Posted 16 October 2012
That's the message from some in the industry. The reality may be different, as Jon Herbert explains.
There’s been a lot in the press recently about the choices facing the cable buyer regarding approvals, foreign cable and quality issues.
Many customers are starting to switch off from these warnings in the same way that very few smokers take notice of the warnings on cigarette packets. It’s important for both customers and suppliers in light of this scaremongering to sort out fact from fantasy.
The fact is there is plenty of excellent non-BASEC (British Approvals Service for Cables) approved cable out there which people should continue to buy. In some cases it’s better quality than some of the ‘approved’ products!
One of the difficulties we have in the UK is the way the standards and approvals system works. For example, you could set up an extruder in your back garden to produce a 3 core flex and provided it had brown, blue and green / yellow cores it would meet the BS colour code. The same could be applied to the conductor stranding meeting BS6360. This means you can sell your cables as conforming to a variety of British Standards.
Many people will be taken in by this, assuming it is a sign of quality. It’s not. It merely shows that some elements meet some standards.
Fire alarm cables are a good example.
Several manufacturers claim off the record they have tested a number of competitors’ products and some have actually failed. This comes as no surprise as some manufacturers / suppliers may submit product for testing that bears little resemblance to the product they sell on the market. Generally it costs a lot of money to get a cable tested but once the cable has been approved no further independent tests are carried out.
This allows manufacturers to modify designs – normally to cut costs, without re- submitting cable for re-testing.
This is wrong.
If we are serious about maintaining quality standards, product should be purchased in the open market by the test house– not submitted by the manufacturer – and tested regularly. Yes it will cost money and yes this will eventually work through to the customer but it will substantially reduce the sharp practices in the market.
There is also potential for confusion between BASEC as an approval organisation and its role as an IS09001 and 14001 auditor. For example, I recently heard one manufacturer remark they were considering getting BASEC to assess them for ISO9001 as many customers would assume this meant they were BASEC approved! This is yet another example of the uncertainty and ambiguity surrounding the approval system in the UK.
The BSI (British Standards Institution) are the people responsible for writing the standards but the costs of buying copies is phenomenal. Unfortunately this means that most customers simply don’t bother.
One of the many problems BSI face is the time it takes to get a standard approved, particularly as they normally have to tie up with a European harmonization document. This means that many standards lag behind the market requirements and end up being a ‘lowest common denominator’. Where does this leave the cable industry, and more importantly the customer?
The first question to ask is, what do you want the installation to achieve? If there are statutory requirements, for example fire alarms, you will obviously have to conform to these standards and approvals are a good way of demonstrating a commitment to meeting them.
However, if it is a signal or data application it may be purely the commercial and technical requirements that have to be met. In these cases some of the standards and approvals may be totally irrelevant and even misleading.
With so many types of cables available there are many that simply don’t have applicable standards. In these cases you may have to use normal buying procedures. Technical data sheets, experience and good old gut instinct – do the people you’re talking to know their subject?
The fact is the electrical installation as a whole is critical and cable, although important, is just one element. A bad installation using the best products is still more likely to hurt than a good installation using one or two substandard products.
Certification bodies are not helping the issue by promoting uncertainty and fear of ‘rogue foreign cables’ which borders on xenophobia.
Most of the UK cable production has been lost over the last 20 years for a number of reasons ranging from bad management to uncompetitive production costs. The latter ironically is often due to maintaining high quality standards. A ‘head in the sand’ attitude towards product development and new markets has compounded the decline.
At FS Cables we are committed to sourcing top quality cable on a world-wide basis to ensure that our customers are protected from these market uncertainties. Ultimately we will be judged by you the customer and that is the benchmark of quality we strive to achieve.