As someone who's not in the industry (but has done some basic training at college 10 years ago), I loved this video. Very satisfying to see a smart factory set up, but also great to see companies still taking pride in their work. Amazing.
I can remember when cable went metric .electricians at the time hated the fact twin and earth cable changed from stranded to solid cores. They soon got used to it though. But single conduit cable well into the 80s was available in sold or stranded core. Great video thanks
Different standards in different countries, in Australia all domestic use cables over 1.0 sq mm are stranded, we also have an insulted earth conductor and our standard sheathed single phase twin and earth stayed as red and black cores, which personally I think was silly. Very interesting video, it's also good to see not all manufacturing has gone to Asia.
this is so cool! I sold tons of this stuff back in the 1980's and 90's... here in North America we call the cable "Romex". This is such a neat video! Thank You Guys!
That was very interesting. I never realised how the cables were manufactured, so thank you (and Doncaster Cables) for your video. I do not regret the passing of 7/.029 like one of the comments, but I have always thought the previous colours of red, black and green were better. Then, 3-phase supplies were coloured red/yellow/blue. Simple and neutral remained black as in T & E. Even worse is the "50 shades of grey" in SWA.
As an American EE/DIY spark, can confirm that the old colors you used are way better than the new and are on par with our color code for ease of wire differentiation.
The problem with the old colors is a) that everywhere had their own, which is a safety issue when things start moving from area to area more (including electricians) and b) all the regular good colors were already taken. Here in NL we used green live and red neutral (and grey earth) If we were to move over to your old colors where green is earth and red is live, we’d have very serious issues in mixed installations. The new colours were the ones nobody used a lot, that’s why they’re the ugly ones.
Enjoyed that! great video thanks 😎 love this stuff. I also like the fact you get an extra 1m of cable lol. All those saying "why don't they put a sleeve over the cpc? " it's because they have to make it to a British standard, regulations, thicker outer sheathing, conduit capacity, glanding, clips, etc.. and certification would all have a massive knock on effect of the price, and installation. would be nice though lol.
The cable manufacturers in Sweden has stopped using chalk to save our hands from drying up and not having to clean up the mess i makes. The newer types of cables are really easy to strip, often no problem to strip >1 meter of outer sheeting with minimum force
Super interesting, espescially, as a north american, to see how you have cables with chalk in them, here we have paper separating the different conductors!
I used to work for CEF Doncaster cables was sadly one of the factories I didn't get to have a tour of. I did however handle a hell of a lot of cable from this factory during my time there. I still have half a roll of 1.5 and 2.5 in the shed.
Interesting to see the process. I once had a reel of 1mm t+e cable where, on part of the reel, the neutal and cpc had managed to "switch places" within the sheath during manufacturing. The conductor order was now Line - Neutral - CPC. I didn't realise until I came to do my pre-test (end of 1st fix) and while it was a bastard to strip - it still passed cont and IR with flying colours so I decided to leave it in place (given that it would have been an extra 2 days labour to replace it). Anyone else ever had this issue? Never seen it before or since but now i''m super vigilant about it.
We used to get some crap cable from my wholesalers about 25 years ago .. Not through choice. It was called Wessel . Half way through the drum it would turn thin and even almost round. Full of kinks It wasn’t just a one off. It was still BASIC approved and tested ok.
One of the biggest secrets was how the manufacturers took the opportunity when metrication was introduced by moving from stranded to solid cores,they tried it with singles too but conduit wiring became almost impossible so they had to return to stranded,I’ll keep my 7/029 ring main cables thanks
There must be a load on the other end. Probably a high voltage and current test all in one. I wouldn't have thought there could be this much leakage current. with all that insulation.
@@rbland There isn't a load on the other end, there would be no point in doing that. With a wire diameter of 1.4mm, a separating distance of 2.5mm and a pvc dielectric constant of 3 I've calculated a capacitance of 70pF/m, so at 10km of wire and 50hz there's an impedance of ~4550Ω, giving a current flow at ~3kv of 0.65 amperes. Purely capacitive.
