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Characteristics Of A Good Earthing System

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The transient nature of lightning with its associated fast rise times and large magnitude currents mean that special consideration needs to be given to earthing, for lightning protection to be effective.

Many factors such as soil resistivity variations, installation accessibility, layout and existing physical features are all site specific and tend to affect decisions on grounding methods employed. The primary aim of a direct strike earthing system is to:

– Efficiently dissipate lightning surge energy into the ground
– Help ensure safety of equipment and personnel

Effective Earthing and Lightning Protection Systems

A good earthing systems will feature the following 7 characteristics:

  1. Good electrical conductivity
  2. Conductors capable of withstanding high fault currents
  3. Long life – at least 40 years
  4. Low ground resistance and impedance

​The basic philosophy of any grounding installation should be an attempt to maximise the surface area of electrodes of conductors with the surrounding soil. Not only does this help to lower the earth resistance of the grounding system, but it also greatly improves the impedance of the grounding system under lightning surge conditions.

  1. Equipotential bonding

Equipotential bonding helps ensure that hazardous potential differences do not occur between different incoming conductors such as metallic water services, power systems, telecommunication systems and the local ground, and also minuses step and touch potentials.

  1. Good corrosion resistance

The ground electrode system should be corrosion resistant, and compatible with other conductors that are buried and bonded to the ground system. Copper is by far the most common material used for grounding conductors. In general, some form of maintenance or inspection procedure should be adopted to ensure the long-term effectiveness of a grounding system.

  1. Electrically and mechanically robust and reliable

Mechanical coupling can be used to join ground conductors, but suffers from corrosion effects when dissimilar metals are involved. As well as mechanical strength, CADWELD connections provide excellent low impedance, long life electrical connections with excellent corrosion resistance. More information on the benefits of exothermically bonded connections can be found here.

A Typical Earthing System

A typical earthing system

For more information on our range of lightning protection products, visit the earthing section of our website.

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Rail Industry Stories From Around The World – June 2015

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Crossrail Completes 26 miles Of Tunnelling

Workers on Crossrail – described as Europe’s biggest construction project – have finished 26 miles of tunnelling under the Capital.

Tunnelling began in 2012 and continued 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eight tunnel boring machines were used to create the 6.2 m (20 ft) diameter tunnels.

Crossrail will eventually connect Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east to form a new 73-mile rail route. There will be with 40 stations; an expected 200 million passengers every year are expected to use Crossrail.

Services through central London are due to begin in December 2018.

HS2 Will ‘Go Ahead’

Construction on the new high speed rail line – HS2 – from London to Manchester will go ahead, the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, has vowed. He said construction would begin in two years.

Mr McLoughlin also promised HS3 – linking between Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and Hull.

The Minister said the new rail infrastructure would mean the north could shape its own future by developing powers away from Whitehall.

Mr McLoughlin also said that the full ‘Y’ network HS2 will be built – from London to Birmingham and Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

Parliamentary scrutiny of the bill for phase one between London and Birmingham will begin shortly.

Sydney Light Railway Construction To Begin

Construction of Sydney’s South East Light Rail system is to start in October. Connecting up with Circular Quay and Central railway stations, the new rail network will stretch for 12 kilometres around the city centre.

The railway will also include Sydney Football Stadium, the Moore Park sporting and entertainment precinct, the University of New South Wales, Randwick Racecourse, and Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick.

The project will be spread across 31 different construction zones. Major civil works will be completed in April 2018.

ETS Pulls No Punches Supporting Supplier Colleague

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A year ago Sean Boyd – Procurement Manager at Keltbray Aspire – weighed 19 stone. He says his life consistent of beer, cigarettes and kebabs.

Roll onto 2015 and Sean has lost an amazing five stone. He’s now adding the pounds in another way by fundraising through boxing.

Sean began his new fitness regime after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. He says that his mum’s illness had made him realise that he needed to radically change his own lifestyle.

As well as boxing, Sean now trains five days a week which includes running and exercising in the gym. He also eats more healthily.

Open to people with no boxing experience, Sean entered the Ultra White Collar Boxing tournament in April at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena to raise money for Cancer Research.

ETS was delighted to sponsor Sean for this important cause – so far he has raised over £10,000. As well as this incredible amount, Sean has also recently won the TKO in the 3rd round boxing which took place in front of 3,500 people.

