Investigation of pulse power technology for crimping of electrical cables

In this paper, electromagnetic pulse compression is used to crimp cable lugs on cable terminals. A single turn electromagnetic coil is designed to crimp two sizes of cable terminals. A capacitor bank is used to discharge high power current pulse in to the electromagnetic coil. As a result, Lorentz forces act on the lug and crimping occurs. Traditionally, mechanical compression tools are used for this application. However there are certain disadvantages to this traditional method like non uniform contact area and tool marks left on the joint.. A number of comparative studies were performed between the traditionally crimped and the electromechanically crimped cable lugs. It has been observed that the electromechanical crimping is better in terms of smoother surface profile of the crimp, contact resistance and joint strength.