SubscribeTank turret coil cords from C&M Corporation. Controlling the turret on a tank is no small matter.
When the turret control systems of the M1A1 Abrams tank needed updating, the manufacturer turned to C&M for assistance with the coil cords and assemblies.
Mil Spec Cables and Assemblies
Their original supplier could no longer offer the cable, so we had to reverse-engineer the coil cords and assemblies before we could produce them. To make matters even more complex, the turnaround time on this project was extremely tight.
Then, we saw the mil specs on the job. Literally hundreds of pages long, the specs included a great deal of information that was irrelevant to the task at hand. Rather than using precious time sorting through the pages to find what pertained to the coil cords, we worked with our customer to turn the mil specs into performance specifications that applied only to the coil cords. With these details in hand, we were able to start work much sooner and more efficiently.
Robust Tank Turret Coil Cords
Of course, we couldn’t allow ourselves to produce the cables without making the end product even better than the original. We went into the field to observe the use of these cables in the tank and noted the stresses that the cable was subjected to when the operator moves and the turret rotates. The original cable had a soldered termination at a “Y” in the cable that was the primary failure mechanism for the cable assembly.
Back in our labs, we redesigned the cable to eliminate the termination and provide continuous conductors all the way through to the connectors at both legs of the “Y”. We made the coils more robust to support the cord extension length that we observed in actual use. Finally, we took the time to design the cable assembly process so that every cable we will ever produce will have the same great performance as the first ones. So our tank commanders will never lose control of their turrets.
