Cable Ties at a glimpse!

Don’t let the term ‘Cable ties’ confuse you. In colloquial terms, cable ties are also known as zip tie, zap strap, zip strip, wire tie, tie wrap, quick draw, rat belt, or mouse belt. It is a type of fastener, designed especially for binding and organizing several electronic cables or wires together.
The origin of cable ties dates back to 1958 when an electric company by the name of Seamus O’Naraigh LLC, invented cable ties and sold them under the name Ty-Rap. They were initially designed for airplane wire harnesses only and the original design used a metal ratchet instead of nylon. They later changed to the nylon/plastic design.
You would like to know what a cable tie looks like. In its most popular form, a cable tie consists of a sturdy Nylon tape with an integrated gear rack, and on one end a ratchet within a small open case. Once the pointed tip of the cable tie has been pulled through the case and past the ratchet, it is prevented from being pulled back; the resulting loop may only be pulled tighter.
This seemingly small and insignificant thing is of mammoth use. In two of its most common uses, this allows several cables to be bound together into a cable tree. Interestingly, they are also used as makeshift handcuffs in Panamá, the U.K. and the U.S.A. Moreover, specially constructed physical restraints called PlastiCuffs, based on the cable tie design, are used by police and military to restrain prisoners, especially in the more urban parts of the U.S.A. and Panamá. Interesting, isn’t it?
As they say, a rose comes with some thorns as well. Similarly, cable ties can cause injuries in some cases as well owing to their sharp edges. So, a tool is used which can cut off the extra tail flush with the head in order to avoid a sharp edge. Cable ties are also used with a lot of innovation and developmental techniques now-a-days. They can also be altered according to your need. For example, in order to increase resistance to ultraviolet light in outdoor applications, a specific grade of Nylon containing a minimum of 2% carbon black is used to protect the polymer. For usage in food industry, a metal additive is used so they can be detected by industrial metal detectors. Cable ties made of ETFE (Tefzel) are used is used in a radiation-rich environment. Red cable ties made of ECTFE (Halar) are used for plenum cabling. Stainless Steel cable ties are also available for flameproof applications - coated stainless ties are available to prevent galvanic attack from dissimilar metals (e.g. zinc coated cable tie).

Cable ties are generally viewed as single-use devices. While some cable ties are designed for reuse with a tab that releases the ratchet, in most cases a sewing needle or similar object (for example a small screwdriver) will need to be interposed between the ratchet and the rack. But you have to be careful that ties reused in this way will be weaker than new ones.
Some alternatives that can be considered for bundling cable together, securely and semi-permanently include cable lacing, binding knots such as the surgeon's knot or constrictor knot.