Alumnium Conduit
- Thread starter steve66
- Start date
- Status
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
It may be a spec for some companies. For instance, I worked in a Bristol Meyers plant that made baby formula. Everything was AL with stainless hardware.
I learned to bend conduit with a Chicago bender and AL conduit. As far as advantages over RMC, the one, weight, does not overcome the difficulty of working with it. Each batch, sometimes each piece, will have a different 'spring back' and makes precision bending difficult.
AL likes to 'gall out' when you are threading it. You have to use sharp dies and lots of lube to get nice, smooth threads.
And, AL is very expensive.
The only places you will likely see AL is where food is processed and that's because of the need for metal that won't rust, as rust harbors pathogens.
cadpoint
Senior Member
- Location
- Durham, NC
Here is a link to one of many conduit and tubing manufactures.
http://www.wheatland.com/electrical-conduit, they have a dowloadable Pdf on one of the active pages.
http://www.wheatland.com/electrical-conduit, they have a dowloadable Pdf on one of the active pages.
SG-1
Senior Member
- Location
- Ware Shoals, South Carolina
One other advantage not yet mentioned is that the aluminum raceway can be a longer run than steel & still provide an effective low impedance ground fault return path.
kaichosan
Member
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
Aluminum conduit is used for distribution of higher frequency power systems like 400Hz power.
masterinbama
Senior Member
- Location
- Huntsville Alabama
I have found if you use the Rigid lite cutting oil and thin it with mineral spirits you get cleaner threads.
jaggedben
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern California
- Occupation
- Solar and Energy Storage Installer
Resistance to corrosion would be another advantage.
rrc14
Member
- Location
- Anchorage, AK
- Occupation
- Engineer
Aluminum conduit should not be installed with direct contact to concrete and cement. Also, aluminum conduit is not recommended to be installed in contact with soil.
weressl
Esteemed Member
Pros:
- Less labor
- Less weight therefore less costly support requirements,
- Superior corrosion resistance in most cases,
- Easier pull,
- Slightly more material cost,
- Somewhat lower impact resistance,
- Galvanic interaction with copper wire in the presence of electrolyte - such as salt water, mist -, more so than GRS.
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
Correct.
We used one hole straps with 'back straps' that kept the conduit about 1/4" from the wall.
Thanks for the replies.
I didn't find the PDF you were talking about, but they do sum it up pretty well on the main page:
I didn't find the PDF you were talking about, but they do sum it up pretty well on the main page:
I guess it depends a lot on where you buy it, if they have it in stock, and how much you need. It probably is very expensive if you have to special order a small amount.
RS means shows AL being only about 10% more, with the labor savings being more than 10% for AL.
I was thinking about spec'ing AL for a rooftop run. I may put both AL and RGS in the spec, and let the contractor install whichever he would rather use. For this application, it doesn't sound like either have a great advantage.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
Also when used with GEC's or common bonding risers you do not need to bond the conduit to the GEC.
Do you have any backup for this statement?
I know it's not part of the NEC. The NEC doesn't limit the length of a conduit used as an equipment ground path, either steel or aluminum.
cadpoint
Senior Member
- Location
- Durham, NC
It was the little picture on the main page.... but your right this was the response...
[h=1]404[/h]We're sorry, but the file or content you requested could not be found, or has been moved. From time to time new product content is added and we update the URLs to accomodate our growth.
You can find specifications, brochures, architectural and CAD resources and other information about Wheatland products in the Products and Solutions section.
Please visit the site map for a complete list of the main sections on this site. The search feature will also help you locate content quickly (upper right on the page).
SG-1
Senior Member
- Location
- Ware Shoals, South Carolina
See Soares Book On Grounding & Bonding, Chapter 11, Long Conduit Run Designs. Starts on page 204 in the 10th edition & on page 202 in the 11th edition.
Also see this thread:
http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=122232
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
What size? Running 1/2" to 1-1/2" and maybe even 2", you could probably say the pro's and con's may be fairly even either way. If you are running larger sizes, the weight alone starts to become more of a pro.
I just got my copy, the 11th edition.
There is a lot of good information in this book.
It is going to take a while to look it over.
It looks like they use the Mike Holt illustrations.
Thanks for the recommendation.
- Status