0

An electrical device which I own has a hand control with a rubber shielded coiled cord with five conductive wires inside, and another with seven on a different model. When the rubber is old, the sheathing peels off. See picture below.

  1. How do I determine which rubber I have based on this link below? It appears I may have one of the five "other" rubbers as described here.
  2. How can the rubber be protected so the sheathing doesn't peel off? Is there a spray that can be purchased of some kind?

Other potential rubbers you’ll find in cable sheathing include:

  • Vulcanized India Rubber (VIR): VIR combines rubber with minerals and sulfur and goes through a vulcanization process. It has excellent mechanical strength and durability, but it reacts with copper, so tinned copper conductors are necessary.
  • Polyethylene (PE): Polyethylene is another thermoplastic material like PVC. It’s more sensitive to moisture at high voltages and has lower dielectric losses than PVC. Its electrical properties make it a good choice for high-speed transmission cables that don’t need high flexibility.
  • Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE): By adjusting the chains in polyethylene molecules, XLPE can withstand higher temperatures. It also results in higher dielectric losses than PE but can support higher temperature ranges.
  • Silicone: Silicone jackets have strong ultraviolet resistance, flexibility and durability. They’re commonly used in sensitive environments, like medical and aerospace applications.
  • Natural rubber: Natural rubber has some strong insulating properties but it readily absorbs moisture, has a low temperature rating and is more prone to damage from handling or ultraviolet light. Pure rubber is not often used.
  • EPDM is one of the most rugged types of rubber, which is why it’s often used in tough environments. The type of rubber used often depends on the special requirements of your application and what the unique material has to offer.

This is a cord that looks similar.

7-Cond. - 26AWG Shielded Coiled Cord - 14.5" Retracted, 6ft. Extended (101-980)

enter image description here

Here is the damaged GH2 controller:

enter image description here

New GH2 controller:

enter image description here

JRE
  • 67,678
  • 8
  • 104
  • 179
JustBeingHelpful
  • 335
  • 3
  • 14
  • See if you can buy it with a nice silicone rubber jacket. It might cost a little more, but it'll last a lot longer. – Hearth Oct 15 '22 at 23:02
  • Does it need to be coiled? That helix is probably aggravating things since it likes to catch and rub on things. Also, I think that for a coiled cord to be effective the sheath needs particular properties such as softness which sacrifices abrasion resistance. A straight cord would be easier to find in more durable materials, and also to protect since it's easy to slide a cable protector or heashrink over top as a sacrificial barrier. – DKNguyen Oct 15 '22 at 23:03
  • @Hearth, thanks, I will research. Even if I buy five or six kinds on Ebay, I will try them all out. – JustBeingHelpful Oct 15 '22 at 23:12
  • @DKNguyen, great question! Absolutely not! I hate the coiled cord because it catches on the Guldmann hoist nylon cable that lifts me via the hanger bar. – JustBeingHelpful Oct 15 '22 at 23:13
  • @MacGyver Not getting coiled cord helps a lot; they tend to be more expensive. Don't look on ebay, look on digikey or mouser or mcmaster and get things with a proper datasheet and guarantees. – Hearth Oct 15 '22 at 23:14
  • Here's likely why it's coiled. When I'm in the lift, and I spin in the Guldmann GH2 or GH3 ceiling lift, and I have the controller, the cord needs to get longer by a tad on each spin. Look on guldmann.com and you will understand. If not, I'll post a pic. – JustBeingHelpful Oct 15 '22 at 23:16
  • But does the entire cord need to be coiled to get longer? No! It would be better to get longer where it won't catch on anything. – JustBeingHelpful Oct 15 '22 at 23:17
  • 1
    @MacGyver If you don't need the full extended length provided by a fully coiled cable, you could splice a short coiled section away from the expected wear area to a longer, more durable straight section. Your biggest issue of finding a short section of abrasion resistant cable is buying it without buying an entire spool of it when looking on like Digikey or Mouser. Multi-conductor cable is what you're after. I recommend silicone but really, if it's straight it could be anything and you can just put some heatshrink or a cable protector around it and replace it occassionally. – DKNguyen Oct 15 '22 at 23:18
  • https://www.guldmann.com/us/products/ceiling-lift-systems – JustBeingHelpful Oct 15 '22 at 23:26
  • Two cords out of about 30 ish cords in 18 years lasted about three years versus 6 months. Instead those two cords broke where I bend it near the wrist, not the sheathing. My original plan was to determine the material of those two, since I still have the material and then use a thick straw and hot glue to make the bend a bigger angle where my wrist is, to prevent the issue that occurred on those two. – JustBeingHelpful Oct 15 '22 at 23:31
  • https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M86HRYW?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details – JustBeingHelpful Oct 15 '22 at 23:34
  • Heatshrink it rather than hot glue. Stiff heatshrink will increase the bending radius. But you do have to make sure it nests properly otherwise it just might move the bend elsewhere such as right against the wrist band. so the devil is in the details. For example, use adhesive heatshrink near the wrist band and cit a slit at the end to make it a T or something like that – DKNguyen Oct 16 '22 at 02:11

0 Answers0