freezin cold

[cliffed]

been told this morning that great care must b taken in bending xlpe swa cables,cause in this weather damage will occur to cable,ever heard this before.These are 300mm 4 core laid in a trench then to inside of building.On thinking about this,nothing was said last week when the temps were ok,we were then manhandling & pulling the cables using machinery is someone takin the michael

 

[johnboy6083]

im currentlyworking on a power station. last winter, a cable company were pulling in 500 AWA singles. apparently a lad dropped the nose onto the deck, and it split the sheath about half a metre. im sure that it can split when bending. i know from experience it makes them a pain to gland/bend ect

 

[cliffed]

cheers 4 that,to b honest,were r all pretty aware what damaged to cables can happen when installing & r pretty careful with them,the way my superior explained the situ was that they would crack, alu cables mayb but copper i dont think so,keep up the good work ta ra bab

 

[Darkwood]

standard cable sheathing is quite flexible at room temp but as you approach the negative temperatures it quickly looses its flexibility and can be permanently damaged if flexed in such condition (variable with sheath manufacturers), its the cheapest method to give a cable sheath with these limitation thus be competative in the market, ive had to replace a chain flex only rated to minus 2 as it was recently been used on a machine at -8 and this has cracked the sheathing in several places, the replacement has had an extra £100 quid on top of it due to me going for more tolerence at lower temps and this was only 15m worth but yes this cable is designed to flex hundreds of times a day.... but it explains the above issue, if you get a crack anywhere on your cable it will need replacing or repairing as the inner sheath will be prone to an environment it wasnt designed for.

 

[benji]

once had sheath crack due to cold had to leave cable lying on plant room floor for 2 weeks for temp.to rise ,then got AEI to repair sheath they used large soldering iron and melted/fused plastic granuals into the split

 

[cliffed]

thanks for all your replies,gonna hav a few beers now ta ra bab

 

[cliffed]

hi every1 jus 2 let u know how things r goin,weather better this week so we,ve managed 2 get 300mm,s into panelboard,it took 2 days to gland into board,so a day each for the 2x300mm,s,really hard graft,took all your tips,marked cable then pulled back & then back thru 75mm holes in bottom of db.What do u think,cud any1 do it any quicker,gaffer thinks so,but they always know better dont they.At the other end,the 2x300mms enterin a pit then in2 a square d panelboard,a real ball ache,that took 3 days,once again jus glandin off.Like 2 know your opinions on the time spent,leave it at that 4 now,another story bout eon connections nxt time ta ra bab

 

[Darkwood]

i bet gaffer is sat on his arse when he dictates what it should take to make off, how about asking him to assist with other end if he thinks it can be achieved quicker, i can usually terminate 150mm in 2hrs on my own with maybe a 15min helping hand to get it into position but 300mm isnt one ive tried so even though it sounds a little long a whole day each i reserve comment as just a little arkward part can add hours.

 

[silva.foxx]

Real 'classy' is that txt spk!

 

[UNG]

If cables are installed in low temperatures the manufacturers guidance should be sought as should the cable subsequently fail they may not provide any warranty

If I remember correctly T&E should not be installed in temperatures below 1°C obviously different types of insulation have different installation temperature limitations

With regard to terminating SWA many years ago I had to terminate one end of a 630mm² 4 core into a panelboard which took me about 5-6 hours. The time taken to term a cable depends on so many things it is difficult to find a one time fits all jobs but a full day to term one end of 300mm² 4 core sounds a bit excessive