shrink bits are about a couple of cm long so the risk is small but the gain in labelling immense. 
Have completely rewired my Jabiru multiple times and worked on parts of the wiring etc many times. And when it comes to working on it easily you really need every wire labelled at both ends with a text label. No need then for codes and records. 
 

If someone produced a heat resistant heat shrink equivalent I’d use it in a flash  but so far not found anything that works as well as a printed label under clear heat shrink. 

Edited by Jaba-who
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