CONTENTS

Introduction . 1

Conversion factors
Properties of metals & materials .

General view of low voltage power cables .

6-7
How to choose a cable .
8-9
Voltage designation ..
10
Current carrying capacity .
10-13
Tables of installation in air ..
14
Tables of installation underground

Voltage drop ..
26-29

Impedance .. 30-32
Short circuit rating of cable .
33
Guidelines for cable laying ..
34

Handling, Storage & transportation Guidance 35-38

 Introduction

United Cable Industries Co. (UCIC) is a Jordanian public shareholding company,

with USD 57,000,000 paid up capital, located on Zarqa Mafraq highway, about 50 km a
way from Amman. The plant is 27,000 m2, built over 160,000 m2 of land.
UCIC is managed by professionals with a wide range of experience in cable manufacturing,
engineering, business administration, quality control, planning, marketing & sales,
research & development and business development.

Aim
We, at UCIC aim to be one of the leaders in the cable manufacturing industry within the
next few years through our comprehensive research, serious work and making sure that
our products and services meet our customer s expectations.

Strategy
Utilizing the most state-of-the-art high-tech machines from reputable and reliable
suppliers.

Sourcing raw material from the world s leading certified suppliers.

Testing raw material and final products against the latest international standards
using up-to-date laboratories and testing equipment.

Incorporate professional crew for all process activities.

Strong attention is given to Research and Development (R & D) activities to meet &
keep up with the latest cable manufacturing technology & emerging customer s
needs.

Our Business Development strategy is created to support our goal of becoming a

leader in the cable industry and it sets out our approach for developing new
products.

Commitment
We, at UCIC are committed to supply our valuable customers with high quality products in
timely manner to achieve the utmost customer satisfaction.

Products Range
Our current range of products consists of wires, low voltage power cables, control cables
and overhead conductors.
 1. General view of low voltage power cables

A general view of the components of cables with rating voltage of 1KV is introduced
in this section, also the criteria of selection of power cable is included.

1.1 Component Details

Conductor
Conductors are made from copper and Aluminum material. Depending on the use of
the cable, conductors are divided to solid (Class 1) for smaller sizes, stranded (Class
2) for fixed installation and Flexible (Class 5) for flexible installation, as per IEC
60228 and BS EN 60228.
Stranded conductors may be one of the three following shapes:
1. Round Non-compacted
2. Round compacted
3. Sector shaped
 For more information about conductor materials see Table B
Insulation
The insulation materials used in our cables are as following:
1. PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), material and thickness are as per IEC 60502-1 or BS
6436, PVC material as per IEC 60502-1 is Type A and as per BS EN 50363 is TI1.
Good Insulation material with flexibility characteristic.

2. XLPE (Cross-linked Polyethylene), material and thickness are as per IEC 60502-1
or BS 5467 suitable for maximum conductor temperature 90 during normal
operation. Excellent insulation material with higher dielectric characteristic.
 For more information about insulation materials see Table C
Core Assembly
The cores are laid up and the interstices filled with a non-hygroscopic material
where necessary to achieve a circular cable. The laid up cores may be bound with
helically applied non-hygroscopic tapes. As per Middle East widely spread color
coding our color coding is,
1. Core: Red or Black
2. Core: Red and Black
3. Core: Red, Yellow and Blue
4. Core: Red, Yellow, Blue and Black
5. Core: Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and Green
 Color code as per BS standards may be given on request.
Inner sheath (Bedding)
Inner sheath is provided as extruded layer of PVC material over the laid up cores. It is
required in the case of armored cables to provide bedding for the armoring layer. It
may be omitted in case of unarmored cables.
Armoring
Generally galvanized steel wire armoring is provided over the inner sheath in multi-
core cables. In case of single core armored cables, the material for armoring shall be
non-magnetic.
Outer Sheath
The outer sheath consists of a thermoplastic compound; the sheathing material shall
be suitable for the operating temperature of cables. Material of sheathing is PVC ST2
as per IEC 60502-1, PVC Type 9 as per BS 5467 and TM1 as per BS 6346.
On request halogen free sheathing material may be used on cables which are
required to be reduced flame spread, low level of smoke emission and halogen free
spread gas emission when exposed to fire. Chemical additives may also used on
request for termite protection.
 For more information about sheathing materials see Table C