Similar process in Canada .We call it Romex .We do not make Romex with an isolated ground but do make BX Armoured cable with isolated ground .Used for Data Communications and hospital environments..Most cash register systems in groceries stores will use isolated grounds as each till and computer will have an independent UPS
@@efixx pretty much the same thing we use 14 or 12 gauge for most residential applications .We also have a heavier jacketed version with the NMW-U rating .Non metallic wreathed proof and underground rated .It can be run on the surface above 1 meter without mechanical protection or underground .the insulation is almost 3 times the diameter of the conductor and the ground wire is the same ,bare . Armoured cable comes in various configurations .Lead core aluminium spiral and PVC inner or outer jacketed cables .Tech cable is a brand name can be a single conductor or multi conductor .Shielded or unshielded .The sky is the limit and so is the price .Some we use are over $8 Canadian a linear l foot /Or everything now is metricated .Dont know metric ,not conduit nor wire sizes .AWG ,Kcmil and MCM .,1/2,3/4 ,1, 11/4, 2 inch 3 inch and 4 inch conduits .Never used metric except in school and European equipment .Construction for us as always been imperial inches and thousands of an inch for machinery .
We don't have that in US residential cable. Maybe a collaboration with electrician u channel on the differences of UK and US power systems and standards.
Any technical reasons or otherwise, are the drums of the cooper need to be of 8mm in diameter ? Just curious Couldn’t the cooper wire manufacturer produce them in different diameters needed for different purposes and sell them to electric cables producers the exact diameter that they need ? Side question - is similar manufacturing process of drawing out the raw copper cables into different diameters apply to making cables for the audio visual industry too ?
It will be because it's the standard but also because it means that the cable manufacturer has greater control over the drawing and annealing. Relying on a supplier to manufacture to the standard you want can complicate things, for example if demand shifts or equipment goes down you wouldn't be able to shift production until the new wire works its way through shipping.
What always surprises me is that the UK twin and earth allows smaller conductor for PE/CPC. This would never be allowed in the Scandinavian/Nordic countries, where the earth has to be the same area, or equivalent conductivity. Although we allow plastic consumer units, open ends on surface mounted plastic conduit without requirement to bend it with the cable showing out in the corners…
The earth wire should never carry current except in the case of a short duration pulse (until the MCB trips) of a line to earth fault. Therefore it only needs to be big enough for this requirement.
@@apk55 Good point… but what if the fault current wouldn’t be enough to trip the circuit breaker, let’s say if the cable were to be quite long? Nowadays when an RCD is installed I guess it wouldn’t be an issue, but what if the RCD was faulty? I know this is very unlikely to be a problem but I think it’s just interesting to see how we do it differently.
@@apk55 The earth here in Germany has to be large and low resistance enough to clamp the fault current to a safe enough voltage in absolutely all situations. Which is hard to do if you get a line-to-earth short at the end of any disstance of cable run with the earth being a thinner conductor.
Fascinating video but when I went to click on the video link at the end, it cut straight to an ad. Maybe leave the links on screen for a little longer next time.
Fascinating - you'd certainly need your wits about you to walk around that factory, not a good place for loose clothing or trailing jewellery, etc!! Thanks for sharing.
Interesting watching the manufacturing process. Cable looks similar to UF (underground feeder) cable on this side of the pond. Typical indoor flexible cable in the US NMC (Romex) has paper between the conductors and outer jacket. I was surprised by the wire twisting process on larger gauge, I was expecting to see the take-up spool being rotated.
@@Bari_Khan_CEng_CMarEng Yeah, exactly that - if that chalk isn't there the different layers just get stuck to each other and especially if its on an existing older circuit that's had some use (And therefore heat) it can be literally impossible to remove the out sheathing! On a new install it's generally just irritating and a waste of time - you have to do it at each and every point!
