Sparks!

[andy jackson]

Having remembered that we are lending some equipment to a member of staffs young girls school I thought it was wise to check it over and make sure it wasnt going to kill anyone, most of the peices were ok apart form three strand Quartet PC's, I did a general inspection, PAT etc, on a final just-in-case check one started to smoke slightly, not from the lantern its self but from the flex, the flex is the silicone type stuff which splits realy easily, anyway curious to what was happening I stripped down the light took the cable out and pulled the outer sheath off. what seems to have happened is that in several places down the live the sheath had worn?/burnt?/split? and was causing it to ark and this was creating the smoke with the other lines in the sheath. I rewired the lamps (I then checked them all over again and found two more) which were broke and they are all now safe.

My initial thoughts were that the cable had split where the lead had been shanked but this didnt seem to be the case.

 

I was just wondering if anyone had seen this before or knew why it had happened? I dont think it is the age of the lanterns as they are only a few years old but do I need to replace all the cables just in case? is it wise to check them all?

 

Andy

[Simon Lewis]

Andy,

 

I've had the individual strands of flexible cables oxidise and break (happened to be a soldering iron - it just started arcing, then set fire to the sheath).

 

This might be a function of the materials used in silicone sheathed cable.

 

Simon

[it's not 15A or 13A that stings, it's the 30mA across your heart that induces ventricular fibrillation :-) ]

[Bryson]

This is pretty common in older, flexible cables, and certainly isn't confined to Silicon Cables - I've had a fair few bits of H07 that were making up Soca spiders literally "pop' in a little burst of flame in my hands. Not a pleasant experience.

[Pete McCrea]

Our Hover did it to me recently.

[ChrisD]

Our Hover did it to me recently.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hover what? Or did you mean Hoover? :huh:

[Darkfold]

Bloody pedants :P

Have had a cable catch fire while holding it... not fun. Not sure what caused it (the cable being completely destroyed in said fire), but sounds similar to yours.

[Pete McCrea]

Yeah. My Hover did it too me. I modified my Dyson so it hovers over the floor. I now call it a hover. (bl**dy pedants..... Ok so I got a C in GCSE English all those years ago. Strooooth it's 9 yrs ago!)

[stevep]

Not too rare this - part of your visual checks on gear should include taking a look at where the cable enters the lampholder.

I recently did a quick check in a theatre and found a dozen lanterns where the cable was very brittle - to the point I could flake off the insulation with my hands.

Strange thing was that all of these had been rewired about three or four years ago.

 

Would seem that regular intense heat will affect all kinds of cable or connectors- even the so called high temperature silicon.

 

If thats the fault and you dont have any spare cable available then you can just cut the tail back until you find it is in better condition, but aim to replace it completely next time you get the opportunity.

 

Unfortunately if the fault is that the cable isnt rated to the right power capacity then your whole cable is pretty much stuffed so take it out of use straight away.