Electrical Cord Management and Cycle Testing Helps Ensure In-Drawer Outlet SafetyUpdated a year ago
Docking Drawer: Smart. Simple. Safe. We take these words seriously. Not only are Docking Drawer outlets designed with these words in mind, they're also tested well above national and international safety standards. So while we can reassure you our outlets are listed to ETL, CSA, CE and RCM standards, you're probably more curious about how we got there.
How We Test For Safety
We're often asked questions like, "How long will a Docking Drawer last?" and "What is your Product Failure Rate?" This is the part where we break it down for you. A standard cycle test required by the standard committees for our outlets is 25,000 cycles. At Docking Drawer, we cycle test each series of outlets 500,000 times. At this rate, we're basically opening and closing a drawer every fifteen minutes over the span of thirty years. So we cycle-test our product more than fifty times longer than the test required by our independent safety laboratory, Intertek.
But wait, our inspections don't stop there. Every 100,000 cycles we stop cycle testing to perform a physical inspection of the mechanical parts of the outlet. We're checking for everything from basic wear and tear to worn or cracked wiring. Following the cycle test, we send our outlet cables to the lab of our manufacturer, where they perform an inspection to see if the outlet cables still meet the original specifications after use endured during cycle testing. The results? They 100% do.
Cord Management
That's because we use stranded cables for our outlets which allows wiring to flex but not break. On top of that, all of our cables are held in place in our outlets with the help of strain reliefs which provide a transition from a flexible cable to a rigid connector. This relieves the mechanical force applied to the exterior of the cables from being transferred to the electrical terminations, which could lead to a failure. Strain reliefs also enhance the flex life performance of the cables in an outlet's cable management arms.
Warning - Strain reliefs can not be removed and reinstalled.
How can we know for sure our outlets are safe to use, though? It's simple. Our tester doesn't perform only one cord test. In fact, three different tests are used to ensure the conductor, insulation, and connectors of the outlet are all still functioning as designed.
Our 20-year background in the semiconductor equipment industry gives us the experience and knowledge of how to perform extensive life testing. We're not just throwing together electronics, we're creating technology. So you can bet we're committed to safety—from ensuring every part of your outlet works prior to shipping it to offering literature on a safe installation. We work hard to guarantee that safety fits into every cabinet.
