Prysmian, manufacturers of hazardous area cable glands and related cable systems, have stressed the importance of using the correct equipment for the environment in a ‘Q&A of the Day’ column for Voltimum UK.
The brand responded to a question from a reader, who asked if the steel wire armour of a cable could double as a circuit protective conductor, and when a separate CPC would be needed.
Prysmian replied that the question “is clearly a safety issue” and that the decision must ultimately rest with the designer.
They added: “The steel wire armour could corrode under certain conditions, in which case it would be necessary to use a copper CPC as a separate earth. This is probably more likely to occur in buried conditions.”
“Also, of course, the armour needs to meet the required equivalent copper cross-section to be compliant with the regulations,” they added.
The article – one of thousands from the site’s Technical Expertise section – was selected as a featured Q&A of the Day post, highlighting its importance to readers.
Prysmian hazardous area cable glands provide extra weather-proofing where cables connect to equipment, as well as grounding the cable armour as mentioned above.
They are a low-cost component to install into gas-proof, flame-proof and other hazardous area equipment, but protect against the potentially high financial and human cost of catastrophic system failure.
