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How much current does is take to melt a cable?

Hi all,

Recently I've encountered a bit 16mm 5 core SY cable. (Strangely the earth cable and pin has been burnt/melted at the plug and socket of the extension lead)

Struggling to determine whether this was either a design fault, cable defect or external fault

It appears that the cable is rated for 61.5A with the 0.75 derating factor due to five cores, and at one section of the cable it has been tightly coiled. Assuming that it is fed from a BS-88 fuse it would take 3600s (One hour) to operate.

What point does the cable burn up, how is this calculated? The load current is 75A, would this cause cable damage prior to operation?

Regards

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0 AdrianWint over 3 years ago

A welder would be my thoughts too.

I've seen first-hand the mess that was made when the 1.0mm2 earth core of an inspection lamp inadvertently became the current return path for a welder!

It would seem that securely attaching the welders' own return cable (sometimes, incorrectly called 'earth') to the work piece is not regarded as essential by some operatives........
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0 E95 over 3 years ago in reply to AdrianWint

Stray return current was my initial thought as it's mostly a welding work area .. HOWEVER a witness has stated there was no welding going on at the time
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0 E95 over 3 years ago in reply to AdrianWint

Stray return current was my initial thought as it's mostly a welding work area .. HOWEVER a witness has stated there was no welding going on at the time
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How much current does is take to melt a cable?

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