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CONTENTS
PUBLISHER
Danny J. Salchert OFFICE MANAGER
Anita Salchert CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Derek Gaylard CIRCULATION DIRECTOR
Pam Fulmer CONTRIBUTING WRITER
David Brender
16 PRESIDENT
COVER STORY 6 Proper Grounding System Resolves Electrical Issues at Gainesville, Florida AM Radio Stations
By David Brender
CASE STUDY 16 NLMK Pennsylvania Saves Nearly $100k Annually
So Far with Plant-wide Conversion to Dialight LEDs
Midway through massive retro, NLMK already sees tremendous drop in lighting maintenance and energy consumption.
COMPANY PROFILE 20
Souhegan Lighting Products LLC
DEPARTMENTS 22 Industry News 30 Product Spotlights 40 Ad Index ON THE COVER Photo courtesy of Copper Development Association
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Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
Danny J. Salchert Executive and Advertising Offices 2009 Eagle Ridge Drive Birmingham, AL 35242 toll free: 800.981.4541 phone: 205.981.4541 fax: 205.981.4544 www.epsmag.net • danny@epsmag.net Electrical Products & Solutions™ is published twelve times a year on a monthly basis by ABD Communications, Inc., 3591 Cahaba Beach Road, Birmingham, Alabama, 35242, USA. Electrical Products & Solutions™ is distributed free to qualified subscribers. Non-qualified subscription rates are $57.00 per year in the U.S. and Canada and $84.00 per year for foreign subscribers (surface mail). U.S. Postage paid at Birmingham, Alabama and additional mailing offices. Electrical Products & Solutions™ is distributed to qualified readers in the electrical contracting industry. Publisher is not liable for all content (including editorial and illustrations provided by advertisers) of advertisements published and does not accept responsibility for any claims made against the publisher. It is the advertiser’s or agency’s responsibility to obtain appropriate releases on any item or individuals pictured in an advertisement. Reproduction of this magazine in whole or in part is prohibited without prior written permission from the publisher. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ABD Communications, Inc., P.O. Box 382885 Birmingham, Alabama 35238-2885
PRINTED IN THE USA
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cover STORY
Copper Development Association
Proper Grounding System Resolves Electrical Issues at Gainesville, Florida AM Radio Stations By David Brender, National Program Manager, Copper Development Association
Two Florida AM radio stations were regularly experiencing transmission failures that would result in them going off-the-air, not only losing customers but the company money. To investigate the problem, the station’s owner called in John West Sr., a consultant specializing in grounding, bonding and lightning protection solutions, who has saved dozens of broadcast stations from going dark. WDVH and WTMN were recently acquired by MARC Radio Group, LLC., Gainesville, Florida. The two stations share transmission facilities and a tower. They were in poor shape at the time, regularly beset with lightning strikes and power surges that resulted in damaged equipment and offthe-air downtime. Both very costly. The station owners wanted to find out what was causing these electrical mishaps, and how they could prevent them from happening again. MARC Radio brought in West for a site inspection to determine what was causing the electrical issues. What he found at the transmitter facility was that the grounding did not meet even minimum National Electrical Code standards and the bonding was 6
not designed properly. There was also no surge protection. The facility was losing transmitter equipment, connectivity equipment, routers, hubs and the line to the tower.
Where Do You Start? West found that all grounds were bonded to the painted metallic skin of the transmission building and nothing else. There were no ground rods or a connection to earth other than through the building steel, which sits on a concrete slab (Figure 1). Obviously, it didn’t work. West started by mounting a ground bar on the outside of the building that’s connected to a ground bar inside that serves all the inside equipment (Figure 2). He connected the external ground bar to a ground field consisting of stranded 4/0 AWG copper wire and 40-foot ground rods spaced about every 40 feet. The field goes around the building and is terminated at a four-inch steel well casing in front of the building that penetrates some 150 feet into the earth (Figure 3). West took advantage of the well on the property as a very effective grounding electrode. He said a ground can’t get much
Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
FIGURE 1: At the first inspection, all ground connections from the transmitter building we bonded to the painted metallic band surrounding the building. Note the rust and several connections under one screw.
