Cable glands: Small part, big difference
30Sep
Matt Ogden (Cable Gland Product Specialist at Hawke International, the manufacturer of glands for harsh and hazardous environments) discusses the critical role that cable glands play when it comes to protecting machinery and the business benefits that a thorough gland strategy can deliver.
Cable glands are too often thought of as being commodity products, their importance undervalued by those who dismiss them as merely being bits of brass and rubber. However, if decision-makers get their cable gland strategy wrong, the expensive equipment that glands are tasked with protecting (which can be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds) could fail, and the wider business would take a serious hit. So, how do they get it right and what benefits will be delivered as a result?
Protecting expensive equipment
Those charged with procurement often select equipment based on cost rather than listening to recommendations from engineering departments. This means many projects end up with wrong or ineffective cable glands. If a gland is not right, there is a high risk of water and dust getting into the equipment it is protecting, which can have a catastrophic effect.
Also, cable glands that are over or under tightened can damage cables. An over-tightened gland will compromise and stress a cable’s properties. This limits how well a gland offers ingress protection against dust and water penetration and presents an explosion risk. A gland that is under tightened will also allow dust and water to damage equipment, in addition to being liable to loosening, which creates an electric shock risk.
Read the full article in the October issue of PBSI
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