|
|
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
From: A Jensen (no email)
Date: Sun Aug 01 2004 - 13:45:34 EDT
Frank wrote:
I replaced the 20 year old welding cables with 2/0 battery cable. The
insulation had
started to separate from the the wire on the ends and there was chafing on
one area. <snip> One of the side effects of the project is that the starter
seems
to have twice the juice as before. <snip> Obliviously the old welding cable
was not conducting as much juice as the
2/0 cable.
REPLY
People should be aware of how ABYC functions.
The technical committees are composed of industry employees who are "loaned"
to ABYC.
In other words the employer continues to pay the employee while they perform
work on behalf of ABYC.
The good aspect of this is that the technical committees are staffed by
experienced and knowledgeable people who has real experience with the
products and applications being addressed in the standards.
The downside is that manufacturers can have an undue influence on how the
standards are worded and applied to products.
Cables are a case in point.
ANCOR does not manufacture things. They contract other companies to make it
and house brand it ANCOR.
However ANCOR is very active in participating in the ABYC permanent
technical committees.
For that matter so is Marinco, Charles and Newmar and Promariner.
For the longest while ANCOR cable was the only cable labeled as being
"marine" approved.
What that really meant was the cable had been tested by UL and other
testing laboratories to certify that the cable met specific electrical and
mechanical tests such as oil and diesel fuel resistance, temperature and
abrasion resistance plus other mechanical characteristics such as
flexibility, type and thickness of insulation, stranding and tinning of the
copper wires used to make up the bundles inside.
ANCOR was very aggressive in promoting the fact their wire was tinned and
met type 3 stranding requirements.
This was at a time when tinning was not generally used in consumer products
because of the increased cost.
However all industrial and military application wires were also tined and
for the most part type 3 stranded.
The difference being that these cables had not been submitted to any test
lab and certified as being in compliance with the ABYC requirements and thus
qualifying as "marine" grade wires.
It did not mean the cables and wires were nor equal in quality but merely
that a specific test lab had not be paid to certify this compliance.
ANCOR was also advertising their product as being 12% larger than ordinary
wires. What they really meant by "ordinary" was that most people buying 12V
wire would buy SAE grade wire from an automotive supply store. SAE wire is
actually 12% smaller in cross section than AWG wire a fact that was allowed
because cars use the steel chassis as a return conductor for all
electrical circuits. So while not exactly dishonest, that claim was
certainly misleading.
For the educated user, it is a simple matter of looking up the relevant
standard and ascertaining if the cable meets or exceeds the requirements of
the intended use. Unfortunately most people are not technically inclined or
perhaps simply not motivated enough to check it out. All cable are marked
with the grade, application code and certifying authority so that you can
check it out yourself.
Welding cable is made for a specific application. Typically it has a rubber
or rubber like coating.
This coating is not thermoplastic because the application exposes it to
sparks and molten slag which would melt conventional insulation very
quickly. However welding cable is also considered as for temporary use and
thus expendable and a welder usually has to replace it every so often. The
dielectric characteristics is different; so is the resistance to ozone,
diesel, oil and other solvents.
I have seen welding cable type insulation dissolve overnight when splashed
with hydraulic oil.
Ozone produced by things like Bilge buster smell removers will also attack
welding cable.
Regards
Arild
--- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.732 / Virus Database: 486 - Release Date: 7/29/2004 _______________________________________________ http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawlers-and-trawlering To Unsubscribe send email to Include the word Unsubscribe (and nothing else) in the subject or body of the message.
|