better than that. In fact, the ground resistance is so far below 1 ohm, it’s barely measurable (Figure 4). All ground field connections are exothermically welded. “That way I don’t have to worry about clamps being torqued or tightened; I don’t have to worry about a mechanical connection failing,” West said. “The connection becomes essentially one piece of metal, and there’s no maintenance requirement.” Continued on page 8
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cover STORY
Copper Development Association Continued from page 6
FIGURE 2: First step was a new grounding bar under the coax lines to which a 4/0 stranded copper bond from an inside ground bar and connection to the grounding field consisting vertical rods and water well were made.
Although solid #6 AWG copper is the minimum required by code, West insists it’s inadequate, especially for this kind of application. He points out that the smaller solid conductor doesn’t have enough surface area to carry the high-frequency energy of a lightning strike. As an example,
FIGURE 3: The building has a 150 foot steel water well which provides for an excellent vertical electrode, but not previously connected. Bonding from the 4/0 copper lead from the ground field was made exothermically.
he would compare the surface area of a solid #6 wire with that of a frozen juice can – that’s the effective surface area of 4/0. Incredibly more protection. According to West, 4/0 stranded copper or larger should always be used as the grounding conductor, particularly in lightning prone areas. His practice for all installations is to use a ground conductor that’s at least the same size as the service feed con-
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Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
ductor. For example, if the service is 750 MCM, the ground should be 750 MCM. That’s the only way to divert all the energy to ground, West said. West was quite precise in laying out the ground field. He explained that a ground rod is very much like a radio antenna. It transmits electrical energy a distance based upon the resistivity of the soil. The soil’s resistivity depends upon its composition, as well as contaminants, moisture content and temperature. He performed several fourpoint soil resistivity tests, using a Fall-ofPotential earth ground tester with four stakes. This was to find what the ground resistance was in soil areas that were consistent and not disturbed so he could locate the right spots for the ground rods. The length and separation of the ground rods is critical, too. “If you drive two ground rods real close together – say two 20-foot rods 6 feet apart – you might as well just put in one rod,” West said. “Electrically, they are one rod, and you’ve wasted Continued on page 12 a whole lot of money.
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cover STORY
Copper Development Association Continued from page 8
FIGURE 5: The shield of the coax going to the tower is bonded to the external grounding bar by means of Andrew’s Cuffs. The majority of lightning energy on the shield is thus diverted to the extensive external grounding system, rather than the internal equipment where it can do damage.
FIGURE 6: West insists the first thing to do is get all the grounding and bonding done right, if for nothing else, life safety. Then, put in layered levels of surge protection. The first panel loads (right panel) see the heaviest surge first. Following that is a second panel (middle) for typical house loads. A third panel (left) Unlike FM, an AM tower is an RF com- follows for the most sensitive loads, which ponent only. It does not have electronic cir- should have an isolated ground bus bar cuitry and is not tied to the electrical system that terminates back in the main at the XO bonding point (not a case ground).
