Cable management refers to an important step during the installation of building services (ie electrical services) and the subsequent installation of equipment providing means to tidily secure electrical, data, and other
cableA cable is two or more wires or ropes running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics, cables are used for lifting and hauling; in electricity they are used to carry electrical currents....
s. The term is often used interchangeably to refer to products used for the purpose of managing cables or to the workmanship carried out to cables whilst being installed.
Cable management refers to an important step during the installation of building services (ie electrical services) and the subsequent installation of equipment providing means to tidily secure electrical, data, and other
cableA cable is two or more wires or ropes running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics, cables are used for lifting and hauling; in electricity they are used to carry electrical currents....
s. The term is often used interchangeably to refer to products used for the purpose of managing cables or to the workmanship carried out to cables whilst being installed. Cable management is important in many fields, such as IT, communications, power distribution, facility wiring,
local area networkA local area network is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport...
s, and so on.
The purpose of cable management is twofold: to support the cables whilst being routed through the building from Point A to B (often called containment), and to make subsequent management of the cables through the lifetime of the installation easier.
Typically, products such as
cable trayA cable tray system, according to the US National Electrical Code, is "a unit or assembly of units or sections and associated fittings forming a rigid structural system used to securely fasten or support cables and raceways." Cable trays are used to hold up and distribute cables.- Materials used...
s, cable ladders, and cable baskets are used to support a cable through cabling routes. The IT industry has special needs because, unlike heavy power cables, data cables often need to be added, moved, or removed many times during the life of the installation. It is usual practice to install "fixed cables" between cabling closets or cabinets. These cables are contained in cable trays etc and are terminated at each end onto
patch panelsA patch panel or patch bay is a panel, typically rackmounted, that houses cable connections. One typically shorter patch cable will plug into the front side, whereas the back holds the connection of a much longer and more permanent cable...
in the comms cabinet or outlets at the desktop. The circuits are then interconnected to the final destination using patch cords. The difficulty is that these patch leads are installed, removed and reinstalled many times during the life of the installation.
Cables can easily become tangled, making them difficult to work with, sometimes resulting in devices accidentally becoming unplugged as one attempts to move a cable. Such cases are known as "cable spaghetti".
Computer data cabling, structured cabling, LAN cabling
Generally, one end of a cable is terminated in the data cabinet. The other end of a cable ends at the desk. The cable management needs at either end are different.
Desktop
Buildings and office furniture are often designed with cable management in mind; for instance, desks sometimes have holes for cables to be routed through, and floors are sometimes raised a few centimeters to allow cables to be snaked underneath. Additionally, some cables have requirements for minimum bend radius or proximity to other cables, particularly power cables, to avoid crosstalk or interference. Power cables often need to be grouped separately and suitably apart from data cables, and only cross at right angles which minimizes
electromagnetic interferenceElectromagnetic interference is a disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic conduction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source. The disturbance may interrupt, obstruct, or otherwise degrade or limit the effective performance of the circuit...
.
Cable selection
The choice of cables is also important; for instance,
ribbon cableA ribbon cable is a cable with many conducting wires running parallel to each other on the same flat plane. As a result the cable is wide and flat...
s used to connect Parallel ATA drives to the motherboard can disrupt the airflow inside of computers, making case fans less effective; most
SATASata is a traditional dish from the Malaysian state of Terengganu, consisting of spiced fish meat wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on a grill.It is a type of Malaysian fish cake, or otak-otak...
cables are more compact and therefore do not have this problem.
Cable labeling
Color-coding of cables is sometimes used to keep track of which is which. For instance, the wires coming out of
ATXATX is a computer form factor designed by Intel in 1995. It was the first big change in computer case, motherboard, and power supply design in many years. ATX overtook AT completely as the default form factor for new systems. ATX addressed many of the AT form factor's annoyances that had...
power supplies are color coded by voltage. Documenting and labeling cable runs, tying related cables together by
cable tieA cable tie is a type of fastener, especially for binding several electronic cables or wires together and to organize cables and wires.- Design and use :In its most popular form, a cable tie consists of a sturdy Nylon tape...
s,
cable lacingCable lacing is a method for tying wiring harnesses and cable looms, traditionally used in telecommunication, naval, and aerospace applications...
, rubber bands or other means, running them through
cable guideA cable guide is a fitting or part of a bicycle frame which guides a piece of bare inner bowden cable around a corner. Most multi-speed bicycles have cable guides to get the derailleur cables past the bottom bracket....
s, and clipping or stapling them to walls are other common methods of keeping them organized. Above drop ceilings, hooks or trays are used to organize cables and protect them from electrical interference
Planning is especially crucial for cables such as Thicknet that do not bend around corners easily and fiber optic which is very difficult to splice once cut.
In hospitals
In hospital situations, cable management can be critical to preventing medical mistakes. Emergency room nurse manager Pat Gabriel said, "My wish is that we could somehow not have spaghetti on the bed. When you look at all those wires and those
IVIntravenous therapy or IV therapy is the giving of liquid substances directly into a vein. It can be intermittent or continuous; continuous administration is called an intravenous drip. The word intravenous simply means "within a vein", but is most commonly used to refer to IV therapy...
's, it's just spaghetti".
In moving equipment
Cable management is particularly important in powered equipment which must move large distances while tethered to a power source and control cabling. There are several common methods of cable management.
With a suspended sliding coil, the cables are coiled like a spring, with each loop of the coil attached to a sliding shoe on a track. As the cabling is played out, the shoes slide individually along the track and the coils expand. When sliding the other direction, the coils fold back together into a compact spiral.
Folded linear cable uses either a flexible backbone shell, or a flat cable folded into an arc along its long axis. This style of cabling is very common in
computer printerIn computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a hard copy of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most newer printers, a USB...
s to connect the printhead to the circuitry, but is also used in very large linear moving gantries. The cables are flexed only in a small region in a tight radius and so need to be very flexible.