Transnet ditching copper cables

[Hanno Labuschagne]

Transnet ditching copper cables

Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager CEO, Moshe Motlohi, has revealed that the state-owned company is phasing out copper cabling in favour of "poor quality" Tiger Wire.

The Transnet rail network has historically been plagued by theft of overhead copper cables, which effectively paralysed the network on several occasions.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Tiger Wire is an Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR) cable that relies on an inner core of steel for tensile strength and an outer layer of aluminium for conductivity.

 

[Gordon_R]

Tiger Wire is an Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR) cable that relies on an inner core of steel for tensile strength and an outer layer of aluminium for conductivity.

Interestingly animal names are given to various sizes, Tiger is 125mm2. Other sizes include:

Dog: 100 mm² aluminum area (6 Al / 7 steel)
Wolf: 150 mm² aluminum area (6 Al / 7 steel)

 

[Hemi300c]

Good luck, you going to need every bit of it.

 

[Justanotherguybythesea]

The only reason this cable, which is what Eskom uses for power lines, is not easy to scrap is that those steel strands in the cable are a high carbon steel, coated with aluminium for protection. Thus the scrap yard has to first strip out that steel wire, before they use a mechanical hydraulic chopper to cut the cable into short lengths to fit in the container, as otherwise that steel will make the cable be rejected by the foundry, and the high carbon steel means it will destroy the cutter jaws after only a few cuts, as they are not designed to cut what is spring steel. Eskom has been using it for years as ground cabling on poles, as the average thief will not spend the time to strip out the strands, and the scrap yards will take it only as sub grade, at R1 per kilo, instead of the R11 per kilo for aluminium. Means that stealing 2km of it, which might cost r2 million to replace, will only net the thieves around R5000 for the cable, instead of the R50k for aluminium, or the R400k for pure copper.

 

[LazyLion]

If only we had some kind of police force that could target, arrest and incarcerate these thieves....

Heck, you could even have your own division of "railway police"

 

[porchrat]

If only we had some kind of police force that could target, arrest and incarcerate these thieves....

Heck, you could even have your own division of "railway police"

Pie in the sky nonsense. Such a thing has never, and will never be possible.

Next you'll be telling me a military should be fighting fit, with enough fuel to move the vehicles around on a regular basis.