Cable Management
Metal cable management made simple
Terry Adams, technical manager at Marshall-Tufflex, outlines what wholesalers need to know about metal cable management systems to deliver the best advice and support to customers.
T
here is no one size fits all solution for cable management systems, with factors including the type of
building, occupant requirements and the risks present in the environment all impacting the specification. Metal systems, specifically, steel and aluminium products, are suitable for meeting many of these requirements and wholesaler teams need to know when to recommend them.
Selecting the right system for the environment
When supporting customers with cable management recommendations and product selections it is important to understand where and how the products will be installed. What is suitable for some interior environments will not work for others. In fact, the IET Wiring Regulations (BS 7671) provides guidance on protecting cables from the risk of ‘external influences’ such as impact, abrasion, penetration, tension and compression. In Regulation 522.6 of the current 18th Edition, it states that in environments where medium or high severity impacts can occur – categorised as AG2 and AG3 – cables should be protected using one or a combination of: • • •
the mechanical characteristics of the system the installation location
additional protection, such as a barrier to 16 | electrical wholesaler August 2026 prevent impacts
Often one of the simplest solutions to avoiding the risk of impacts is to utilise ceiling mounted cable trays and baskets. Metal cable tray systems can provide a strong, high-capacity option, which is ideal where a large number of cables or heavier armoured cable must be supported. A recommendation that will streamline installation is a cable tray product with a perforated design as this aids air ventilation and makes it simple to secure the bundles of cables.
Where a wall mounted solution, such as dado trunking, is required, the physical strength of metal trunking makes it resistant to impact, preventing damage to the cables and minimising damage to the trunking itself. When compared with PVC-U products, which do not have this higher level of impact resistance, metal systems can reduce long-term maintenance costs.
Achieving EMI Protection
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is another issue that can be addressed with the correct choice of product. EMI on data cables impacts the performance of the building’s network and generally has two sources. The first is routing a large number of power and data cables together and the other is interference from nearby electrical equipment.
ewnews.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
