A karters best friend

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REAR
Posts: 1221
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2007 10:19 am

A karters best friend

Post by REAR » Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:47 pm

Every karter at one time or another has put a 'Cable Tie' on their kart in one place or another but have you ever wondered where they originated ? Below is a little history lesson. Really surprised that cable ties came out as early as they did..

Here's the scoop thanks to the infinite knowledge of some guy on the internet — in other words Wikipedia — we know we can see the history of zip tie patents here.

The first zip ties were patented by a company called Thomas & Betts in 1958 and the purpose of the zip ties was originally to hold wire harnesses in airplanes. Interestingly the first zip ties were entirely metal and were constructed in a 2-piece design. I think most will agree that using a metal tooth and ratchet design to close tightly over electrical wires was not the best possible implementation of the idea.

Happily for us and the airline industry, other companies improved on the design. The first step was moving away from metal with the realization that nylon would probably be a better material to risk coming into contact with wires — not to mention the fact that the nylon was fantastically less expensive to produce. The first nylon zip ties were two-piece designs in which the zip tie and the ratchet head were manufactured separately.

Finally in 1968 a company called All-States settled on the one-piece nylon zip tie design that we know and love today. Easy to use, and capable of holding just about anything onto anything else — holding signs onto fences, holding my office door open, holding the rabbit fence onto the garden posts, and stringing Christmas lights outside the house let alone securing fuel lines and cables to carbs, frames, and on and on.

R.E.A.R.

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