Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • State Not Answered
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 10 replies
  • Subscribers 39 subscribers
  • Views 1729 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion is locked.
You cannot post a reply to this discussion. If you have a question start a new discussion

How much current does is take to melt a cable?

E95

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

Parents
  • 0

    I agree that return current from welding is likely as we now know that it is a welding area.

    As regards the witness stating that no welding was taking place at the time,

    They might be lying especially if they caused the mishap, or they might be genuinely mistaken, or the damage might have been pre-existing and only noticed when it went bang, or was detected upon inspection.

  • 0 in reply to broadgage

    Many years ago, a foreman at a firm of contractors that I worked for, said that a bare stranded earth wire completely vaporised on a wall when a welder was wrongly connected to it.

    Z.

Reply
  • 0 in reply to broadgage

    Many years ago, a foreman at a firm of contractors that I worked for, said that a bare stranded earth wire completely vaporised on a wall when a welder was wrongly connected to it.

    Z.

Children
No Data

Join us to get the best from IET EngX.

Joining EngX lets you personalise your experience so you stay up to date on the topics that interest you, plus you’ll be able to make connections who are looking to collaborate, exchange ideas and more.

Join us Not now

Community Rules & Guidelines