He is now working towards his boxing coaching certificates at Ricky Hatton’s Boxing Academy.
Congratulations Sean from all of us at ETS.

Power Cable Accessories Supplier ETS Helps Restore Power To West End

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Leading power cable accessories supplier ETS Cable Components, and cleat manufacturer, Ellis, pulled out all the stops to help restore power back to the West End after a major underground fire.

Thousands of people had to be evacuated and many theatre performances were cancelled when flames started shooting out from an inspection cover in Holborn on Wednesday 1 April.

Over the Easter Bank holiday weekend, there was a major push to restore power as quickly as possible to the central London electricity network. ETS were called to supply Emperor cleats, support brackets and relevant fixings, which would be used to fix the replacement high voltage cables in place. ETS delivered these items within two hours of receiving the call via their emergency weekend phone service.

Cleat manufacturer – Ellis – then agreed to start production at a moment’s notice, despite the Easter shutdown, to provide additional cleats. ETS then made arrangements to have the finished products delivered to the affected area in Central London promptly, despite the logistics involved with various road closures in place. “We pride ourselves on going the extra mile – this is another example of exceptional teamwork,” said Operations Director Kevin Moloney.

ETS have been supplying power cable accessories for more than 25 years across a range of sectors including rail, renewables, industrial and data centres. You can see all of the ETS cable cleats range by clicking here.

For further information call: +44 (0)20 8405 6789 or email: sales@etscablecomponents.com

ETS Staff Supporting The Alzheimer’s Society

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Staff from our Midlands Project Office were again proud to be involved with the annual Cannock Chase Alzheimer’s Society Memory Walk, with this year proving to be the biggest event yet.

Organisers and ETS volunteers alike are celebrating after numbers doubled for last weekend’s event. More than 1,100 took part, which is almost double the number of attendees who attended in 2013.

The society organises these sponsored walks throughout the UK as a way of raising much needed funds to help people living with Dementia and to help research into finding a cure.

  Channock Chase Memory Walk Channock Chase Memory Walk Channock Chase Memory Walk

Hundreds of people turned up for the walk, including some famous faces including former They Think It’s All Over presenter Nick Hancock, a couple of Wolverhampton Wanderers players and BBC news presenters.

All in all the event was a great success and around £45,000 is hoped to have been raised.

For more information on the work they do please visit http://www.memorywalk.org.uk 

Cembre Update Product Range With New Hydraulic Crimpers

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Cembre, the internationally renowned tool cable tooling manufacturer, has recently launched two new 18v cordless battery operated hydraulic crimping tools. The new B500E and B1350-CE are designed to replace the B51 and B135-C crimping tools respectively.

Main Features

The new tools represent a significantly advantageous evolution of the popular B51 and B135-C tools. The main features of this new generation of crimpers include:

  • New Li-Ion 18V 4Ah batteries offering high capacity, faster charging and energy optimisation.
  • Greater crimping speed and crimping force resulting from a revitalised hydraulic system with double speed action.
  • A maximum pressure sensor and security valve, together provide greater precision and repeatability of the pressure cycle and double the provision for operator safety.
  • An OLED display makes essential tool operating information available in real time. Including:Compression force being generated, for confirmation of tool performance and adherence to best practices.
  • Bi-component plastic shell for enhanced resistance to wear and damage, and rubber grip inserts for operator comfort.
  • LED lighting at the front of the tool to illuminate the working area for additional convenience and safety.

The tools will also collect crimping cycle data for up to 200,000 events, this is automatically stored on a memory card for transfer to PC by USB interface.

New LED display with touch button

battery led display

Remaining batter power status

 crimps remaining until service

Number of crimps remaining before tool service is required to maintain optimum condition.

 compression force generated

Compression force being generated, for confirmation of tool performance and adherence to be practices.

 tool identification

Tool identification, LED state

The data below shows the specific performance increases of both the Cembre B500E and B1350-CE over their previous counterparts.

Comparison of performance: Cembre B500E vs Cembre B51

b500e vs b51 cembre comparison

Comparison of performance: Cembre B1350-CE vs B135-C

Cembre b1350 ce vs cembre b135

For more information on the new range of Cembre crimping tools, please contact our Tooling Department with your requirements.

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020 8405 6789
E.T.S. (Portsmouth) Limited T/A ETS Cable Components
Unit 43, Barwell Business Park
Leatherhead Road, Chessington
Surrey, KT9 2NY
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