Solar Booklets

www.siechem.com 51 For most plastic materials, equivalent properties may be obtained by the use of either continuous vulcanizing or moisture cross linking, but irradiation may have the following advantage in addition to what is discussed above: 1. Irradiation has no lower limit on physical size, smaller conductor sizes, and thin insulation walls may be provided. 2. Irradiation does not use high temperature or pressure. Separator tapes are not required to prevent thin wall insulations from being forced into the conductor strand surface. 3. Irradiation offers the insulation compounder design freedom. Compound additives may be chosen without regard to their reaction to high temperatures and to moisture. Fire Retardant Fire retardant cables are designed for use in fire situations where the spread of flames along a cable route need to be retarded. Due to relative low cost, fire retardant cables are widely used as fire survival cables. No matter the cables are installed in single wire or in bundles, during a fire, the flame spread will be retarded and the fire will be confirmed to a small area, thus reducing the fire hazard due to fire propagation. Flame Retardant Siechem Solar EBXL XLPO Cable offers reliable fire retardant or slow the progress of fire in extreme fire conditions and flame along the cable. This is possible because of specially formulated XLPO jacketing materials that do not readily burn and will tend to self-extinguish. Low Smoke & Halogen Free & Fire retardant ( LSZH ) Siechem Solar Cable combines LSZH-rated insulation and jackets with rugged performance. Low smoke means easier visibility for evacuation and reduced respiratory damage due to smoke, while the zero-halogen material reduces toxicity to almost to negligible level from halogenated gases. Siechem Solar Low-smoke Zero-halogen cables feature tinned copper conductors that resist corrosion and stranded conductors for installation flexibility. The LSZH cable is available in multi conductor / multi pair configurations, shielded or unshielded, foil shielded for EMI protection and improved signal integrity, as well as color-coding. The LSZH cables are suited to confined-space applications to reduce harm, save lives, and reduce damage to electronic components. Thanks to halogen free solar cables the formation of extremely aggressive corrosive and toxic gasses are prevented. Low Smoke Fume (LSF) The low halogen content and low corrosivity of low smoke fume cables lies somewhat in between fire retardant cables and LSZH cables. Low Halogen cable also contains halogen but the content is much less than PVC cables. LSF cable is designed to reduce the spread of fire, toxic gases and smoke during fire. The LSF cable is usually manufactured from flame retardant PVC blended with HCL additive and smoke absorbent. These materials help improve the fire performance of the LSF cables. Fire Resistant Cables are designed to maintain circuit integrity of those vital emergency services during the fire. The individual conductors are wrapped with a layer of fire resisting mica / glass tape which prevents phase to phase and phase to earth contact even after the insulation has been burnt away. The fire resistant cables exhibit same performance even under fire with water spray or mechanical shock situation. Wires & Cables Fire Performance Class The main concern for the cable in its fire survival properties are its flame spread, smoke characterization and gas toxicity. In American fire standard, the concern lies more on the first two and it differs from the European standard which concerns all these aspects. In USA , it is believed that the fire hazard is mainly due to CO toxic gas emitted and the heat release during the conversion of CO to CO2 during the fire. Therefore, to control the heat release is the most important concern for reducing the fire hazard. However, in European countries, halogen content, the corrosively of the gases, the smoke density and the toxicity of the gas are equally important factors affecting the safety and survival of human during a fire.