1.2 Criteria for the selection of power cables

The electrical current in a conductor causes a voltage drop and power losses. The
temperature rise in the cable caused by the losses must be kept within certain limits
in order not to shorten the service life of the cable. The temperature limit varies with
the type of cable, or more precisely the type of insulation. The best way to keep the
temperature within limits specified for the type of cable is to choose the conductor
cross-section so that the cable and its surroundings with the actual continuous load
achieve thermal balance at a temperature below or equal to the temperature limit
recommended.
Factors of interest for the cable choice:
1. Application
2. Working voltage
3. Load current, load factor and frequency
4. Installation method
5. The environment in which the cable has to operate
6. Short circuit current and system protection
7. Acceptable voltage drop
8. Economics
How the above factors influence on the choice of cable?
1) The application of the cable determines the basic factors for the choice of cable
type and the rules according to which it must be manufactured. Following are
the major factors for choice of cable type.

a) Conductor material: No doubt that copper is the best material owing to its
high electrical conductivity and other electrical/mechanical properties but
to its high cost and scarcity, researches are being carried out to find other
cheaper and abundant metal which may be a close substitute to copper in
electrical application. Aluminum conductors are being used in place of
copper conductors for the past many years and have proved to be quite
satisfactory.

The lower conductivity of aluminum (61% of the annealed copper) results

increased dimensions of the cable and ultimately of conduits and fittings for
the same current carrying capacity as that of a copper conductor cable.
Aluminum conductor cables although bigger and somewhat stiffer when
lower number of wires is used for the conductor than the equivalent copper
conductor cables, are still flexible enough to be installed where the lighter
weight offset the disadvantages of large sizes for a given capacity. The use of
flexible copper conductor is recommended where very high degree of
flexibility is required.

b) Insulating materials: The right type of insulating material for a particular

usage depends upon the voltage grade, operating temperature required,
degree of flexibility, current capacity requirement and restrictions on size
etc. and other climatic conditions.

c) Armoring: The purpose of armor is to provide mechanical protection to the

cable and to facilitate earthing for safety requirements. This also carries
phase to ground fault currents of the system safely.
Double steel tape provides good mechanical protection but when in
addition longitudinal stresses are encountered during the installation or in
service, steel wire armoring is preferred.
2) The system voltage determines the voltage class of the cable.

3) The current rating is in general the decisive factor for fixing conductor cross
section. But in certain applications where intermittent load is required, it is
more relevant to use the average r.m.s current with a reduced cross-section.
4) The power cables must be capable of carrying the required normal full load
current continuously under the site conditions throughout the year. Therefore
the current rating specified must be corrected to site conditions by applying
suitable de-rating factor depending upon,

a) Ground or ambient air temperature (max.)

b) Thermal resistivity of soil during dry season
c) Depth of laying
d) Total number of cable/circuit in groups
Current rating for cables laid in pipes, the stated maximum continuous rating
in ground is to be multiplied by the factor 0.8 (approximate).
5) a) Chemical substance in the environment might cause special stringent
requirements on the outer covering.
b) If it is required or necessary to reduce the propagation of fire along cable
route combined with low corrosivity, toxicity and smoke generation
characteristics for cables, “FRLS” cables (Flame retardant low smoke) with
thermoplastic or thermosetting material should be used. These types of cables
are designed with special composition of protective sheath materials for use in
such fire risk installations.

6) Short circuit current together with duration of short circuit determines the
short circuit energy, the cable insulation has to withstand thermally. In certain
cases a larger size of cable than the cable required for normal full load current
may be needed to match system short circuit current level.

7) There is again another major factor in deciding the size of the cable is voltage
drop.

8) Naturally, the most economical construction and the size of the cable
consistent with required current carrying capacity and laying condition has to
be selected. Thus the selection of particular type of cable i.e. PVC or XLPE and
the particular material of sheathing, bedding and armoring. The design of the
cable for a particular application must be optimized taking into account all the
above mentioned factors.
 2. Voltage designation

Designation of voltage of a cable determines the type, material and dimensions of

insulation. In this catalogue below are the designation voltages of our power cables
products.
The rated voltages Uo/U (Um) of the cables considered in this catalogue are as
following:
The cable rated voltage between each conductor and earth or metallic cover (Uo), is
0.6 KV, the cable rated voltage between phase conductors in a three-phase system
(U), is 1.0 KV, the highest system voltage (Um), is 1.2 KV

3. current carrying capacity

Elaborately this section is divided in two clauses and then tabulated; clause 3.1
installation in air and clause 3.2 installation underground.