Wow what a brilliant video. I found this very interesting, One question though if the cable is tested to 3KV for five minutes why is it when we get it it’s only rated to 250V? . Gaz this is one of you’re best videos more like this please. Brilliant video Gaz as always 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️
@@FistralG he said “the high-voltage test procedure will test each core to every other metallic component within the cable”. Also he mentioned the voltage was applied for a period of time. Therefore this appears to be a “dielectric withstand” test. The idea is that no current is flowing.
@@MatSmithLondon There was a small current displayed on the screen. My point still stands it’s not tested with a high voltage and high current. That’s why it’s only rated to 250v in real life use.
@@FistralG I still can’t get it. I understand current carrying capacity of cables, what I don’t get is irrespective of the current, if the cable is tested to 3KV then surly it would be rated to 3KV why is it only rated to 250v , even if it was rated to 3KV if to much current flows through it it will overheat and melt . Also if it’s rated to 3KV then it will have a much higher current carrying capacity making it ideal for domestic installations as we wouldn’t have to worry about over loading and fires ?
@@Dog-whisperer7494 It's an insulation resistance test. HV is used at very low currents, as you would do with a IR tester on testing a final insulation, but only to 500V or 1000V on a multi tester, If it passes a test in the factory of 3KV then it will certainly pass an IR test after installation and test. It's "headroom" for its capability of IR.
Different colors used here in the US, but The end product looks to be physically the same. US wire is normally certified for 600 VAC for this type of cable. Anyone know what it is in GB?
And when we went metric the manufacturers seized the opportunity to go from stranded to single core which benefitted them but caused problems for electricians,particularly in conduit wiring so single soon returned to stranded.Unfortunately T&E was left with solid conductors making it stiffer and less easy to ensure the tightness of tunnel terminals.7/029 was superior to 2.5 in every respect
Hey thanks for sharing I live in the caribean and never saw dual earths before. Could you explain the reason. Also another question would be why have we moved from red and black to blue and brown
If the cable is IR tested at 3kv how many times can it withstand an IR test above 1kv after that ? Only asking as I have carried out IR testing at 5kv and could only perform that test once. After that any more HV testing would destroy the cable.
Thank God it is not made in China, as we would end up with crap wiring in our homes and not the real thing! Nice to see we still make something in the UK
I'm not an electrician but I've never seen this type of cable, is it a British thing? AFAICT here in France the earth lead is always identical to phase and neutral except for the color of course (yellow and green)
Now you need to do a video on the biggest electrical question, to twist or not to twist? So many sparks, even on TH-cam, don't seem to twist cores anymore, they just shove the ends in and hope the screw catches both as if they're a plumber. When I was an apprentice behaviour like that would have got your toolbox screwed to the floor. 🤣
I always thought the color of the cables is reversed. So easy to remember if blue was the hot or the sky, and brown was the return or ground, like in dirt. Anyone know how these colors were originally determined?
we still use red & black in australia, only appliance cord and leads have blue & brown sleeves. i think the colour change was for colour blind people because when i did my apprenticeship you couldn't be a sparky if you were colour blind. and apparently only men get this ,most sparkies were men back then so testing was necessary because multicore cables can have lots of colours in them that can be mixed up by being colour blind.
Red and black can cause issues with people that are colourblind. Apparently blue and brown can be distinguished. Always remember you would not touch a turd and they are brown.
coming from nz, the non insulated earth has always annoyed the bajesus out of me. ive gotten used to it being solid instead of stranded, and in some ways i actually think thats better,
I know I'm just an American. But what is the powder in the wire? Our electricians here would never go for that. I know they are allergic to brooms and vacuums so that would definitely not help things for them.
Interesting vid, but I find it ridiculous that most cables are still PVC. It is one of the most toxic plastics to manufacture, is not easily recyclable, and indeed in many countries they simply burn big piles of cable to remove the PVC and get the copper for recycling, producing some seriously toxic pollutants like dioxins and furans in the process. Given that there are better alternatives, like synthetic rubbers which are less toxic, tougher and more heat resistant, it's hard to see why PVC is still the dominant sheathing material other than it's cheaper. But, I guess it all comes down to price in a capitalist society, things that actually matter like environmental issues always come last...
