SPECIAL
FEATURE
The New Wear
Crossing installation
incorporated 252
specially designed
assemblies
The Ellis No Bolts
cleat, designed in
response a major
safety concern voiced
by Network Rail
52 | November2017
CABLING
cables on HelWin 2 – a 690MW offshore
HVDC platform that would provide low-
loss transmission between the North Sea
offshore wind farm, Amrumbank West, and
Germany’s onshore grid.
The end result was our Cable Guide
Clamp – a product that first acts as a
guide for the large HV cables, before being
transformed into a fully-functioning HV
cable clamp.
At that time, delivering the Cable Guide
Clamp was a huge achievement for us, but
now, just three years down the line, that
kind of work is a regular occurrence.
This year we’ve designed, manufactured
and helped install brand new cable cleat
solutions for both the Severn Tunnel and
the New Wear Crossing. The latter of these
installations saw us called in by Balfour
Beatty after its initial plan to secure cables
running the entire length of the new
bridge proved unworkable. Our response
incorporated 252 specially designed
assemblies, each comprising 12 standard
2F+172 clamps and a stainless steel
support frame.
Our ability to deliver such products
has been enhanced by developing
manufacturing technology and a
recruitment focus that has seen both the
skillsets and size of our product design
team expand. Today we are able to do
the design; guarantee a new product’s
performance characteristics through a
combination of finite element analysis,
3D printing and physical testing; produce
tooling and then manufacture the product.
All of which can done with a lead-time that
can be measured in weeks rather than
months, and at cost that is comparable to
any viable off-the-shelf solution.
The extent of our drive to become an
industry innovator can be encapsulated
by one product – the Ellis No Bolts cleat,
which was developed in response to a
major safety concern raised by Network
Rail through our UK distributor, ETS
Cable Components.
The Network Rail problem was to
do with outer sheaths of live cables
being breached during the installation
of new cable runs onto existing cleating
infrastructure. The nub of the problem
was that in order to accommodate new
cable, and by extension new cleats, existing
clamps had to be dismantled, and longer
bolts fed through to allow for the stacking
of new clamps. The existing live cable then
had to be put back into the old clamps,
and it was during this stage of the process
that the long bolts were snagging the
cable and allowing current to track into
the containment system. This resulted in
a number of earth faults and at least one
engineer receiving a major electric shock.
With the intention of resolving the issue,
we designed a stackable product, which
meant additional cable runs could be added
quickly, easily and without any need to
disturb existing live cables.
“The Cable
Guide Clamp
first acts as
a guide for
the large
HV cables,
before being
transformed
into a fully-
functioning
HV cable
clamp.”
As the name suggests, the Ellis No
Bolts cleat has no bolts. Instead it is
fastened with two keepers that lock into the
top clamp and secure it into position within
the base clamp – a process that is tool as
well as bolt free. The stackable nature of
the cleats is made possible by a recess in
the top moulding, and a twist fit foot on the
base moulding, which lock together with a
simple quarter turn hand operation.
The chosen manufacturing material
is a high strength nylon specifically
formulated to have sufficient low smoke
properties to meet London Underground
1-085 specification. Because of the non-
metallic design, the cleat is impervious
to the bi-metallic corrosion that causes
problems in any number of harsh
environments. The Ellis No Bolts cleat
became the first cable cleat to be granted
Network Rail’s PADs approval.
Looking forward, I’m certain the
industry will begin to catch up, meaning
bespoke product innovations and problem
solving solutions will no longer be the
sole domain of industry trendsetters, but
very much a must-have service for all. Of
course, with developing technology, most
notably advances in 3D printing, in-house
manufacturing will become easier. All of
which means we are already planning our
next move in the on-going battle to stay a
few steps ahead.
Ellis Patents, www.ellispatents.co.uk