Placing excessive strain on your mechanical cables puts your equipment at risk of serious damage. If it’s left unaddressed, such damage can seriously disrupt operations or even halt them altogether. By reducing the amount of stress placed on your mechanical cables, however, you’ll be able to prevent equipment failure from occurring at all.
Why Is Reducing Strain Important?
Reducing mechanical strain is important for several reasons. First, cables that experience strain are more prone to breaking, which could in turn cause injury to equipment operators. By reducing the amount of strain placed on your cables, you’ll increase the safety of any employees that regularly operate heavy machinery.
Just as importantly, excessive strain on a cable inevitably weakens it, undermining its ability to withstand even normal stresses. Too much strain can also compromise the cable’s electrical integrity by damaging the wires inside of it, which can lead to circuit shorts, electrical fires, and other hazards.
Common Causes of Mechanical Strain
Mechanical stress on cables has a wide range of causes. One of the most common is that the tension being exerted by the conductor exceeds the recommended values for that cable, overloading it and reducing its strength. Too much compression can also place strain on the cable.
Mechanical stress can also arise if cables are not used for their intended purpose. Improper use can place additional stress on the cable that it isn’t designed to handle, leading to cable failure. Lastly, strain can occur in cables that are bent too tightly around the connector.
Ways to Eliminate Strain
There are several steps that users can take to minimize strain on their cables. One of the most important is to determine the proper stress and tension values for your cable and take care to not exceed them in any application. Some awareness of what a cable can or cannot handle will help you avoid risky actions that could seriously damage it.
For example, some understanding of your cable’s capacity for torsional stress can help you determine how far you can twist it before it sustains unbearable stress. It’s important to calculate the amount of compression that can be applied to it for similar reasons. Knowing which forces your cable can and cannot withstand will allow you to prevent it from experiencing unnecessary strain.
It’s equally useful to know how strong of a current the cable can endure before it’s overloaded. Having that information will enable you to prevent the cable from carrying too much load or short-circuiting. Finally, knowing the ideal storage, handling, and transportation conditions for your cables will ensure that your cables are stored in appropriate packaging and transported in an environment with the proper atmospheric conditions.
Mechanical strain can be detrimental to your equipment if left unchecked. By developing a keen understanding of the different stresses that your cables can withstand, however, you can make sure that they are used correctly and effectively throughout their working life. By reducing the amount of mechanical strain placed on your cables, you can also be sure that you’re protecting your employees, your equipment, and your business.