Mineral Insulated Cable

[former sparky]

I Spent many years doing micc work and yes there have been cables that were faulty mainly due to poor installation,but this looks like a tidy job at the board so strip the existing DB remove bushes remove DB mark new one and if your feeling so inclined over sleeve the tails to limit the chance of breaking the seal. If the pot and seal has separated,recrimp and test. But hey I'm just a former sparky. 25mm 4 core was the largest I'd used but it was from the basement to the roof of a 6 floor building . Oh and work hardened, bend a piece of 2L1.5 and see how much abuse it takes. Actually while your at it cut off a piece put you insulation resistance tester on it and **** it with a hammer! It is rugged stuff.

 

[panicoll]

again mate your not right with that one glands are all Flameproof EXd just the pots that are different.

I think the general advise would not to let any house bashers even consider the job lol let them stick to crawling about lofts with the glass wool! hehe

I doubt that little statement!! lol!! Those older sparks that have worked on MICC, would have worked on far more installs than you have. Ex d or normal, there isn,t a great deal of difference, apart from the gland itself....

As for using wheel straightners on this small size of MICC's .....those cables would have had to of been in a really bad state, for the wheels to work harden the sheath. To be honest i can't remember anyone using those wheel straightners on such small dia cables, they were generally used on the larger cables....

 

[D Skelton]

I think the general advise would not to let any house bashers even consider the job lol let them stick to crawling about lofts with the glass wool! hehe

I can't work out whether or not you're joking or whether or not you are blatantly looking down your nose at those who house bash? I house bash, among other things, and would be more than able to handle work involving MICC.

Just coz a spark house bashes doesn't automatically mean that they must only be a Electrical Trainee with no experience of MICC. You don't have to be part of some 'elite' club just to have ever handled the stuff! I could teach the missus (with no electrical knowledge whatsoever) in no more than an hour how to handle, strip, pot, gland and terminate MICC! More than enough knowledge to be able to deal with such minor work. The OP's job wouldn't require a spark to have any knowledge of even the middle three of those! Just basic knowledge of how to handle and terminate would be enough.

I'm sure a few will shoot me down for this post but I do hate it when people think it's ok to treat house bashers as the lowest common denominator!

Advanced apologies if you were only joking!

 

[panicoll]

My old journey man was a house basher and he bites every time aswell good to know you can take the banter tho hehe

 

[UNG]

Shocking I am only 22 and have worked with more Ex d pyro installs than you old timers!

That's one hell of a statement you must have been installing Pyro while you where still at at school and have developed a method of fitting more hours in to a day

 

[panicoll]

I worked with pyro on Fire and Gas system upgrade for as long as i can remember plus did half my apprenticeship with the stuff.

 

[D Skelton]

oh and Pyro doesn't need to have additional protection(RCD)

Oh, and I forgot to mention, what about circuits in bathrooms? With house bashing being so beneath you I'd have expected you to have been at least fully clued up on the regs relating to domestic work

The problem with being 22 is that over confidence is often seen by others as just cockyness! You may be the 'master' of pyro, but I'd love to see you sink a 25mm KO box in to some old spongy victorian red brick without going right through in to the wall cavity, or route cable through a flat roof void without having to make a single access hole, or chase out a switch drop, run the cable and then plaster over it so that even to the trained eye it would look as if no one has ever been there, or program a whole home lighting control system from scratch!

These are all things that require a little more experience and finesse! Any old mug can pick up a joistripper and start playing with potting compound!

 

[Engineer54]

again mate your not right with that one glands are all Flameproof EXd just the pots that are different.

I think the general advise would not to let any house bashers even consider the job lol let them stick to crawling about lofts with the glass wool! hehe

Come then clever clods, what's different with the pots then?? I'm not that up on the European Ex definitions, i work far more on the Yank systems, which in general are far more stringent. I was referring to Explosion proof installations Which have longer tapered threads and seal. Now while there is a requirement for potting compound and on occasion sealing disc's to be suitable for the temperatures, the installation will be subject too, but the pot's themselves i've never seen any difference in. The requirement i believe for ''Flameproof'' is being ''spark-less'', so how does a standard pot not conform to that requirement?? You may well be correct, but I've never seen any different than standard pots used in all the MICC installations I've been involved with....

Most of the MTR stations in HK have MICC supplies via MICC parallel Singles with 250+ degree C seals. Can't remember those pot's being any different from standard pots either apart from the compound material and tails of course!!

 

[Arnold Layne]

I'm with Engineer 54 on this. Started working with pyro in 80 ( now giving my age away!)

 

[panicoll]

There is no visible difference between the pot apart from the markings, you can get ex d and ex e pots and your right with the different temp ratings aswell. but with regards to your standard gland they are all the same although you're right again you can get long reach glands to comply with the requirements of your enclosure just like you can get long reach EX d hawk glands to maintain IP or Flamepath.

I think you are getting confused with non sparking which is acctualy EX n "spark less". Ex d american term is "explosion prove" because it contains the explosion of any gas that is ignited in the enclosure and the enclose will not explode.

 

[Bogeybaiter]

Just to chip my ten pence in again, has anybody here done a high temp pot seal? using a ceramic pot seal, blow lamp and molten glass! I have only done the one and that was at college but no spark I've spoken to has ever heard of them.

 

[Engineer54]

Just to chip my ten pence in again, has anybody here done a high temp pot seal? using a ceramic pot seal, blow lamp and molten glass! I have only done the one and that was at college but no spark I've spoken to has ever heard of them.

That sounds almost the same as the pot sealing method used on the MTR station supplies in HK.... Those were 250+ C pot terminations....

 

[Engineer54]

There is no visible difference between the pot apart from the markings, you can get ex d and ex e pots and your right with the different temp ratings aswell. but with regards to your standard gland they are all the same although you're right again you can get long reach glands to comply with the requirements of your enclosure just like you can get long reach EX d hawk glands to maintain IP or Flamepath.

I think you are getting confused with non sparking which is acctualy EX n "spark less". Ex d american term is "explosion prove" because it contains the explosion of any gas that is ignited in the enclosure and the enclose will not explode.

Your the one that mentioned ''flameproof'' not me!! Flameproof to me, means spark-less, which is why i can't see there being a need for a different pot. So again, what's the difference apart from the makings?? Ermm, .... think i know the difference between explosion proof and flameproof, though i think there could well be a difference between the definitions and requirements, between the Yank and European system! As far as i'm aware, you can't use a standard gland on an explosion or flameproof installation, certainly not on the Yank systems, that by the way do not use the European Ex definitions....

You say your work is on bulk gas installations, ...Now i would have thought, that would have definitely come under Explosion proof regulations and fixtures rather than the lower flameproof regulation's??