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About CACT-Co Technology |
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Cartridge Activated Cutting Tools, (CACT-Co., Inc.) is an engineering design, development, manufacturing, assembly, and marketing company using a completely new technology approach for cable cutting tools. Cartridge activated nail drivers have been built for more than 40 years for the construction industry and several companies have tried to develop power line cable cutters using cartridges, without success. A small, lightweight cartridge generates a tremendous amount of energy and when properly harnessed it can be used to operate portable, lightweight tools for the construction industry. The military and space program have used cartridge activated cutters to cut cables for the missile and space programs but these cutters were only required to cut cables once. Some of the cartridge technology that was used for the missile and space programs has been adapted to the design of the CACT-Co., Inc. cutting tools. In 1995, Walter Smith, the president/CEO of the company started the design, development and the manufacturing of Cartridge Activated Cutting Tools to be used in the power line business. A marketing analysis was conducted and revealed the need for a small, lightweight, portable cable cutting tool for power line construction and maintenance. He built engineering hardware to cut 2-inch underground power line cables and applied for the Patent in June 17, 1996. The Patent Number 5,722,170 was awarded on March 3, 1998. In November 1996, Walt teamed with two engineers, each with 30 years experience in the design of gun mechanisms and cartridge activated cable cutters used in the defense/space industry, and established CACT-Co., Inc. CACT-Co.'s engineering team completed the design, development, and qualification program, then released the pilot production of a series of tools to harness the cartridge energy and cut all types of utility cables. The company also developed other product lines of lightweight, portable cartridge tools that cut steel re-enforced bars, hole punches for steel I-beams, shears to cut steel plates and crimping tools. Each one of these tools uses a small 38 special cartridge for their power source. CACT-Co.'s greatest success has been the development of the cutter blade material that can withstand the shock of cutting through the power industry guy wire. The guy wire is very strong and hard, which is a major problem for any type of cutting tool. Once CACT-Co engineers solved the blade design problem, an extensive prototype test program was conducted. In November 1998, after the qualification test program was completed, the four cutter designs were released into pilot production. Hardware was produced using investment cast tooling and parts machined by local machine shops to produce 100 units of A1 - ¾" cutters, 100 A4 - 1 ½" ACSR cable cutters and 100 A5 - 2" underground cable cutters. CACT-Co.'s marketing program has consisted of establishing a United States distributor network of existing power line equipment sales organizations. Currently there are ten distributors supporting the sales program throughout the US. Each distributor has outside sales personnel that market directly to the power line construction contractors and to the power companies. CACT-Co has covered 40% of the US and the next major thrust is to cover the mid western section and the north east section. CACT-Co has also been direct marketing to ten power companies in the US. CACT-Co is involved with the Northwest Linemen Collage in Idaho and Trade Tech Linemen/Cablemen training center in Sacramento, which is used to train new linemen for the power industry. Trade Tech helped to develop a marketing video that has been sent to 1,500 power companies. To understand the potential of the Cartridge Activated Cutter is to review the growth of the power line cable technology in the last fifteen years. The guy-wire cables have both increased in size and overall material hardness, which makes the task of cutting twice as difficult using traditional mechanical ratchet type cutters. Blade damage to the traditional ratchet cutting tools has increased almost double. CACT-Co.'s A1 cable cutter can cut the newer guy-wire cables without blade damage. The underground power cables now being installed have increased in size to 2.7 inches in diameter. The older ratchet cutters have difficulty in cutting those larger cables located underground due to the space available and size of cutters. The newer Aluminum Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR) cables use 7/16 guy-wire for the center support and are almost impossible to cut with existing equipment. CACT-Co.'s A4 cable cutter handles these cables without a problem. CACT-Co. used the A5 cutter with special blades to cut 1.8-inch diameter Blurbird ACSR cable consisting of 84 aluminum conductors and 19 steel guy-wire strands for Arizona Public Services. APS has 9,000 miles of this transmission cable. The CACT-Co. cutter product line sales will expand dramatically in the next year as the 4,218 power line companies are shown the new technology available to cut the new cables. The importance of the overall program is to sell CACT-Co.'s special in-house designed and produced cartridges. The power line construction and power companies will use 100 cartridges per month and with 10,000 cutters being used, it will require the delivery of 1,000,000 cartridges per month at the cost of $.35 each. CACT-Co. will bring on line the other four Cartridge Activated products in the next four years and all the products use the same basic cartridge. CACT-Co. has a 1,500 square foot facility for engineering, marketing, inspection and assembly of the cartridges and cutters. CACT-Co. has approximately $55,000 in special casting tooling and two special designed assembly units. Each unit can assemble 1,200 cartridges per hour. 49% of CACT-Co.'s cutter parts are manufactured offshore, which has reduced the cutter manufacturing costs, allowing CACT-Co. to sell their cutters for less than existing ratchet type cutters. For more information or for a demonstration please contact CACT-Co. at (760) 377-5025 or via Email.
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