Modern day Cable Installing, Proccesses and Approaches

During the last thirty years, cable blowing (also called cable jetting) has increasingly become the most popular technique for cable installation in the sector. During the early 1980's, British Telecom created a method by which cable installation could be quicker, simpler and less dangerous. Their particular initial design has been evolved and enhanced several times since then, but at its core, it remains essentially the same procedure.

Before cable blowing, cabling was generally installed using a process called ‘pulling’. Using equipment at an access point and another at a target point, the machines pulled the cable through the entire pipe. There are massive downsides to this method, most notably issues with friction, which might multiply many times over the level of power the machines would be need to employ each and every time the wire came into contact with the pipe (scientifically named as a ‘Capstan Effect’). The 2nd significant problem with the ‘pulling’ technique is that the rope that coupled to the machine on the target point would have to be pulled through before the cable, contributing to massive difficulties during these initial stages. Cable blowing makes it possible for an engineering team to circumvent these problems.

Cable blowing spins the old techniques of installation on their head, moving the wire along the tube while blowing additional jets of pressurised air behind and around the wire. Not only does this force the wire along the pipe, the technique cushions the wire and minimizes friction dramatically, producing less force for further distance. The ranges attained using cable blowing is far more than conventional ‘pulling’ techniques and further enhancements towards the technique (particularly the inclusion of lubricants that also reduce the friction) have made cable blowing even more valuable.

Since the creation and spread of cable blowing, all kinds of other techniques have been created. ‘Water carrying’ or ‘cable floatation’ is a very similar method to cable blowing, using comparable ideas to attain a comparable end. It's especially practical for cable pipes and channels with a number of bends or a challenging shape (which ends up in substantial problems with friction). The cable is pushed along the pipe and helped along by surrounding it using a current of water. Although this is an incredibly powerful technique for difficult pipes and ducts, when used in more simple conduit structures, it underperforms when it comes to distance in contrast to the cable blowing method.

Because of the introduction of these highly effective cabling solutions, conventional cable winching is now a thing of the past. Since they work equally well in existing ducts as they do in recently made ducts and pipes, they will cut the expense significantly when they’re installed. Cables aren't just getting fed into pipes more rapidly and at greater distances, but more securely and more cost-effective and cable preparation tools are a lot more sophisticated right now. Cable blowing has evolved quite a bit in the last thirty years, and we would be interested to determine what lengths it moves within the next thirty.

The author of this article works for a company that specialises in Cable Blowing and cable preparation tools .