Conductor and Insulation Duribility Testing

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bphgravity

Senior Member
Location
Florida
We had an aluminum wire manufacturing rep give a presentation at our IAEI meeting yesterday. According to him, UL performs a test on all insulated conductors and cables to simulate 30 years of use. This is done by raising the ambient temperature of the conductor or cable to 186? (100? above 310.16 temperature) and then submerges the conductor or cable into 32? water. They repeat this 30 times and then perform all tests on the conductors and the insulation again.

I just thought I would share this with you guys. I like learning about these things. :D
 
B

bthielen

Guest
Re: Conductor and Insulation Duribility Testing

Maybe someone with a good understanding of chemistry and/or physics can explain this. It seems to me that heating a substance or object to high temperature and then rapidly cooling it is somewhat different than the typical gradual change as would be expected from environmental conditions such as weather or inside a structural wall. For example, I have been told that suddenly cooling a hot engine block with cold water can cause it to crack however, after being heated to 200 degrees F plus running temperature that same engine block can handle being cooled by weather conditions down to -50 degrees F. without a problem. How does UL feel this testing process simulates 30 years of use?

Bob
 

bphgravity

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Re: Conductor and Insulation Duribility Testing

I was notified today by a rep from UL that the procedure in my first post is not accurate. He will be attending our next IAEI meeting this month and is bringing the correct information on cable and conductor testing and listing. I'm sure the corrected information will make more sense and be more practical.
 
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