5K Cable Factory Damage

[TwoBlocked]

I am sorry, but anyone who can read and follow the directions can successfully splice or terminate 5kV conductors. The instructions are typically very detailed.

Before someone can read and follow instruction on how to install something, they first need to know what it is they are supposed to install. The problem I mentioned before was we didn't know what we didn't know. As Rumsfeld put it, "There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know."

If you aren't experienced with medium voltage, either get the experience or leave it to someone that does have the experience.

 

[electrofelon]

Before someone can read and follow instruction on how to install something, they first need to know what it is they are supposed to install. The problem I mentioned before was we didn't know what we didn't know. As Rumsfeld put it, "There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know."

If you aren't experienced with medium voltage, either get the experience or leave it to someone that does have the experience.

Terminating a MV cable isn't as big a deal as people make it out to be. 5kv is also a pretty low voltage and it will be fairly forgiving. Sure your first few times will be slow as you carefully read the instructions, practice stripping, etc, but it is far from rocket science. There are a few special tools you will need: typically a BG crimper and a semicon stripper. You can get by without the semicon stripper with some patience and ingenuity. The first time I terminated an elbow I didn't have it and I made a stripper with a razor blade carefully set to the right depth between two pieces of wood with dial calipers. Of course faced with an MV termination repair, one has to decide if it's just easier to call somebody else to take care of it.

Watch this video, it's all you need to know:

This video is much longer and discusses much more in depth the theory of MV terminations.

 

[Joethemechanic]

if they could not do that, they did not work for me very long

Most of the big companies around here are more concerned with improving their ESG score than hiring anybody competent. What I always hear from management is "we can just train them" I mean, you know it's just so easy to take a 35 year old who never touched a screwdriver in his life and make him a mechanic, electrician, welder, millwright,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

What could it take, 2 or 3 months to get him "qualified"

 

[petersonra]

What could it take, 2 or 3 months to get him "qualified"

I would be willing to bet that for most jobs that would be possible for most of the work. Apprentices learn to do much of their work in that kind of time frame. They may not be real efficient at it, but if supervised properly they can perform a lot of tasks effectively.

They won't know all they need to know to do everything they might run across, but who among us does? Part of the process is learning what we don't know and learning how to learn how to do what we don't know.

What I see a fair amount of the time is people in the field who don't even read the instructions, likely because their bosses consider that to be wasted time

 

[roger]

We offered a lot of training to our employees covering a lot of different subjects and equipment. We brought Raychem in to train employees on MV and HV terminations. They did an excellent job of the theory and actual procedures of terminating.

 

[Joethemechanic]

I would be willing to bet that for most jobs that would be possible for most of the work. Apprentices learn to do much of their work in that kind of time frame. They may not be real efficient at it, but if supervised properly they can perform a lot of tasks effectively.

Your idea of qualified and mine must be way different. There is no way you can throw a 3 month guy up against any kind of equipment in a large manufacturing plant and expect him to troubleshoot it and fix it.

And ,yeah that's wat corporate believes at most of these plants. There are guys who don't really know how to use a multimeter, and break and/or strip half the bolts they touch who have access to areas with medium voltage switchgear.

And I've seen more than my share of absolutely clueless guys who get sent into a boiler house to see why an alarm is going off

 

[petersonra]

Your idea of qualified and mine must be way different. There is no way you can throw a 3 month guy up against any kind of equipment in a large manufacturing plant and expect him to troubleshoot it and fix it.

And ,yeah that's wat corporate believes at most of these plants. There are guys who don't really know how to use a multimeter, and break and/or strip half the bolts they touch who have access to areas with medium voltage switchgear.

And I've seen more than my share of absolutely clueless guys who get sent into a boiler house to see why an alarm is going off

Troubleshooting is a huge difference from routine electrical work.

 

[gadfly56]

Troubleshooting is a huge difference from routine electrical work.

Layer on an extra-large helping of no documentation, and it can be near hopeless. Someone just plopped a Comfort Inns & Suites on top of an existing parking garage not too far away. They better hope I don't die before they have to tear it down. So many changes were made on-the-fly that haven't been documented (and we're not the engineers of record) it takes three people to remember them all.

 

[Rick 0920]

The 3M cold shrink kits make splices and terminations pretty simple. If you are doing it for the first time or making several splices and terminations, call 3M. They will try to get one of their reps out to you to teach you and your men the proper techniques.