SAE J1127 - Welding cable in disconnect

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Bill Turax

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I have a job where the customer wanted cam-locks installed on the load side of a disconnect. the disconnect is 600v rated, NEMA 1 indoors. the load is 500 amps non continuous. service voltage is 480.
We installed parallel 1/0 SAE J1127 - Welding cable - rated for 600v and 350 amps at 50 foot.

He have welding cable installed from the load side of the disconnect to the cam-locks installed in the bottom of the disconnect. Inspector is saying that the welding cable is not permitted inside the disconnect.

My question is: What is the conde reference indicating that welding cable cannot be installed inside a disconnect.
 
The cable is marked as such:
1/0 FLEX-A-PRENE WELDING CABLE 600V -50°C +105°C * MADE IN USA * RoHS * SAE J1127

spec sheet is attached
 

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1. If it's not a conductor type listed in 310.104, it is not allowable for a NEC covered installation 310.10
2. Fine strand cable require listed termination methods. 110.14
 
1) Not an NEC accepted wiring material. Some welding cable has multiple ratings but the cable you used does not.

2) The welding cable suggested ampacity for welding use is _not_ the NEC accepted ampacity for building wiring. So even if you had welding cable marked with multiple ratings you still couldn't use 1/0 cable at 350A.

3) The lugs in the disconnect are almost certainly not rated for fine stranded wire. The panel mount cam-locks _might_ be rated for fine stranded wire.

-Jon
 
Bill Turax said:
The cable is marked as such:
1/0 FLEX-A-PRENE WELDING CABLE 600V -50°C +105°C * MADE IN USA * RoHS * SAE J1127

spec sheet is attached
Click to expand...
They're not going to let you use that. Not an approved wiring method.
 
zbang said:
BTW, the usual 1016-series Camlok is only rated to 400 amps continuous for the double set-screw version (there are other versions).


If the customer really wants flexible cable there, you need type W or SC, but unless there's a good reason, just go with THHN.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply.
Each phase is paralleled So there's much less than 400 amps going through each line.

I would love to be able to use THHN but the problem Is the cam locks we have don't accept 350 copper. I have not been able to locate cam locks that accept 350 copper.
I did find some that have a bar with a 5/16 threaded hole in it instead of a barrel. I'm thinking I can run 350 copper from the disconnect lugs and then crimp on a one hole compression lug and then bolt it to the bar on the cam lock.
 
Bill Turax said:
Each phase is paralleled So there's much less than 400 amps going through each line.
Click to expand...
Multiple connectors per phase? (that's not clear in the description) There are times when a quick sketch is quite useful.

Bill Turax said:
I would love to be able to use THHN but the problem Is the cam locks we have don't accept 350 copper. I have not been able to locate cam locks that accept 350 copper.
Click to expand...
Also unclear, but panel-mount camloks usually have threaded studs, not a barrel, so it's whatever lug you can fit on it (look at all the options in the Eaton catalog above). However they're still only rated for 400 amps cont., so stuffing a 350 in there doesn't make sense to me.

What's the load (device, draw, duty cycle)? For instance, the rules for welders are often different from those for a battery charger or for general purpose machines.
 
Can't use type W or SC in that disconnect switch either. Both of those are flexible cord, not building wire. If you need flexible wire here the correct thing to use (without getting into anything specialty such as big MTW thats dual listed THW) is DLO that's dual rated RHW. Use a ferrule or pin terminal on the disconnect side and a fine strand rated crimp lug on the camlock side.
 
You can also cause backfeeds on the male cam-locks at the load end or am I not understanding.

Mark
 
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