in any way. In fact, the tower cannot be bonded to the facility ground, or it wouldn’t work. The tower sits on an insulator, isolated from its own base, with a spark gap to the earth. The tower has buried radials to FIGURE 4: After the new grounding and bonding was installed, the ground help send the signal. That tower also has resistance of the resultant system three sets of guy wires bonded to pylons in measured below 1 ohm. All internal the earth but insulated from the tower at equipment was bonded to a new interior several points. In effect, the insulators act grounding busbar, including the as spark gaps. With a ground resistance of telephone system and transmitter less than 8 ohms at the guy bases, the guys equipment. The interior bar was further connected to the external ground system. are effectively grounded, and lightning energy is divided between the tower ground Your readings for soil resistivity will de- and the guy wire grounds. termine the spacing between the rods. One to two times the length of the rods is desir- Inside The Building able. If you have poor soil, like Florida, and The first step was to have a contractor you go down two feet, the rods have to be provide code-minimum grounding and two feet apart minimum. In some cases, the bonding, if for nothing else, life safety. The resistivity is so good you want to place your next step was adding surge protection. rods further apart. That’s how we derived The inside grounding bar supports all the our 40-foot rods spaced 40 feet apart in this services that come into the building, the case. This provided the lowest impedance electrical system and the flat strap that runs and provided a diversion path for any light- around the floor, connecting all the broadning energy.” cast equipment. The ground bar is tied into the main electrical service with stranded 4/0 The Tower copper, the distribution panels, and to all The coaxial transmission line that goes the surge protectors that were installed after to the tower is bonded to the external all the grounding and bonding were done. ground bar through an Andrew’s surge ar- West said there’s still more bonding work restor, sometimes called an Andrew’s Cuff to be done, as the station is being remod(Figure 5). It clamps to the coax shield and eled. catches lightning energy that may come Three levels of surge protection were indown the shield of the cable toward the fa- stalled (Figure 6). The first panel loads see cility and the transmission equipment. The the heaviest surge first. Following that is a cuff is connected through double lugs to the second panel for typical house loads. A ground bar and then to the buried ground third panel follows for the most sensitive field. loads, which should have an isolated 12
Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
ground bus bar that terminates back in the main at the XO bonding point (not a case ground). Typically this is done using a green wire with a yellow or white tracer. All the ground pins from sensitive equipment should be tied directly back to the isolated ground point. The final step was to interconnect all new external grounding with the electrical service and all the internal equipment. “When we got here, we found metal equipment racks bolted to a concrete floor,” West said. “Initially, the racks, along with the equipment they supported, were bonded to the electrical system (Figure 7). That sets up a difference in ground potential. You can’t do that. The equipment has to be isolated from the floor. You can’t have two ground references. The equipment must have its own ground reference through the electrical system. It should not have a secondary ground reference.”
Telephone Service While inside, West pointed to the telephone service. Telcos bond their gas-tube lightning arrestors to ground. Their function is required by the FCC. Theoretically, they take the lightning off the incoming telephone line and route it to earth. “The problem here is they are using #6 solid copper wire with three 90-degree bends,” West pointed out. “In this case, the wire travels down and then goes back up. Lightning doesn’t work that way. First, it will flash straight across Continued on page 14
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cover STORY
Copper Development Association Continued from page 12 FIGURE 8: Telco’s often undersize the grounding conductor, or route it incorrectly. However, they do not allow anyone to revise their equipment. West retains their undersized #6 conductor for a short distance, but then transition to large, stranded conductor for the run to the internal busbar.
FIGURE 7: Concrete, especially when damp, can be a conductor, allowing current to flow. “We always recommend that racks be insulated from the concrete floor,” said West. Commercially available equipment is available for that purpose.
before it follows that wire. Plus, the wire is not stranded or of large enough gauge. It doesn’t have enough surface area.” Because telcos don’t want anyone touching their equipment, West put a small bonding bar near their installation, connected their #6 wire to it, and then properly ran a large, stranded copper conductor directly the rest of the way (Figure 8).
The Bottom Line “The two solid state transmitters, alone, had taken massive lightning hits, which cost us $1,400 apiece,” said Mark Schmucker, consulting broadcast engineer for the station group. “The cost to repair them far ex-
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Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
ceeded the cost of what was spent on the work that was done. Since the bonding was done, the occasions for damage have drastically decreased.” Although the work at these two stations was ongoing in February 2017, the results to date have been gratifying. Soon all the electrical issues will be incapacitated and the station owners and their bottom line will reap the full benefits of the properly designed and installed electrical grounding and bonding system. Schmucker said it best, “It makes me feel good when we see proper grounding. You get more satisfaction and more confidence in the facility when everything is grounded and bonded the way it’s supposed to be.”❏
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case STUDY
Dialight
NLMK Pennsylvania Saves Nearly $100k Annually So Far with Plant-wide Conversion to Dialight LEDs Midway through massive retro, NLMK already sees tremendous drop in lighting maintenance and energy consumption.