As someone who's not in the industry (but has done some basic training at college 10 years ago), I loved this video. Very satisfying to see a smart factory set up, but also great to see companies still taking pride in their work. Amazing.
Thanks 🙏
Wonderful presentation. No music (hooray!), just comprehensive and detailed explanation in clear English. Couldn't ask for better.
What a fantastic video for new learners and electricians 👍🏻
This comment is like looking at a mirror in a mirror.
Always happy to have Gary on my screen. Keep going, and thanks for the effort.
I can remember when cable went metric .electricians at the time hated the fact twin and earth cable changed from stranded to solid cores. They soon got used to it though. But single conduit cable well into the 80s was available in sold or stranded core.
Great video thanks
Different standards in different countries, in Australia all domestic use cables over 1.0 sq mm are stranded, we also have an insulted earth conductor and our standard sheathed single phase twin and earth stayed as red and black cores, which personally I think was silly. Very interesting video, it's also good to see not all manufacturing has gone to Asia.
I'm a microelectronics engineer specialising in ultra low power applications in the nanowatt domain, but I still found this absolutely fascinating.
Huh, that's fascinating. What kind of things function in the nanowatt range? Sounds like really cool (and important) work too
What a fascinating video! Well done to you and Doncaster Cables. Especially glad to see the pride they take in their work. Hats off.
I’ve worked with the stuff for years and years, but never seen the manufacturing process, very interesting to see. Great video efixx & Doncaster👏👏
this is so cool! I sold tons of this stuff back in the 1980's and 90's... here in North America we call the cable "Romex". This is such a neat video! Thank You Guys!
Cheers John
That was very interesting. I never realised how the cables were manufactured, so thank you (and Doncaster Cables) for your video.
I do not regret the passing of 7/.029 like one of the comments, but I have always thought the previous colours of red, black and green were better. Then, 3-phase supplies were coloured red/yellow/blue. Simple and neutral remained black as in T & E. Even worse is the "50 shades of grey" in SWA.
Bring back the old colours
As an American EE/DIY spark, can confirm that the old colors you used are way better than the new and are on par with our color code for ease of wire differentiation.
The problem with the old colors is a) that everywhere had their own, which is a safety issue when things start moving from area to area more (including electricians) and b) all the regular good colors were already taken. Here in NL we used green live and red neutral (and grey earth) If we were to move over to your old colors where green is earth and red is live, we’d have very serious issues in mixed installations.
The new colours were the ones nobody used a lot, that’s why they’re the ugly ones.
Glad to see we make some in Britain
Narrator does a great job explaining the entire process.
That was Aaron he runs the show 👍
great to see high quality manufacturing
Enjoyed that! great video thanks 😎 love this stuff. I also like the fact you get an extra 1m of cable lol. All those saying "why don't they put a sleeve over the cpc? " it's because they have to make it to a British standard, regulations, thicker outer sheathing, conduit capacity, glanding, clips, etc.. and certification would all have a massive knock on effect of the price, and installation. would be nice though lol.
The cable manufacturers in Sweden has stopped using chalk to save our hands from drying up and not having to clean up the mess i makes. The newer types of cables are really easy to strip, often no problem to strip >1 meter of outer sheeting with minimum force
An alternative is to use a silicone based lubricant - we’ve had mixed results on cables which use this method.
I'd assume it would save you from potential lung damage too - silicosis I believe?
I love Doncaster Cable, there's nothing like it.
Super interesting, espescially, as a north american, to see how you have cables with chalk in them, here we have paper separating the different conductors!
Thanks 👍🏻
If only a manufacturer would make one with a sleeved earth, we need to catch up with the rest of the world.
