Friday, February 7, 2014

More to Cable labels than the specification. 2016


Cable Labels

So we read about cable labels, how they are the next best if they do not burn, smoke and fall apart, well the technicians of this world just want a cable label to stick and NOT come off.
At our office in Sunny Florida and we have a bunch of cable labels outside on test and just in case you don’t know we have thousands installed out at sea, which is the most hard environment in the world.

All the service engineer need to knows is that when he comes back in 5 years to fix the Cat6 fault the cable labels is still on the cable and readable. Now we are not saying that (LSZH) low smoke zero halogen cables don’t need to be installed and that cable label of the same material would help, but been in the areas that have had ship fires around me the news is that the jacket and everything else has gone, just a bit of copper hanging from the ceiling.

The Europe Cable labels that we have had on test outside for the last years have changed color and cracked and fallen apart, to the point you cannot read them, so they did not pass our Florida test, our USA made cable labels have not, seem our label material are better than or friends on the other side of the pond.

So we can test can burn any label you want but our tech know that’s just for show, as in a major fire the last thing on your mind is cable labels, in fact we had to exit a ship once when a transformer set on fire. On our hand and knees all the way out, when we went back to look nothing was there, just the copper cores and all the LS/ZH cables burned with the rest of the power room.

So our point is, yes, meet the needs of the company you are installing for, but you do need a cable labels that sticks, no good if it comes off even if it will not burn. We test our labels in the Home dish washer, we have six samples that have been washed over 300 times and you can still read and they have not come off, so test you labels in the real world not the lab, as a tech we need them to stick and read, not that smoke has no importance, but in 95% of all fires LS/ZH is irrelevant and not needed.
There are no UL standards for Cable labels and there is no Cable label I know that would not smoke in the fires I have seen, so we make sure our cable labels do two things, stick and stay readable the rest is just lab tests that in real life mean nothing.

Most cable labels made in Europe fade and crack in Florida, our labels do not.

You can read data sheets, but set fire to your sample labels, trust me they burn like the cable they are stuck on and 99% of fires do not involve data communication cable, but they all burn up with the rest of the LS/ZH labels sold.

Now before I am flooded with engineers telling me off, yes specifications do matter and you have to stick to them, but I have never seen one tender that covers LS/ZH cable labels and having had meetings with UL about cable and labels, they confirm there are no current regulations for the cable labels.



Cable Labels
So we read about cable labels, how they are the next best if they do not burn, smoke and fall apart, well the technicians of this world just want a cable label to stick and NOT come off.
At our office in Sunny Florida and we have a bunch of cable labels outside on test and just in case you don’t know we have thousands installed out at sea, which is the most hard environment in the world.
All the service engineer need to knows is that when he comes back in 5 years to fix the Cat6 fault the cable labels is still on the cable and readable. Now we are not saying that (LSZH) low smoke zero halogen cables don’t need to be installed and that cable label of the same material would help, but been in the areas that have had ship fires around me the news is that the jacket and everything else has gone, just a bit of copper hanging from the ceiling.
The Europe Cable labels that we have had on test outside for the last years have changed color and cracked and fallen apart, to the point you cannot read them, so they did not pass our Florida test, our USA made cable labels have not, seem our label material are better than or friends on the other side of the pond.
So we can test can burn any label you want but our tech know that’s just for show, as in a major fire the last thing on your mind is cable labels, in fact we had to exit a ship once when a transformer set on fire. On our hand and knees all the way out, when we went back to look nothing was there, just the copper cores and all the LS/ZH cables burned with the rest of the power room.
So our point is, yes, meet the needs of the company you are installing for, but you do need a cable labels that sticks, no good if it comes off even if it will not burn. We test our labels in the Home dish washer, we have six samples that have been washed over 300 times and you can still read and they have not come off, so test you labels in the real world not the lab, as a tech we need them to stick and read, not that smoke has no importance, but in 95% of all fires LS/ZH is irrelevant and not needed.
There are no UL standards for Cable labels and there is no Cable label I know that would not smoke in the fires I have seen, so we make sure our cable labels do two things, stick and stay readable the rest is just lab tests that in real life mean nothing.
Most cable labels made in Europe fade and crack in Florida, our labels do not.
You can read data sheets, but set fire to your sample labels, trust me they burn like the cable they are stuck on and 99% of fires do not involve data communication cable, but they all burn up with the rest of the LS/ZH labels sold.
Now before I am flooded with engineers telling me off, yes specifications do matter and you have to stick to them, but I have never seen one tender that covers LS/ZH cable labels and having had meetings with UL about cable and labels, they confirm there are no current regulations for the cable labels.
- See more at: http://www.ncusa.com/blog/#sthash.1ruPWq2r.dpuf

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