Specifying Quality Cable For Your Projects

Published 03 Sep 2019

Blog Written By BASEC | 7 of 10 Articles

Thorne & Derrick collaborate with BASEC to advocate the importance of electrical safety and educating industry stakeholders about specifying and buying accredited, tested and certified cables and cable accessories.

We would like to thank BASEC for allowing us to republish a selection of articles aimed to protect and inform the electrical sector – together we promote compliance with industry standards, specifications and ultimately confidence in end installations to provide LV MV HV Cable Quality.

Specifying quality cables for construction projects may not be top-of-mind when preparing building specifications, however, failures in cable can result in costly damage and even loss of life. Purchasing independently-verified cable is one way to ensure the cable you specify is safe to use and meets all relevant regulations.

As your customer’s first point of contact, at the specification stage, construction projects will have key requirements or a need for specific criteria to be adhered to.You’ll often be involved in assessing and awarding the main contractor who will be responsible for conducting the risk assessments and ensuring control measures have been put in place, prior to the project commencing.

Ensuring quality materials and cable accessory products are specified at the start of a project, is one of the most effective ways to manage risks and minimise any potential costs of poor quality, which may arise from using substandard materials or products.

Working closely with the main contractor, electrical installers with the appropriate credentials can be selected. Special attention from the experts can be used to your advantage to ensure that any issues with cable quality can be identified and addressed, prior to any significant impact on the project.

When on-time delivery is a critical component of a project cable products, if decided upon late in a project’s timing plan, may not be available or could have long-lead times associated to them.

Cable products are almost always made to order, however if the timing plan has not accounted for these lead times a margin of error can be built into the project without full realisation. Off the shelf products may at this point be sought based on availability, meaning that they may not potentially be the right product for the application.

Store owner and customer discussing cable quality

In the same way that buildings are required to meet regulatory standards for a wide range of requirements, cable products must also meet specific standards for quality and safety. However, simply meeting a standard does not guarantee a cable will be suitable for its application.

To ensure that cable products specified are of the highest quality and will perform as intended, in the right application, products should be independently verified. A comprehensive set of tests should be conducted on a cable at the manufacturing source to confirm how the product will perform in long-term service.

Many high-profile projects specify cable products, prescribing that they must be tested independently to provide an objective assessment of performance and conformity.

Your role in cable specification

As a trusted advisor, customers rely upon your guidance to help meet their business or project objectives and to ensure that the products specified for use in their projects will meet all relevant standards and regulations.

Keeping up-to-date with the latest industry developments in materials and regulations can also be difficult, as these continue to evolve rapidly.

Who is BASEC?

BASEC is the preferred testing and certification partner to the worldwide cable industry. Partnering with cable manufacturers around the world BASEC is focused on improving product quality and safety. Cable manufacturers who are BASEC approved, have undertaken a rigorous auditing programme which looks in detail in how the business and its factories are operating, as well as the processes and production methods they follow.

Product samples are randomly selected from the product ranges undergoing product certification and these are sent to BASEC’s laboratory for testing. Once product approvals are awarded, these are publicly displayed on www.basec.org.uk, giving access to all members of the supply chain a live platform to check and verify documentation from their suppliers.

Alongside factory assessments manufactures management systems for quality, environment and health and safety can be assessed. A key purpose of verifying cable quality at the beginning of the supply chain is to ensure manufacturers consistently produce high-quality products.

What is the Registered Stockist scheme?

BASEC’s stockist scheme is a new certification scheme, which opens the doors of approval to the supply chain and increases the level of independent market surveillance within the cable market. Industry can now cross check cable quality at the point of sale.In years gone by, BASEC was a certification that could only be obtained by those who had their own manufacturing factories and plants. In a bid to drive higher levels of quality and safety, stockists and wholesalers alike can become approved suppliers.

Becoming a Registered Stockist means that measures are in place to test the quality of the product just before it enters the market, where BASEC can in confidence verify performance test results against those achieved at the manufacturing source.

Why should I specify independently-verified cable?

By specifying BASEC approved cable, you can have complete confidence that the product selected has been tested independently to ensure it meets the performance requirements specified. The BASEC mark is recognised around the world, which give you and your end customer complete peace of mind that the product installed will be safe and resilient in operation.

The Registered Stockist BASEC mark provides assurance throughout the supply chain of assured quality, scrutinised at various check points, from source to end user.

How can I find a registered stockist?

Registered Stockists will be listed in a stockist selector application on the BASEC website www.basec.org.uk, following the formal awards ceremony this summer. Where the pioneers of the stockist market, entering the scheme right now, will showcase their certification.

Cable Quality Seminar

BASEC run a number of FREE Cable Quality Seminar’s across the country suitable for anyone and everyone who is working to deliver projects which include cable installations.

Do not miss your opportunity to build your awareness of cable quality.

Click here to register now.

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THORNE & DERRICK

Thorne & Derrick are national distributors of LV, MV & HV Cable Installation, Jointing, Substation & Electrical Equipment – servicing businesses involved in cabling, jointing, substation, earthing, overhead line and electrical construction at LV, 11kV, 33kV, 66kV and EHV. Supplying a complete range of power cable accessories to support the installation and maintenance of low/medium and high voltage voltage power systems:

Slip-on Cable Terminations
Cold-shrink Cable Terminations
Heat-shrink Cable Terminations
Cable Joints – Heat & Cold-shrink
Separable Connectors (Euromold)
Surge Arresters & Switchgear/Transformer Bushings