Autosplice Inc.
Contact: Sales Manager
10121 Barnes Canyon Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121
U.S.
Phone: 858-535-0077
Fax: 858-535-0275
AUTOSPLICE was started in New York City in 1954, and in those early days the firm was named General Staple Company. In the years up to 1967 General Staple was a distributor (not a manufacturer) of industrial stapling machines. Our exciting growth path started in 1967 when a customer requested General Staple to build a machine that would splice two electrical wires together. This simple, innocent request would ultimately change the Company into a worldwide manufacturer of innovative interconnection machines and connectors selling to the electrical and electronic industries.
This project, to build a machine that would splice two electrical wires together, turned out to be much more difficult than was originally anticipated. Putting a crimp connection, or splice, around two wires fraught with problems. If the splice was crimped too tightly around the wires, it broke or fractured the wires. If the splice was crimped too loosely, the wires pulled apart, making for an incomplete connection. After a considerable amount of time, together with an enormous amount of experimenting and testing, the problem was solved.
The solution involves a machine that uses a special strip material. This strip material (which we call spliceband) is made with serrations (hills and valleys) along the length of the strip. An operator positions the wires to be spliced into the machine and then steps on an electric foot switch. The machine, in one operation, feeds a length of the serrated strip, cuts it, forms it and securely crimps it around the wires. In the center top of the splice, the tooling makes a wedge or a dimple which reliably holds the wires that are being crimped against the serrations of the spliceband. This development turned out to be a remarkably simple and effective solution to the problem. The result was an economical scrap-free system that virtually anyone could run with little or no training. Patents were applied for, the product was promoted, and a special division called Autosplice was set up to specifically handle sales for the electronic/electrical industries.
General Staple went through a succession of names, such as CONNECTRON, then CONNECTROL, and finally the present AUTOSPLICE, INC. About the same time (1968-1969) a manufacturing operation was started, then an engineering department. Finally the sales department was enlarged and AUTOSPLICE began to move.
Some years later management noted that the single largest product in the field of electrical/electronic connectors was the pin and socket. This combination connector is sold in many different forms and names. It is called plug and jack, pin and receptacle, or male and female connectors--but these are the most popular products in the entire connector industry.
AUTOSPLICE recognized the need for a better pin and pin insertion system and set about investigating the situation.
AUTOSPLICE wanted to develop an innovative product that had more benefits than the competition and was not vulnerable to imitation or price erosion. After a staggering amount of preparation the Company developed the AUTOPIN/1 insertion system. This early system soon matured into the AUTOPIN/2 which uses the present pre-notched and starred pin material. We were awarded patents for both the insertion machine and the pin supply strip for this development. The sales of AUTOPIN/2 soon exploded and have been the engine that has driven AUTOSPLICE's impressive growth.
