Thick, black ribbed overhead power lines. Including ABC termination.

if you live in a rural area you may have noticed that your overhead lanes are going from the single conductors to a bundled conductor and I thought it'd be worth taking a look at that the original ones are usually bare copper and despite the fact that looked fairly closer about a foot or 300 millimeters apart in this case we've got neutral three phases and probably street lighting feet and on the Left we've got what's called a BC a do bundle cable so I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at that and see what it looks like let's start off with the bare conductors the old-fashioned stylist the old-fashioned it's not really old-fashioned it's just a different style and that one of the main advantages of the bare copper is the simplicity the low cost of the way is cover which is now really expensive no thanks to people investing in it well done everybody invested in copper the elder Vantage is that because it's in free ear it stays cool you know it can dissipate heat into the air and it just means that you can run a fairly high current this stuff is actually showing signs it's quite hard to bend it feels really hard that it also shows up in the sort of discoloration it looks a bit dark red here it suggests that maybe a fault this has been subjected to fall somewhere that maybe that's why I've got this bit here and under fault conditions it can cause the lanes to get very hot until that protection kicks in this is seven strands I would bend up to show you there we go butter is quite rigid it's quite hard so the size and it's bigger than 35 millimeters cross-sectional area so it's looks a bit smaller than 70 square millimetre cross section air so I'm going to go with 54 this could be wrong but that's my guess and to keep these from making contact with each other you typically have four or five of these conductors you'd have a neutral you'd of three phases and sometimes a auxilary feed like say for instance street lighting and it depends where you are in the world depending which the standard that your utility company adopts but here now love man it's neutral at bottom the three phases and then the top wire is usually the street lighting worm if the theory behind that I think is that if something a vehicle hits the bottom wire it's the neutral and it's safe but wouldn't if it breaks that it's kind of bad news for domestic appliances really this is one of the species that keeps them from touching touching together and if I'd measure this it will be an inches because it's old-school from the bottle quarter bottle coil is about main entry so this is a pretty much an inch spacer and to put this on if the wires already in place you'd simply hook over like that and then you'd wind the plastic around the conductor it's much easier for me doing it at the bench than it is actually doing it when the wire is topped when it's supported at both ends but that's fundamentally how it goes on then the next one you just wrap it round there next wire don't it just stops any risk of them touching galloping conductors is a thing yeah particularly in stormy places like the head of man it can make them bounce saw the high that they actually make contact and arc with each other it's just air so this is kind of designed to protect against that but this is made of plastic so there's the text net PLP preformed Lane products I think that is it does have it does of the measurements on here damnit arranged at like 6 255 or something that not sure it's got they're just specifications for different size of cables I guess that's ultimately largest cable it's going to accommodate in here it doesn't really give us spacing distance not that it probably has it in the code number somewhere not really sure it may even be in millimeters to connect onto this if you've got a if you RC taking a feed off it you need crimps but because you can't slide them over the end like a traditional single conductor crimper you just sort of indent in a tube you've got these crimps here as a couple different styles which have well this one doesn't have the paste on it but I think it's had the paste in it but they have a serve agrees that I'm guessing is partly to help with the crimping process but also is going to probably squish in between the conductor's and sort of seal out any oxygen to prevent corrosion but the reason these are so thick is because ultimately they are open-ended so you're going to put this over the conductor you're going to get other conductor in and then these days be you'd use one of the motorized air crimping tools the set of handheld cordless ones that you'd clamp all over it and it would crush this around the two conductors and bond them together so this has been replaced by ABC in your bundled cable or in your bundle conductors add the two different names are used for Simms as stuff like covered everything I needed with that I think I have a B C it is just as its described it's a bundle of conductors and in this case we've got five conductors we've got the neutral we'll get three phases and we've got the suit lighting axillary feed and these are our minimum is pushed copper that's purely a cost-saving also one of the things about the copper is that a lot of people die every year around the world trying to steal copper cable and it's not very helpful when they break into yards and steel drums this stuff copper has become a valuable material unfortunately because of their yes and investors this stuff has you'll see Lass's ribbed it's fun and your rabbit the ribs actually indicate fees identification so for instance the neutral it's got ribs all the way around it you can feel surgery touchless you know is the neutral that's the point it's identifiable even inclement weather conditions and when it's dark at night phase one has a single rib on it phase two has a two ribs and this is a actually phase three so we're supposed to phase two has the two ribs and you can feel that even if I wasn't you