I
N CONTINUOUS OPERATION since the 1890s, the Sharon, Pennsylvania steel facility now known as NLMK PA is one of the oldest steel mills in the U.S. The facility is the birthplace of stainless steel, with an operational legacy of innovation and a keen eye on meeting the demands of tomorrow. Today, the massive 350-acre site serves as a hot mill reheat, pickling and cold-rolling facility whose products ultimately end up in the automotive, construction, pipe and tube, heavy equipment industries.
Challenge: Never-ending Lighting Maintenance To keep the operation well-illuminated 24/7, the facility runs more than 10,000 lights throughout production, warehouse and inspection areas, in roadways, waterways and parking lots and perimeter security lighting. Just 6 years ago, the entire facility relied on a mix of conventional HID lights, including high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor, with a few fluorescents in key areas.
Project Snapshot: • 350-acre steel mill facility in Sharon, Pennsylvania. • Over 10,000 HID lights including mercury vapor, HPS, fluorescent & incandescent • About 5,000 lights replaced so far at 40% completion • Variety of Dialight LED High Bays, Area Lights, Linears, StreetSense street lights & RTO fixtures • At least $100,000 annual maintenance & energy savings so far. Because of the heavy industrial environment and the failure-prone nature of the HID bulbs and fixtures, electrical crews were continuously bogged down with lighting maintenance. “If we got two years out of the lights, we were happy, but they were very dim,” said Jeff Statham, NLMK fa16
cilities maintenance manager at the site. “Changing the bulbs was extremely difficult and required that we take production equipment and cranes offline, which cut severely into plant operations.”
visual clarity were also key factors. With their much higher CRI, the Dialight LEDs produced a much more natural color, providing a tremendous improvement in visibility, particularly for troubleshooting and product quality inspection. Solution: Dialight Industrial Finally, Dialight’s broad product portLED Fixtures folio promised to streamline supply chain Determined to find a better solution to management, allowing NLMK to source reduce both the cost and the headache, all of it fixtures to suit a wide range of apStidham began investigating LED light- plications. ing as an alternative to the conventional HIDs. He invited several companies to Results: Massive Maintenance come in and run a 6-8 month trial with test & Energy Savings fixtures throughout the plant. Among the Working with Advanced Controls & several products tested, Dialight, the in- Distribution near Pittsburgh, NLMK placed dustry leader in industrial LED lighting an initial order of 800 Dialight LED High solutions, rose to the top, primarily for its Bays for its hot mill area, thus kicking off a rugged, durable fixtures and it’s extended, full plant-wide conversion that’s now in its full-performance warranty. 6th year. Stidham estimates the facility is “Dialight was hands-down our top roughly 40% converted to Dialight LED, pick,” Stidham said. “We especially liked with a total fixture count nearing approxithe heavy duty aspect of the fixtures, be- mately 5,000 Dialight LEDs in place. cause we needed something that could So far, the plant has already saved at hold up to the steel mill environment. least $50,000 annually on maintenance, This is where Dialight blew everyone out and Stidham says it could be perhaps as of the water.” much as $100,000. The energy savings In addition to durability, light output and have also been “huge” Continued on page 18
Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
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case STUDY
Dialight Continued from page 16
and the cost is still coming down as more lights are added. In addition, the changeover has freed up substantial space in the store room, because the plant no longer has to stockpile hundreds of bulbs and ballasts for the old, failure-prone fixtures. “In 2015 alone, we purchased 2,500 lights. We still have a long way to go, but we’re already seeing a tremendous cost savings, drop in our kilowatt-hour consumption that could only be attributable to the new lights, and much less burden on our maintenance staff,” he said. “It used to be that on any given day, someone somewhere in this plant was always working on the lights. We’ve seen that cut dramatically by about 50%.” In some areas, the new High Bays provided such an improvement in visibility compared to the older HP fixtures, the plant was able to replace two HPS units with just one Dialight High Bay. In addition to the mass quantity of High Bays in the rolling and other production areas, Stidham says their other “favorite fixture and most popu-
lar are the 70W Area Lights, which was one of the first test products installed at the facility. After just 4 months in place, the Area Lights were enough to prompt the 2nd largest retrofit project in the plant – a street lighting upgrade using nearly 400 Dialight StreetSense fixtures.
