SWA

[securespark]

Just in a park in S Wales and saw this:

 

[ericmark]

And the question/point is!

I note steel showing so clearly SWA cable one wonders if the SWA is actually earthed but it could be. Emergency stop seems odd I wonder what for and only one visible MCB type device would have expected more.

But really a pointless post with out further information.

 

[securespark]

Sorry! Thought it was obvious, but I need to be more descriptive next time.

I wondered if that plug was a special type that clamped the armour and connected it to earth.

 

[Robin0577]

Nope, that's not a special plug.

[nerd mode]

That's a PCE midnight series 32A 3 pin male, part No. 023-6x. Other than being all black for the entertainment industry rather than the conventional blue, it's a bog standard IP44 rated IEC60309 plug, not designed to terminate SWA

[/nerd mode]

 

[DrJimFranklin]

And the question/point is!

I note steel showing so clearly SWA cable one wonders if the SWA is actually earthed but it could be. Emergency stop seems odd I wonder what for and only one visible MCB type device would have expected more.

But really a pointless post with out further information.

I hope you are not a practicing electrician. No decent spark would ever terminate SWA into an IEC60309 plug...commonly referred to as a Commando due to the very successful MK range that started it all...

If you think that level of work is acceptable I am pleased I don't employ you...because you would not last long..

 

[Robin0577]

commonly referred to as a Commando due to the very successful MK range that started it all...

Also commonly known as a CEEform in some industries, which was a trademark of Mennekes (Actually I think the Mennekes ones appeared from Europe before MK started making them, but I'm not 100% sure on that)

 

[DrJimFranklin]

commonly referred to as a Commando due to the very successful MK range that started it all...

Also commonly known as a CEEform in some industries, which was a trademark of Mennekes (Actually I think the Mennekes ones appeared from Europe before MK started making them, but I'm not 100% sure on that)

MK units date back to the late 1960's..have no idea when Mennekes starts making them, I did not see their offerings in the UK until after I spent 5 years in Canada in the late 1980's-mid 1990's. IT people tend to call them CEEform but sparks tend to call them Commando's

 

[Robin0577]

MK units date back to the late 1960's..have no idea when Mennekes starts making them, I did not see their offerings in the UK until after I spent 5 years in Canada in the late 1980's-mid 1990's. IT people tend to call them CEEform but sparks tend to call them Commando's

Can't find an exact date for Mennekes but around the early-mid 60s so quite possibly both companies started making them soon after the standard was defined.

Yes, I've noticed that most commercial/industrial sparks call them Commandos but oddly most TV/film/theatre/festival sparks (those being the sparks I have most dealings with) seem to have gone down the CEEform route.

 

[roasty]

I hate to see things like this. I may have posted about my sighting before, but I was recently working at an aerodrome and a lot of the temporary cabling there was on the larger red 125A 3 phase commandos, with the a section of the sheath of the swa removed about 6 inches before the plug. The exposed armour had a Tenby earth strap around it with a bit of 10/16mm earth single lugged into it with the other end running into the plug. Obviously i can see what they were trying to achieve, but after a period of rough handling in the wet outdoors, the armour had started to rust, the clamps were starting to look battered, and in some cases, the lug had either broken off, or had pulled off the earth conductor.

I had a few observations:
Firstly, that (hopefully) they were using 5 core SWA and so there would be a second earth within the cable.

Secondly, I could understand the reason for wanting to use SWA over arctic or H07 type rubber cables, due to it's resilience to abuse, but I wasn't aware that a special plug existed that could terminate SWA, especially these sizes - I reckon the cable in question was at least 25mm^2, possibly 35mm^2 depending on the number of cores. I'm pretty sure it wasn't 50mm

Thirdly I wondered if they would have been better off stripping the cable and terminating into the plug, but just keep the armour longer than usual and use some earth sleeving over a few of the strands, and bring those ends into the earth terminal of the plug along with the earth core. Clearly that wouldn't be ideal, but possibly better than their solution.

Fourthly, some big heat shrink over the clamp might improve the situation.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Other than being all black for the entertainment industry rather than the conventional blue, it's a bog standard IP44 rated IEC60309 plug

I thought the colour was part of the standard, so if it isn't blue it can't be an IEC 60309 compliant item.

 

[ericmark]

Working on Sizewell power station we had some metal plugs and sockets of the CEEform design which was able to take a 25 to 20 mm adaptor and use SWA cable but there were really horrid to work with specially the socket the plug was not too bad. The earth pin and alloy body were connected, but I question if really made for SWA cable even if they did have a 25 mm thread. Using braided cable would be better, but would require the hawk try glands with the reversible rings, but the flexible cable in braid would be far easier to get into the socket. Also the strain on the plug means unless used with metal sockets damage is likely.

 

[Robin0577]

I thought the colour was part of the standard, so if it isn't blue it can't be an IEC 60309 compliant item.

I thought so too, but at least 3 reputable manufactures that I can think of (PCE, Bals & Walther, I'm sure there are others) appear to have found a way around it and have been making black versions for about 5 years or so now. They do usually have a small blue sticker, visible only when unplugged, perhaps that is enough to satisfy the requirement for blueness? Seems a bit daft if it is to be honest.

Come to think of it, the PCE black range includes 400v 3PNE models which should normally be red... http://www.pcelectric.at/fileadmin/pce/emag/pce_en/#/196/