Production Process Flow of USB Cables

The industrial production process of USB cables (taking common Type-A or Type-C data cables as an example) mainly includes: cutting and stripping, shielding treatment/stranding, contact soldering, inner jacket injection molding, housing/shell assembly, functional testing, appearance inspection, and packaging.

The main processes are as follows:

● Cutting and stripping: Cable is automatically cut to length (typically 4 to 9 cores, including power wires, data wires, and shielding layer), and the outer jacket and inner insulation at both ends are precisely stripped (accuracy ±0.1 mm) without damaging the copper core.

● Shielding treatment (if applicable): For high-speed cables (such as USB 3.0+), aluminum foil wrapping + tin-plated copper braiding (or aluminum-magnesium braiding) shielding is used, and one end must be reliably connected to the connector shell to ensure electromagnetic shielding effectiveness.

● Contact crimping/soldering: The stripped core wires are soldered to the internal gold-plated copper contacts of the USB plug (4-pin Type-A / 24-pin Type-C) by constant-temperature soldering iron or ultrasonic welding, to prevent cold solder joints and solder bridges; some high-end production lines use automatic robotic soldering.

● Inner jacket injection molding (strain relief): Thermoplastic elastomer/thermoplastic polyurethane material is injection-molded at the junction between the cable and the plug (the "neck" area) to improve bending life; temperature and holding pressure must be controlled to prevent burrs and shrinkage.

● Housing assembly/outer jacket injection: Metal housings (stamping + electroplating) or plastic housings (ABS/PC injection molding) are installed, and some models require dispensing adhesive for reinforcement; Type-C usually uses integrated outer jacket injection molding to cover the tail.

● Semi-finished product testing: Check circuit continuity/short circuit/miswiring (conduction resistance below 5 ohms, insulation resistance above 2 megohms); high-speed cables need to be tested with a network analyzer for impedance (90 ohms ±10%) and signal integrity (eye diagram).

● Finished cable forming and tail fixing: The cable outlet (the "cable tail") is fixed by injection molding or heat-shrink tubing to improve tensile strength (typically ≥50 N).

● Final inspection and packaging: Appearance inspection (no scratches, no injection defects, clear markings), sampling inspection of insertion/extraction force (≥50 N), environmental tolerance testing (40°C / 90% RH, 24 hours); qualified products are bundled, bagged, and boxed.