3.1 Installation In Air

3.1.1 Installation conditions
The values are based on installation in free air with unhindered heat dissipation by
radiation and convection and with the exclusion of external heat source in an
ambient air temperature which does not rise significantly.
The values given in Table 3.1 are based on temperature of 30oC. For other air
temperatures Table 3.4 shall be used to find the temperature rating factor, (refer to
equation 3.1).

3.1.2 Cable arrangement

Methods of installation are clearly shown with the drawings and arrangements in
Table 3.2 and Table 3.3 with the calculated rating factors, (refer to equation 3.1).

3.1.3 Insulation material

Insulation materials are PVC and XLPE, the maximum conductor temperature in case
of PVC is 70oC and 90oC for XLPE.
3.1.4 Calculation of Current Carrying Capacity
To calculate the current carrying capacity of a cable, follow below equation,

= × 1× 2 (3.1)
Iz: Current Carrying Capacity in Ampere
It: Tabulated load Capacity (table 3.1)
F1: Grouping factor (table 3.2 or table 3.3)
F2: Temperature factor (table 3.4)
3.2 Installation Underground

3.2.1 Installation conditions

The depth of lay of cable in ground is generally taken as 0.7 meter which is the
distance below the ground surface to the axis of the cable. No factor is required when
the depth of lay varies within the range of (0.7 to 1.2) meter.

The ground temperature is taken as the temperature at installation depth with the
cable no load conditions. The values given in Table 3.5 are based on ground
temperature of 20oC.

Soil thermal resistivity of 2.5 Km/W was selected for dry area in this catalogue.

Soil thermal resistivity Recommended values to IEC 287

Weather Ground Soil thermal
conditions conditions resistivity Km/W
Continuously moist Very moist 0.7
Regular rainfall Moist 1.0
Seldom rains Dry 2.0
Little or no rains Very dry 3.0

Rating factors for the above installation conditions are taken from Table 3.6 (refer to
equation 3.2).

3.2.2 Insulation material

Refer to clause 3.1.3
3.2.3 Cable arrangement

Methods of installation are clearly shown with the drawings and in Tables from 3.7
to Table 3.15 with the calculated rating factors. (Refer to equation 3.2).

3.2.4 Calculation of Current Carrying Capacity

To calculate the current carrying capacity of a cable, follow below equation,

= × 1× 2 (3.2)
Iz: Current Carrying Capacity in Ampere
It: Tabulated load Capacity (table 3.5)
F1: Conditions rating factor F 1 (table 3.6)
F2: Grouping rating factor F2 (table 3.7 - table 3.11) for PVC insulation (table
3.12 - table 3.15) for XLPE insulation
Installation arrangements
 4. Voltage drop

Length and current are to be multiplied by the tabulated values of voltage drop in
this section, to calculate the voltage drop in mV.
The values of voltage drop are given for a current of one ampere for 1 meter run, and
represent the result of the voltage drops in all the circuit conductors.
The values of voltage drop in Table 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3, assume that the conductors are
at their maximum permitted normal operating temperature.
The values of voltage drop in Table 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3, for cables having conductors of
16 mm2 or less cross-sectional area are calculated based on resistance only and given
as (mV/A/m)r. For cables having conductors greater than 16 mm2 cross-sectional
area calculations of voltage drop were based on impedance value and given as
(mV/A/m)z, as per IEE wiring regulations.

Vd = V/AA/m × L × I
//A/m (4.1)
Vd: Voltage drop in (mV)
V/A/m: Tabulated voltage drop in mV/A/m (table 4.1, table 4.2 or table 4.3), for 3-
phase circuit the tabulated voltage drop relates to line voltage
L: Length-run in meter (m)
I: The designed current of the circuit in ampere (A)
 5. Impedance

Maximum permissible values for resistance per unit length on D.C. at 20oC are given
in Table 5.1 and Table 5.2. The D.C. resistance at operation temperature T oC, is
calculated using the below equation,

RT = R20 [1+ 20 (T – 20)] (7.1)

RT: Resistance at operation temperature
R20: Resistance at 20 oC
T: Operating temperature in oC
20: Resistance temperature coefficient (See table B, properties of metals used in
cables)

The values of A.C. Resistance at maximum permissible temperature, Reactance at

50Hz and Impedance are given in Table 5.1 and Table 5.2, for Copper and Aluminum
conductors with PVC and XLPE insulation.
 6. Short circuit rating of cables

Mainly, short circuit current causes effects which are proportional to the square of
the current, a temperature rise in the conductor components subject to current flow
such as conductor and armor. Indirectly the temperature of adjoining insulation and
protective covers also increases. Electromagnetic forces between the current
carrying components.