know if I'm not sure it works the worth gloves but even if it's pitch-black I could actually identify that this is phase two just by touching it and I could identify definitely that the neutral is this one that the reason that neutral has so many ribs as you really do not want to accidentally get the neutral onto another cable I think in some versions of this the neutral simply has new ribs on it and it'd be so easy a particular if this is under tension to actually not be able to get them apart enough that you know you'd be feeling around it trying to find that groove particular gloves on again it would run the risk that you'd think that one of the other ones that deliver ribbon it was smooth and you got across trophies accidentally so the ribs are round is a good idea hey I've just made heat because there's it's not written as Qibla don't think anywhere that this is probably ninety five millimeter square millimeter cross-sectional area and the auxiliary feed the street lighting doesn't have to be so big so it's probably sixty millimeter cross-sectional area square and to connect one to these you use an insulation displacement connector and this basically just baits through the insulation into the conductor and then you'd connect see for instance this is used this is standard domestic electricians Yuki will recognize this as double insulated cable and this is a actually used to meet connections on to these cables so inside this let's open up completely you have quite a lot of screws lots of go for a start it's fairly hard it's like it's like petroleum jelly Vaseline but it's really quite thick and that is to seal once these baton it's to seal oxygen away from the cables just to seal them up completely this little cup here is for the single-ended cable with this screws in and actually the end of the conductors pushes into even more guru let's bail out and take a look at it it's a little cup of waxy goo it is quite firm that he said poke his finger into excess leaf from then it's squished everywhere that's okay so this little cup just sits into here a little rubber Cup it's to seal off the end of that keyboard when it was in noting that to get a good deep penetration of the jaws I think it's recommended that you take out a sheath off and just have an exposed section in here of the inner core that does make sense because these teeth are designed to bite through a specific depth and also by the look of it it's going to bottom out so when it's tight enough those teeth are going to be in a very specific depth and then it's going to bottom out on the hard plastic here to stop it closing any further so it's just basically designed barely to bite through the plastic I don't know if that goes on different temperatures because certainly in Scotland and more and more so in Scotland than Isle of Man the temperature is can be you know the temperature extremes can be a hot summer's day when it's like the plastics can be super soft to a very harsh winter when it's going to be quite rigid I don't know what the rules are regarding using this and maybe I'd be a bit less confident using these on a very cold day I used to cold day because I would think that maybe the plastic would be that bit more rigid that it was going to actually cause problems so let's say do this then let's actually put this on so I'm going to choose to put this on here I'm gonna slip this in here I'm just gonna put it into the gel so it squishes out place this over it's keyed so it can only go one way around let's get a bolts in let's get the bolts in from the other side I've just done this wrong that's okay it's my speciality what's mentioning these metal plates are just purely for the clamping they're not actually electrically connected but if this is being done live it'd be done with gloves anyway just because that's just the thing you do you wouldn't really be want to do it with bare hands so let's see how this goes let's turn it up I have a suitable ratchet I have chosen a stubby ratchet because I prefer stubby ratchets personally because my hands are prone to breaking things with a lesser with the thrown handle ratchets that can put a lot of force and things let's see if I'm getting this right I just want to make double double sure here that everything is going together properly I wonder if the position of the rib really matters here suppose it doesn't really matter because it in the case that neutral it would be you know ribs all around ribs all round so let's keep tightening this up and you takin it until it gets the specific torque that the bolts will shear and I suppose ultimately that's down to when the body actually bottoms out against the cable so alternate taking it of the bolts and the Reg where tops of these once it's tight enough and that is taking a lot of pressure that is more than enough to bait through the plastic I would say even in cold weather I guess that's the point before the plastic bottom zone it should get to the point that these snap off getting a bit weary about them snapping off my fingers smash into other nut maybe the longer ratchet would have been a better idea I didn't think this was going to be quite forceful but I've started self finish and my hands are covered in grease which doesn't help now either that's that's good planning so that we sheared off and that one is sheared off so that's the the connection made you can actually see the grease is squished out and the two halves have closed almost completely on quite a large conductor there and that should be them electrically connected together I could test that the meter but I'm just going to assume they are should I assume anything let's let's attach the picture it's not excited but going to be what you'd call a fake current test or is it so yeah the connect together I should hope so given this is kind of expensive professional gear so no it's broken off there there are little sleeves over this those can of air go on to sleeve that goes over the existing nut the sure bet so does make me wonder what