Heat shrink technology, evolving fast over the decades, is providing a range of fool-proof solutions for electrical engineers, industrial consultants, commercial structural engineers, and technicians to improve the performance and appearance of complex electrical and piping installations. Adequate insulation with long-term effectiveness in harsh environmental conditions has been a critical issue for engineers. The electrical and piping installations in commercial spaces and industries come across high traffic, harsh environmental elements, rough usage, and the possibility of mechanical impacts; inadequate insulation and protection may cause of heavy loss of revenue and reputation. To stay safe and keep others safe, electrical engineers, consultants, structural engineers, and technicians are embracing heat shrink power cable accessories like heat shrink tubes, busbar sleeves, and heat shrink sleeves. The heat shrink corrosion protection tubes are getting wide-scale acceptance to keep the structural pipes and other elements corrosion-free even in an environment containing chemical gasses, vapors, and humidity.
Category Archives: Heat Shrink Tube
How The Heat Shrink Tubes Secure Power Cables To Increase Your Profit
The increasing numbers of large business setups are turning to embrace heat shrink tube electrical insulation methodology to save on hefty maintenance costs plus the loss that occurs because of frequent shutdowns. The secured power cables contribute at large to the profitability of mid to large business establishments secretly but this contribution remained neglected until the fierce competition forced businesses to address every issue that can impact their growth rate. Among the available options, using Polyolefin heat shrink tubed and accessories to secure electrical cables and installations ranks at the top because of its several unique benefits.
Effectiveness of Heat Shrink Sleeves to Improve Performance of Industrial Electrical Installation
Heat shrink sleeves are produced to protect and secure different cables, connectors, and splicing in a dependable way as well as to provide an extra layer of insulation. If regulatory provisions are followed in heat
shrink sleeves usage, the heat shrink technology gives long-term effective protection against behavioral impacts, environmental impacts, on-site conditional impacts, and aging impacts. The commonly experienced and shared experiences of improved performance and profit by business owners, industrial consultants, and electrical engineers are-
- Effective waterproof seal against marine elements like water, oil, salt, sunlight, and acids
- More durable insulation layer and long-lasting seal than the tape
- Protection against environmental abrasion and corrosion
- Protection of sensitive points in electrical installations against vulnerability
- Reduced contamination
A Range of Heat Shrink Sleeves for the Entire Electrical Installation
The adoption rate for heat shrink sleeves is increasing with each passing year as per the market predictions. The application of heat shrink tubes or sleeves is not limited just to securing power cables against conditional and environmencvtal impacts but leading heat shrink sleeves manufacturers offer custom-to-application heat shrink tubes to secure entire electrical installation; for example-
- Non-tracking heat shrink tubes
- Heat shrink busbar tubes
- Red insulation heat shrink tubes
- Double-layer heat shrink tube
- Stress control heat shrink tube
The Major Causes of Electrical Faults That Can Be Avoided By Using Heat Shrink Tubes
There is a long list of reasons for electrical faults that forces industries to stop production until the power supply is restored. Not all but certainly major ones can be avoided by using heat shrink sleeves under professional directions. Some of the major reasons for electrical faults that cause heavy loss to industries but that can be avoided by using heat shrink tubes are –
- Electrochemical treeing in underground cables
- Water ingress
- Rodent attack
- UV exposure
- Degradation of the cable sheath
- Thermal breakdown
- Lightning strike
- Mechanical failure
Secure Your Power Cables To Increase Your Profit
Yes, it is true. The numbers of frequently occurring heavy losses, the culprit of eating your profit, can be reduced to the minimum level by using quality approved heat shrink sleeves are-
- Shocks to individuals
- Loss of equipment because of accidental heavy current
- Low performance of machinery because of increased maintenance
- Disturbed interconnected active circuits
- Production stoppage because of the uncertainty of power supply quality
- Waste of material left in mid of production process because of electrical fault
- Increased size of workforce and requirement of more funds
How to Select the Right Heat Shrink Tube for a Particular Wire Size
Heat shrink tube, also known as heat shrink sleeve, is a specially manufactured polyolefin casing widely used to provide tough insulation and corrosion protection to electrical cables, solder joints, components in electrical installation and mechanical components like pipes. Heat-shrink tubes, a type of extruded plastic tubes, when heated to a certain degree of temperature for a recommended period, reduce their size to get fit to particular application.
Although heat-shrink tubes are being used since decades yet many electrical engineers and technicians are refrained from the time-tested benefits of using heat-shrink tubes to secure their electrical and mechanical installations. Despite knowing the convincing benefits of using heat-shrink tubes, the numbers of electrical engineers and technicians avoid these small cost heat-shrink tubes insulating accessories just because of not knowing the selection of right size of heat-shrink sleeve for a particular wire size. Here I detail the heat-shrink tube terminology and selection process to help you choose the accurate heat-shrink sleeve size for a particular wire size.
Terminology For Heat-Shrink Tube Selection
What Is The Shrinkage Ratio? Heat-shrink tubes are available in expanded size that shrink when
Inner Diameter: There are two inner diameters- ‘Inner Diameter’ at supply time and ‘Inner Diameter’ after shrink.
Recovered Wall Thickness: The wall thickness also changes at recovery after heating. You should focus on recovery stage wall thickness while considering the particular application and environment.
How To Choose The Perfect Size Of Heat-Shrink Tube
The top manufacturers and reputed brands like Gala Thermo offer a wide range of heat-shrink tubes to facilitate its clients. The size of the object to be insulated is the base to determine the inner diameter, length, and shrinkage ratio of heat-shrink tube. The other key aspects that you should explore while buying heat-shrink tubes first time are – tubing material, operating temperature, shrinkage temperature, features, suitability to environment.
The most preferred shrink ratio is 2:1 or 3:1. It means, heat-shrink tube is expended 2 or 3 times to its original size. If you expect more size variation of object to be insulated, you should prefer larger shrink ratio. Here, you should keep in mind that there may be 10% of longitudinal change also.
The wall thickness is mentioned in mm or inches. Tubing’s technical data gives you complete information about the wall thickness. The heat-shrink tubes are available in single, double and heavy wall structures. Medium and heavy wall heat-shrink tubes are suitable for the cables up to 36KV. The single or thin wall structured heat shrink sleeves are good up to 3.3 kV electrical cables and components.
If you are buying the heat-shrink tubes to be used in industrial environment, you should also focus on resistance to weathering, chemical, solvents, UV rays, fungus etc. The other prominent properties, important for informed decision making, are tensile strength (as per ASTM-D-638), ultimate elongation (as per ASTM-D-638), and water absorption (as per ASTM-D-570), etc.
Pro-Tip
To be sure of choosing the quality best heat-shrink tube for the particular cable wire or component, you should also focus on quality standards. The top heat-shrink tube manufacturers and suppliers confirm the quality standards as RoHS Compliance, IEC 60684-3-247, IP 68, etc.