It’s extra unnecessary costs though. Would only increase the price of work
@@SuperSweetGamers I’d quite happily pay the extra price, quicker installation time would far outweigh the extra 3 quid a drum
@@pezzpezz7272 really?... It's just a path to earth that needs a bit of sleeving on the end of a termination... 😉
Hank and Chuck across the pond don’t bother with sleeving
@@efixx "Hank & Chuck.." pmsl 😂👍
Awesome video guys 👍
Fascinating video. Love to see this live in the factory, tickles my coils this 😁
👊😎👍💙
🦾💕🦾
Super awesome to see the process. Love it. Thanks for putting this educational piece together.
Great video, and really interesting to see how cable is actually made. Thanks Efixx team!
Thanks 👍🏻
I used to work for CEF Doncaster cables was sadly one of the factories I didn't get to have a tour of. I did however handle a hell of a lot of cable from this factory during my time there. I still have half a roll of 1.5 and 2.5 in the shed.
Those rolls are an investment in the current climate 😃
@@efixx aren't they just. I remember 2.5 going for less than a tenner for 100 meters. Mind you it was over 20 years ago.
Do you know what is the function of applying chalk ?
Brilliant video more like this please
In Australia, we got rid of the bare earth TPS cable in the 1970s lol, and we don't use solid core anymore except on 1mm2
We like to stick to old ways - we converted from stranded to solid in the 1970’s
@@efixx 🤣🤣🤣
Fabulous video 👍👍👍
Excellent video. Commentator very good. Impressed by the whole sequence. Obviously a lot of engineering and tradecraft has gone into the product !!
Excellent video. More of these please. :)
On it
Interesting to see what goes into manufacturing cables.
Interesting to see the process. I once had a reel of 1mm t+e cable where, on part of the reel, the neutal and cpc had managed to "switch places" within the sheath during manufacturing. The conductor order was now Line - Neutral - CPC. I didn't realise until I came to do my pre-test (end of 1st fix) and while it was a bastard to strip - it still passed cont and IR with flying colours so I decided to leave it in place (given that it would have been an extra 2 days labour to replace it). Anyone else ever had this issue? Never seen it before or since but now i''m super vigilant about it.
We used to get some crap cable from my wholesalers about 25 years ago .. Not through choice. It was called Wessel . Half way through the drum it would turn thin and even almost round. Full of kinks It wasn’t just a one off. It was still BASIC approved and tested ok.
We gave a sample of Kablo where this has happened.
WTF this cable is not usable, and should have been taken out.
When you're fighting to get the insulation off every single bloody core you come to appreciate a well made cable!
One of the biggest secrets was how the manufacturers took the opportunity when metrication was introduced by moving from stranded to solid cores,they tried it with singles too but conduit wiring became almost impossible so they had to return to stranded,I’ll keep my 7/029 ring main cables thanks
Interesting
Wow, 8:53 high voltage dielectric testing limit of 6 amps! That's a lot of leakage, but, then again, that's a large tightly wound coil.
That would be inductance of the coil surely .
@@arcadia1701e If it is AC it is the effect of capacitance, there's no current through the conductor for inductance
There must be a load on the other end. Probably a high voltage and current test all in one. I wouldn't have thought there could be this much leakage current. with all that insulation.
@@rbland There isn't a load on the other end, there would be no point in doing that.
With a wire diameter of 1.4mm, a separating distance of 2.5mm and a pvc dielectric constant of 3 I've calculated a capacitance of 70pF/m, so at 10km of wire and 50hz there's an impedance of ~4550Ω, giving a current flow at ~3kv of 0.65 amperes.
Purely capacitive.
Great video!!