Results: Massive Maintenance & Energy Savings (Continued) “The street lighting and perimeter lighting have been a major upgrade. We used to have electricians on the road every day to change streetlight bulbs, so this has been a huge savings in man-hours, not to mention the reduced electricity consumption,” Stidham said. “It’s also helped improve plant security. We have 130 HD cameras in place, and the upgraded lighting gives us images that are like day and night compared to the old fixtures. The security department wants them everywhere now. We’re getting there—we still have about 50% of our exterior lighting to replace.” Other Dialight fixtures installed through-
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Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
out the plant include RTO jelly-jar type of fixtures in the hazardous zones within the oil cellars near production equipment replacing incandescent fixtures, and Linear fixtures overtop each cold rolling inspection table, providing much improved visual clarity compared to the previous fluorescent fixtures there. As the retrofit project continues, Stidham says NLMK remains committed to the product quality, variety, durability, warranty and service only Dialight can provide. “Now that LED has caught on, we have multiple vendors trying to sell us lights, but the Dialight product sells itself,” he said. “Everyone wants the new LEDs in their work area, and there’s no talk of any other type of light going in here.” To learn more about Dialight’s industry leading LED lighting solutions, visit www.dialight.com. ❏
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company PROFILE
Souhegan Lighting Products LLC
SOUHEGAN
LIGHTING PRODUCTS LLC
S
ouhegan Lighting Products LLC fixture components in the Northeastern
began in 2001 as a private label supplier of HID ballast replacement kits to electrical wholesalers nationwide. It was started by the owners of a nationwide distributor of ballasts, lamps and fixtures to establish a brand name and to service the many small lighting distributors that could not get the attention of the brand name manufacturers. The two companies worked closely together for 16 years to provide high quality lighting replacement parts to customers in all 50 states. Earlier this year, one of the partners, Kevin Eagan bought out his partner’s interest in Souhegan Lighting Products LLC and at the same time sold his interest in the other company. While the two companies no longer have common ownership, they continue to work together in many areas including their joint venture online store, www.lightingoutletnh.com. While the primary mission of providing HID ballast replacement parts to distributors remains the focus of their business, Souhegan Lighting Products LLC is now a master distributor of HID and fluorescent ballasts, lamps and other
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part of the United States. They also carry LED lamps, drivers and fixtures as well as several retrofit products. Souhegan Lighting has built a reputation over the years for locating hard-to-find lamps, ballasts and components. They also offer lamp and ballast recycling services to their customers in the Northeast. Buyers should check out their storefront on ebay.com where you can find, overstocks, discontinued products and closeout items. The storefront can be found at www.stores.ebay.com/us2015-labou. The primary web site, www.souheganlighting.com is a great resource for ballast specs as well as weekly unadvertised specials. Fill out the form on the specials/contact page to receive our weekly email blast filed with more weekly specials. Call us at 1-877-610-4010 and learn how Souhegan Lighting Products LLC can provide you with quality HID ballast kits and more, in stock and out the door to you the same day you order, 95% of the time. ❏
Electrical Products & Solutions • September 2017
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industry NEWS
Electri-Flex Company
Re-Releases Full Product Catalog Electri-Flex Company, leader in flexi- Full Product Catalog featuring the Lible electrical conduit design and manu- quatite® line. This 56 page catalog infacturing, has updated and re-released the corporates over 40 varieties of flexible
conduit from the following product categories: Jacketed Metallic, EMI/RFI Shielded, Unjacketed Metallic, Nonmetallic and Stainless Steel conduits. Readers can view newly released products, reference the enhanced Conduit Application Guide, search for conduit by Market, and easily navigate product pages that mirror the Company’s redesigned Website. Dennis Linden, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, states, “We’re excited to roll out the catalog that now includes even more conduit options. The Company is the recognized leader in the Industry, leader in R&D, and continues to create new products that support the needs of our loyal stocking distributor partners.” ❏ To request a copy of the full product catalog, please visit https://www.electri flex.com/resource-library/, or email mktg@electriflex.com. Electri-Flex Company, a leader in electrical conduit design and manufacture for over 60 years produces Liquatite®, the most diverse line of liquidtight flexible electrical conduit in the industry. The company offers custom design, engineering, quality assurance and testing capabilities. For more information on Electri-Flex Company, call (630) 529-2920 or (800) 323-6174; fax: (630) 529-0482; e-mail: mktg@electriflex.com; visit: www.electri flex.com; or write: 222 West Central Avenue, Roselle, IL, 60172-1994. FOR FREE INFO, CIRCLE 42 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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industry NEWS