would it look like if I took that back off sure take it back off and take a look at the cables and see the look like I think we should so I'm gonna pause momentarily while I do that okay we're ready to take it to bits things worthy of note these things although you're not supposed to take these connectors off once you've pierced that cable that set you can't you're better just leaving this connector in place the shear nuts are actually just a cap that goes over an existing nut and that once it's sheared you can just take this sleeve off this does allude to a certain place a certain company where the guys were not confident in their there the tension had gotten these before this snapped and did tighten them up further and they did of problems of these are not sure libelous stuffers if you work in the distribution interests in other parts of alread you can tell us in the comments down below so I'm going to loosen this now and it's very table that's okay doesn't come out quite quickly and we'll take a look and see what it's done to the key we'll see what displacement there isn't so that's it come hear it quite fast now then we'll see what this looks like how squish to the cables are it's get plenty lengthen the bolts hello for awkward you know much wider set of cable and damnit oars so let's lift this off but what's not lifting off that easily let's get is there anywhere to put the screwdriver if I don't get this off in the future there comes we had bitten in quite deep yeah that's displaced right into the course as you'd expect given that that's what it's intend to do and one of teeth has actually come out with that it's notable that's got there too much longer outer teeth and then it's got the two shorter inner teeth they'll be science behind that the way it actually baits into it it really is it's really bitten into that cable tight to the point that their conductors are actually gripping onto the connector let's say weight degrees off that and we'll strip it and we'll take a look at to see what it's done to the conductor's inside so give me a sharp knife I did almost I wish I had gone from now I was going to get one of the yak or whatever is it there are Meeker leaves I really found to the Duras toe one cuz I admire jimmied arista oh we should done it no it just I left it too late they were all gone not to worry that's what happens when you leave things too late who that has you can see it has been rate and into the copper conductors we've got air the full seven dentition see oh that was quite a decent connection and wonder what metal these are do this stick to magnets that's bit a little neodymium magnet no they don't I wonder what that is ah this is from gonna have to quote Eve I don't think it's how are you minion model I'll scrape it I'll do a set of Eve thing to see if there's anything underneath its you know what that is copper underneath put it it's a Capri cut as a coppery color am I just hey I'm gonna scrape this a bit further let's say I get a file and do it before I just sqweep my bleed rate through my finger I'll tell you what I'll pause follow do this because this is all covered in grease and that's not helping and it's copper hard copper I wonder if it's been heat-treated to actually make it more sub spiky a slightly tapered to the ends with a set of flattish blade and brought to that such chisel edge point and then the plating I wonder if the plating is anything to do with compatibility with the aluminium or the relying purely on the grease for displacing any sort of risk of oxygen getting in but certainly the aluminium when it's bitten in thoroughly all the way around you can see the teeth marks in touch so it's really made a good connection in there that's good interesting so yeah pretty neat quite interesting I should mention that that it's warm enough today as it is but when I was tightening that up with the stubby rancher it switched my body up in gear MD who's in the technical industries all know that if you when you stop working your body will run it sort of full speed for a while then it will just slip slowly ramp down and I find that when I've been working for a while like it's almost like time slows down because you your whole body was upper gear when I tighten that up it just I could actually feel the body just switched into turbo mode and the heating turned on and everything's started and the hands I'm just like really hot now it's just because that's what it is it it puts you into the sort of work mode interesting stuff so that's those air a do bundled cable or on eagle bundle conductors versus or have to say instantly this is so late oh you know what I learned for length it's a similar length give or take of it I'm just gonna go away these and tarry the difference that's strange a pretty much the same weight length for length I'm guessing just it's the fact it feels so soft and so like larger diameter so it doesn't feel quite as heavy as this a sharper thinner a copper but they are pretty much the same weight despite the fact this has got the thicker core and this is a plastic insulation on it that you mean damage her they've increased it because it compensates for the slightly higher resistance of how a minimum of a copper it also means this is very strong surprisingly strong Totten to Kevin he said it had had things like that it spans come down with trees on them and had virtually brought it right down to the ground but Paul's being been in but the Elio bundle conductor had actually held its really strong that way so interesting stuff a well worth taking a look at and that saves you guys having to steal a cherry picker and go up and play with live wires to see what it looks like

Channel: bigclivedotcom

Views: 278,808

Keywords: ABC, aerial, bundled, cable, conductors, overhead, lines, power, distribution, wires, poles, connectors, idc, lineman, live, work, hot, copper, aluminium, aluminum, twisted, spacer

Id: 8JFfXZt7QoI

Length: 20min 9sec (1209 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2019