Similar process in Canada .We call it Romex .We do not make Romex with an isolated ground but do make BX Armoured cable with isolated ground .Used for Data Communications and hospital environments..Most cash register systems in groceries stores will use isolated grounds as each till and computer will have an independent UPS
Interesting would be good for us to get hold of some to compare. 👍
@@efixx pretty much the same thing we use 14 or 12 gauge for most residential applications .We also have a heavier jacketed version with the NMW-U rating .Non metallic wreathed proof and underground rated .It can be run on the surface above 1 meter without mechanical protection or underground .the insulation is almost 3 times the diameter of the conductor and the ground wire is the same ,bare . Armoured cable comes in various configurations .Lead core aluminium spiral and PVC inner or outer jacketed cables .Tech cable is a brand name can be a single conductor or multi conductor .Shielded or unshielded .The sky is the limit and so is the price .Some we use are over $8 Canadian a linear l foot /Or everything now is metricated .Dont know metric ,not conduit nor wire sizes .AWG ,Kcmil and MCM .,1/2,3/4 ,1, 11/4, 2 inch 3 inch and 4 inch conduits .Never used metric except in school and European equipment .Construction for us as always been imperial inches and thousands of an inch for machinery .
That was super interesting, thanks!
Thanks 👍🏻
How interesting! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks 👍🏻
This is a wonderful video. I now know that it's chauk running out cable's when they are terminated. I have wondered what that was.
We don't have that in US residential cable. Maybe a collaboration with electrician u channel on the differences of UK and US power systems and standards.
Any technical reasons or otherwise, are the drums of the cooper need to be of 8mm in diameter ? Just curious
Couldn’t the cooper wire manufacturer produce them in different diameters needed for different purposes and sell them to electric cables producers the exact diameter that they need ?
Side question - is similar manufacturing process of drawing out the raw copper cables into different diameters apply to making cables for the audio visual industry too ?
It’s a standard that copper rod is sold for cables.
Will be same process for AV
@@efixx thanks so much for the answer
@@efixx noted and thanks
It will be because it's the standard but also because it means that the cable manufacturer has greater control over the drawing and annealing. Relying on a supplier to manufacture to the standard you want can complicate things, for example if demand shifts or equipment goes down you wouldn't be able to shift production until the new wire works its way through shipping.
What always surprises me is that the UK twin and earth allows smaller conductor for PE/CPC. This would never be allowed in the Scandinavian/Nordic countries, where the earth has to be the same area, or equivalent conductivity.
Although we allow plastic consumer units, open ends on surface mounted plastic conduit without requirement to bend it with the cable showing out in the corners…
Like Ring Circuits it's a hangover from the War when they were trying to save copper.
The earth wire should never carry current except in the case of a short duration pulse (until the MCB trips) of a line to earth fault. Therefore it only needs to be big enough for this requirement.
@@apk55 Good point… but what if the fault current wouldn’t be enough to trip the circuit breaker, let’s say if the cable were to be quite long? Nowadays when an RCD is installed I guess it wouldn’t be an issue, but what if the RCD was faulty?
I know this is very unlikely to be a problem but I think it’s just interesting to see how we do it differently.
@@ianbakke if the cable is too long for the size of the conductor to safely trip the mcb then the apprropriate larger size will be chosen.
@@apk55 The earth here in Germany has to be large and low resistance enough to clamp the fault current to a safe enough voltage in absolutely all situations. Which is hard to do if you get a line-to-earth short at the end of any disstance of cable run with the earth being a thinner conductor.
Here is South Africa our twin and earth wires are black and red inside not blue and brown. Also - what is the function of the talc powder ?
We used to have the same colours before we harmonised with Europe. French chalk stops the inner cores sticking to the outer sheath.
How do you guys put new wire into the shrinker? Would assume it’s hard to put fresh line into it, given the diameter.
How many times did Gary want to say "Twin and CPC"?
Great insight into what it takes to make some quality cable though!
You can feel his pain 😂
That was interesting. 🤔👍
I only need a few meters to get another light in the porch! Do they do shorter lengths?
See Screwfix 😄
Most wholesalers such as CEF do it cut to length as do DIY stores.
interesting process manufactur.
The french chalk is much better than the other methods used in other manufacturers cable
Here in USA all housewiring is 14 gage, water heater 12 gage, white in neutral, black is hot. Easy to see. Blue , red and yellow for 3 phase .
