High Flex Cables

A standard coaxial cable is made from a centre core which the signal propagates along, a dielectric to make sure that the signal is retained in the core, a braided shield and a PVC jacket. The centre core on most coaxial cables used in broadcast systems is a single strand of signal wire usually made from copper or for high-frequency applications the core is also silvered to add conductivity to the cable.

In systems that demand movement of the cables with items of equipment, a flexible cable may be a solution, for a cable to become more flexible it needs to have a core that is multi-stranded. This allows for the cable to bend and flex without the potential to break that a single core has. The downside of increasing the cable’s flexibility is that the signal integrity isn’t as good as a single-core version.

The areas of application that require more movement of the cable than others are Machine Vision and Medical equipment, which tend to use the CoaXPress protocols.

CoaXPress offers a combination of Image data, Communication, Control and power over a single coaxial cable increasing the demands of the cable from a simple SDI standard. If you are looking for a cable to offer flexible SDI capability the following information will more than cover these standards too.