Universal Adds Freddy Preston as Southeast Regional Sales Manager Universal Lighting Technologies, Inc., a global leader in lighting and a member of the Panasonic Group, has hired Freddy Preston as a Regional Sales Manager in its Southeast United States territory. In his new role, Preston will work directly with energy service companies, lighting management consultants, energy specialists, distributors and agents to specify Universal’s wide range of lighting solutions in projects across the region. Preston is a strong advocate for sales training and understands the importance of education, which the company supports through Universal University. “We pride ourselves on the ability to understand our customers’ unique needs
and consistently deliver the appropriate solution from Universal Lighting Technologies,” said Jeff Bristol, vice president of east coast sales for Universal Lighting Technologies. “Freddy’s problem-solving skills will drive outstanding results for our clients, and we look forward to his continued success as a part of our team.” Preston joins Universal with more than 20 years of experience in the industry, much of that working with architects, lighting designers and others to ensure appropriate lighting projects are specified. For more information on Universal Lighting Technologies, please visit www.unvlt.com. ❏
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new PRODUCTS Atkore International’s ACS/Uni-Fab Offers Modular Raised Floor and High Bay Wiring Systems Optimize utility space and save time and money at the job site ACS/Uni-Fab, part of the leading manufacturer of electrical products Atkore International, highlights their modular raised floor and high bay lighting wiring systems. The ACS/Uni-Fab Intelligent Floor® wiring solution is an adaptable electrical raceway solution for rapid installation of power, voice and data to the workstation in raised floor applications. It optimizes utility space and is ideal for offices spaces, trading floors, computer rooms, casino gaming areas, and other accessible floor applications where speed of installation and relocatability is paramount. The back-to-the-panel wiring solution includes factory installed custom homerun cables attached to multi-port distribution boxes. For power applications, the system includes a main distribution box that provides power to the access floor modules and/or secondary distribution boxes via double port extender cables and/or single port extender cables. The system can be designed and built to meet specific project requirements. All of the modular raised floor products are UL® and CSA Listed. All are 100 percent tested and assembled by our IBEW team members. Also available are modular systems for high bay lighting in open ceilings. Working from electrical engineered system drawings, ACS/Uni-Fab rapidly provides precise installation drawings for the open bay solution, greatly reducing the installed time and project costs. These innovative solutions are ideal for virtually any commercial, industrial, retail and institutional location requiring high bay or low bay lighting. They are a great choice for factories, warehouses, super stores, supermarkets, and other open ceiling applications. For more information, visit www.acsunifab.com
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new PRODUCTS Low-Level Push-Around Hy-Brid Lifts Enhance Safety and Productivity Custom Equipment’s push-around models of Hy-Brid Lifts — the HB-P527, HB-P827 and HB-P1027 — give electrical contractors safer and more productive alternatives to ladders and scaffolds. They also are a more lightweight and compact alternative to taller lifts. The units provide ample platform space for supplies, such as electrical wire, conduit and tools, minimizing the number of trips up and down to reload the lift. With their 11.3-, 14- and 16-foot working heights, respectively, contractors can use the Hy-Brid pusharound lifts in many of the same areas as ladders and scaffolds, greatly improving safety on electrical jobs. With the chance for falls virtually eliminated, operators can confidently maneuver tools and materials without steadying themselves. They also reduce the number of trips up and down to secure tools, and the platform provides a larger accessible work zone than a ladder, which enhances efficiency. The largest platform is just 27.7 inches wide, so they easily fit through narrow doorways. The HB-P527 platform is 37 inches long and can hold as much as 500 pounds. The HB-P827 and HB-P1027 both feature a 37-inch long platform that can hold 550 pounds. The three units have a zero-turn radius for hassle-free maneuverability around tight corners and through doorways. The lifts weigh as little as 575 pounds, resulting in wheel loads as low as 115 psi. This allows contractors to use the units on delicate floors where ladders would normally be used, such as laminate, mezzanines, raised floors and tile. Users also can get onto poured concrete several days sooner than they can with larger lifts. Custom Equipment designed the lifts’ hydraulic systems for minimal risk of leaks. The HB-P527 features an integrated hydraulic pump and lift cylinder, while the HB-P827 and HB-P1027 feature completely self-contained hydraulic systems with only two connection points. These features minimize the potential for floor damage and safety hazards and provide a clean system for operating indoors in either finished or unfinished environments. For more information, visit www.hybridlifts.com
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new PRODUCTS Shielded Conduit Protects Against EMI/RFI Electri-Flex Company manufactures a broad line of shielding conduits that are designed to protect sensitive electronic circuits from electromagnetic and radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI) in a variety of applications. These applications are found in aerospace, communications, radar and data transmission, and many other industries where commercial off the shelf (COTS) products are acceptable.