The short circuit currents at permissible short circuit temperature are given in table-
6.1 for copper and aluminum conductors. Temperature at the commencement of a
short circuit was taken the maximum permissible conductor temperature.
 7. Guidelines for cable laying

7.1 Minimum permissible bending radii r when laying cable

Multi-core cables 12 X D
Single-core cables 15 X D
D: outer diameter of cable

Where a bend is to be made once only as for example immediately before a sealing
end then providing proper procedures are carried out (heating to 30 °C and bending
over a form tool), the value of r can be reduced to 50% of those above.

7.2 Maximum permissible tensile strength for cables

 For cables pulled with Stocking

PVC and XLPE insulated armored power cables

P = 9D (8.1)
PVC and XLPE insulated unarmored power cables
P = 5D (8.2)
P: Pulling force in Newton
D: Outer diameter of cables in mm

 For cables pulled by pulling eye (Pulling head)

If the cables are pulled by gripping the conductor directly with pulling eye (head),
the maximum permissible tensile stress depends on the material of the conductor
and on their cross section as given below:

For Aluminum conductors 30 N/mm

For copper conductors 50 N/mm
 8. Handling, Storage & transportation Guidance

Armored and non-armored cables are manufactured from high quality materials,
allowing them to long storage and ease of handling, as well as transport, which
are subject to the following recommendations.

8.1 Loading and Transportation

One of the most important issues in the cable industry is Loading/Unloading
process, weather for raw materials, Semi-finished product and/or finished goods.

When loading the drum we have to make sure that there are no Obstacles might
make damage on a drum. The loading/unloading process shall be done using
forklift or Crane to assure that the drums will not be subjected to any kind of
damage.

A) Loading:

As we mentioned before, they are two ways of loading/unloading the drums:

1) Using Crane for handling the drums:

In case of using the crane, the following notes shall be taken into consideration:
- A rope bounded to a shaft shall be inserted in the axis of a drum while
carried.
- put the rope directly on the axis of a drum, so that the sides of the
drum are not damaged.
- Move the drum slowly and do not stop suddenly.

2) Using Forklift for handling the drums:

In case of using the forklift, the following notes shall be taken into consideration:
- Drums should be putted vertically with care on the forks.
- Drums should not be harmed by a fork nor dragged in the ground.
- Drums should be positioned in the center of a fork.
 - The width of a fork should be longer than drum size, so that the lagging is
not damaged.
- Don´t release the drum until the forklift has stopped completely.
-

B) Secure the drums on the truck to be transported:

The wooden drums must be always carried vertically, and a combination of

wedges and transportation support should be used to prevent movement the
drums on the truck while transported.

The drums shall be tied down with the truck using heavy ropes or steel chain
through the center hole across the flange to make sure that the drums will be in
the safe situation while the truck is moving.

8.2 Storage
The following are the most used practices to keep your product in safe condition
regarding to the storage issue:

- Keep the packing wood or flexible sheet cover on the drums until the time of use
to prevent the external environmental conditions from harmful the cable.
- Make sure that the drums must be appropriately wedged and stored in a vertical
position.
- Make sure that tie both ends of the cable are covered with end caps to prevent
water penetrating.
- Make Sure that the drums will be stored in a place which is freely from chemical
substances, fire and heat.
- Stacking of drums should be avoided.
8.3 Unloading the Drums
To unload the drums safely, UCIC is advising the following:

To be sure that the cable will not be subjected to damage, all nails and staples on
the drum shall be removed before moving the drums.

Unloading the drums shall be done using forklift or crane, in both cases the
drums should not be dropped suddenly on the ground, and shall be laid down
carefully. Do not lay the drum on the side.

The direction of rolling the drums shall be in the same direction of the cable
reeling direction on the drum, this way the cable will not loosen on the drum.

Keep in mind that the drum shall not be rolled for long distance, because that
maybe causes to cut the rope holding the cable end.
The packing wood shall be removed before pulling the cable, and make sure that
all nails of the packing are removed to prevent the cable from damage.

The direction of pulling the cable from the drum shall be in the same direction of
the cable reeling direction on the drum.

When pulling the cable from the drum, the maximum permissible pulling tension
shall be taken into consideration.
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