Fascinating video but when I went to click on the video link at the end, it cut straight to an ad. Maybe leave the links on screen for a little longer next time.
Very cool 👍
Wow wow wow you can now see why ENGLAND are so good at all things creative, not just football ~( go for it girls)
Ok
🇬🇧
Great view into the process, thanks!
Perfect
Fascinating - you'd certainly need your wits about you to walk around that factory, not a good place for loose clothing or trailing jewellery, etc!! Thanks for sharing.
Yes lots of fast moving parts
Very interesting, What happens to the copper paste in the machines?
Interesting watching the manufacturing process. Cable looks similar to UF (underground feeder) cable on this side of the pond. Typical indoor flexible cable in the US NMC (Romex) has paper between the conductors and outer jacket. I was surprised by the wire twisting process on larger gauge, I was expecting to see the take-up spool being rotated.
Is heat applied during the process of reducing its size?
No - just heated after drawing during the annealing process.
Great video and insight.
What exactly does the chalk do for the pvc inner core?
Makes it easier to strip.
@@Me-zo8yc cheers, I bought some Doncaster Cable, and it was super chalky!
@@Bari_Khan_CEng_CMarEng Yeah, exactly that - if that chalk isn't there the different layers just get stuck to each other and especially if its on an existing older circuit that's had some use (And therefore heat) it can be literally impossible to remove the out sheathing! On a new install it's generally just irritating and a waste of time - you have to do it at each and every point!
Wow what a brilliant video.
I found this very interesting,
One question though if the cable is tested to 3KV for five minutes why is it when we get it it’s only rated to 250V? . Gaz this is one of you’re best videos more like this please.
Brilliant video Gaz as always 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️
The test current was a lot lower than a typical domestic circuit.
@@FistralG he said “the high-voltage test procedure will test each core to every other metallic component within the cable”. Also he mentioned the voltage was applied for a period of time. Therefore this appears to be a “dielectric withstand” test. The idea is that no current is flowing.
@@MatSmithLondon There was a small current displayed on the screen. My point still stands it’s not tested with a high voltage and high current. That’s why it’s only rated to 250v in real life use.
@@FistralG I still can’t get it.
I understand current carrying capacity of cables, what I don’t get is irrespective of the current, if the cable is tested to 3KV then surly it would be rated to 3KV why is it only rated to 250v , even if it was rated to 3KV if to much current flows through it it will overheat and melt . Also if it’s rated to 3KV then it will have a much higher current carrying capacity making it ideal for domestic installations as we wouldn’t have to worry about over loading and fires ?
@@Dog-whisperer7494 It's an insulation resistance test. HV is used at very low currents, as you would do with a IR tester on testing a final insulation, but only to 500V or 1000V on a multi tester, If it passes a test in the factory of 3KV then it will certainly pass an IR test after installation and test. It's "headroom" for its capability of IR.
Different colors used here in the US, but The end product looks to be physically the same. US wire is normally certified for 600 VAC for this type of cable. Anyone know what it is in GB?
What purpose does the chalk serve?
It stops the inner cores sticking to the outer sheath.
For writing on chalk boards
Is Romex an example of a twin and earth cable?
Thank you for using your resources to educate, eFIXX
And when we went metric the manufacturers seized the opportunity to go from stranded to single core which benefitted them but caused problems for electricians,particularly in conduit wiring so single soon returned to stranded.Unfortunately T&E was left with solid conductors making it stiffer and less easy to ensure the tightness of tunnel terminals.7/029 was superior to 2.5 in every respect
Hey thanks for sharing I live in the caribean and never saw dual earths before.
Could you explain the reason.
Also another question would be why have we moved from red and black to blue and brown
We changed colours to harmonise across Europe.
Thanks
I’m curious to see how the automated 100 m reeling machine cuts and switch’s to a new drum? The big one had a person doing it.