Product Types The three types of shielded conduit can be classified as “good,” “better,” and “best” solutions to provide effective shielding from RFI and EMI interference. Good Shielding: Type SLA, UL Listed, is a flexible steel conduit with a galvanized steel core, over which a tinned copper shielding braid is applied. The outer jacket is flexible PVC with a temperature rating of -30° to 80°C Dry / 60°C Wet / 70°C Oil while the braid offers a minimum of 90% shielding coverage. Better Shielding: Type EMS offers a better shielding effectiveness than Type SLA with a temperature rating of -55°C to 105°C. EMS features a flexible core constructed of a helically wound, fully interlocked strip of bronze. An all-temperature PVC jacket is extruded over the core, resulting in a sealed, waterproof raceway when assembled with liquidtight fittings. BEST Shielding: Type EMCS is a hybrid of SLA and EMS because it utilizes the same bronze core and PVC jacket as EMS but gets further screening protection from a tinned copper braid as found in the SLA product. Type EMCS offers the same working temperatures as EMS. For more information, visit www.electriflex.com
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advertiser INDEX
SEPTEMBER 2017
This advertisers index is compiled as a courtesy to our readers. While every effort is made to provide a complete and accurate listing of companies, page numbers and reader service numbers, the publisher is not responsible for errors.
Company 2017 NECA SHOW ADVANCED TEST EQUIPMENT AEMC INSTRUMENTS AUTAC INC. CONDUIT RAT CONDUIT REPAIR SYSTEMS COPPER DEVOLPMENT ASSOCIATION DABMAR LIGHTING DOUGLAS LIGHTING CONTROLS ELECTRI-FLEX COMPANY ELECTRIC EXPO 2017 EMERGENT SAFETY SUPPLY FACILITY RESULTS GRADY RESEARCH, INC GREAVES USA GREENSHINE NEW ENERGY HERCULES INDUSTRIES, INC. HIOKI USA ITOOLCO
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28 21 38 48 IFC 1 36, 37 27 40 50 4 6 23 17 30 44 14 41 26 43 39 28 29 22 34 47 33 25 8 40 32 24 40 49 IBC, 9, 25 2, 9, 19 31 23
Company KRENZ & COMPANY MILLER SAFETY CONSULTANTS, LTD PLATINUM TOOLS POWER & TEL PROBUILT PROFESSIONAL LIGHTING RANDL INDUSTRIES ROLL-A-REEL RUNTAL NORTH AMERICA SONEL TEST & MEASUREMENT INC. SOUHEAGAN LIGHTING PRODUCTS LLC SYLVANIA TCP THE HOME DEPOT TIMCO INSTRUMENTS TOPAZ UEI TEST INSTRUMENTS USA LED SOLUTIONS UTILITY METALS VOLT LIGHTING
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30 BC 19 15 35 21 34 5 3 24 1 27 13 18 22 7 11 10 17
45 3 15 13 26 16 46 7 5 18 4 20 12 51 42 8 11 10 14
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