Also all wiring was solid, mutch easier to work with.
Why the twin & earth cable made flat why not like around cable?
Would be a waste of material
If the cable is IR tested at 3kv how many times can it withstand an IR test above 1kv after that ? Only asking as I have carried out IR testing at 5kv and could only perform that test once. After that any more HV testing would destroy the cable.
where's the corner cutting video?
Link at the end of the video
th-cam.com/video/JvJuqgBasuY/w-d-xo.html
Thank God it is not made in China, as we would end up with crap wiring in our homes and not the real thing! Nice to see we still make something in the UK
I'm not an electrician but I've never seen this type of cable, is it a British thing? AFAICT here in France the earth lead is always identical to phase and neutral except for the color of course (yellow and green)
It’s a very British cable
Actual question: What happens with all the copper that is taken away in this 8mm to 1mm conversion process?
The cable is stretched or “drawn” so no material is wasted the width is converted to length
@@efixx Oh alright, we’ll that’s answering that. English isn’t my main language so that explains the misunderstanding 😅
Why is British cables Earth core Unshelled?
Now you need to do a video on the biggest electrical question, to twist or not to twist? So many sparks, even on TH-cam, don't seem to twist cores anymore, they just shove the ends in and hope the screw catches both as if they're a plumber. When I was an apprentice behaviour like that would have got your toolbox screwed to the floor. 🤣
I always thought the color of the cables is reversed. So easy to remember if blue was the hot or the sky, and brown was the return or ground, like in dirt. Anyone know how these colors were originally determined?
A good question for many years in the UK we used Red & Black before Europe decided to harmonise conductor colours.
we still use red & black in australia, only appliance cord and leads have blue & brown sleeves. i think the colour change was for colour blind people because when i did my apprenticeship you couldn't be a sparky if you were colour blind. and apparently only men get this ,most sparkies were men back then so testing was necessary because multicore cables can have lots of colours in them that can be mixed up by being colour blind.
Red and black can cause issues with people that are colourblind. Apparently blue and brown can be distinguished. Always remember you would not touch a turd and they are brown.
In der EU abspult verboten, sogar streng verboten!!
coming from nz, the non insulated earth has always annoyed the bajesus out of me.
ive gotten used to it being solid instead of stranded, and in some ways i actually think thats better,
I know I'm just an American. But what is the powder in the wire? Our electricians here would never go for that. I know they are allergic to brooms and vacuums so that would definitely not help things for them.
Ha 😂 it’s French chalk it makes the cable easier to strip. The inner conductors don’t stick to the outer sheath.
Factory ODM OEM Copper electric Power Wiring Cable BVR/BV 2.5mm 4mm 6mm 10mm Single Core Flexible electricity wires and cables
Give me prysmian any day.
What’s the difference?
@@efixx prysmian is far better to work with and strip.
stop winding me up😂
the best part was when they were making cable
Interesting vid, but I find it ridiculous that most cables are still PVC. It is one of the most toxic plastics to manufacture, is not easily recyclable, and indeed in many countries they simply burn big piles of cable to remove the PVC and get the copper for recycling, producing some seriously toxic pollutants like dioxins and furans in the process. Given that there are better alternatives, like synthetic rubbers which are less toxic, tougher and more heat resistant, it's hard to see why PVC is still the dominant sheathing material other than it's cheaper. But, I guess it all comes down to price in a capitalist society, things that actually matter like environmental issues always come last...
The scrap people would still burn rubber to extract the copper. Most underground cables are XLPE.
So I can't knock up drums of 2.5mm in my shed then 😂
This place isn’t far off a shed th-cam.com/video/zepldzNnaAU/w-d-xo.html
to make 1.5 or 2.5, an awful lot of copper was wasted
They waste very little
from 8mm copper and reduce it down to 2.5mm, there is a lot that is ground away, with diamond 00:20
@@christ9460 you don't understand what drawing wire is
@@christ9460 It's not ground away. It's stretched.