Cable Theft is a Growing Problem Worldwide
Cable theft occurs globally, but in South Aftrica it’s fast becoming a national crisis. Estimates put the loss between 5-7 billion Rand (423 – 593 million USD) a year, with serious implications for the country’s economy, reliability of electricity supply and security.
Cable thefts can cause power outages that could last for days, with copper cable thefts constituting more than 90% of all these thefts. The cost of replacing the metal has a significant disruptive effect on industry and contributes to increased tariffs and prices for ordinary South Africans. Furthermore, the replacement of stolen cables has to take preference over essential maintenance.
Tamper Resistant Ultra-Lok Clamps
To deter theft, the security of any traditional cable installation can be increased by applying an Ultra-Lok clamp as frequently as every 150mm of cable. The effectiveness of the Ultra-Lok clamp was recently proved at a client site in August 2015. The client operates in the petrochemical industry, where conveyer belts are located in secluded areas and are difficult to monitor making cable theft monitoring a major challenge. The verdict, after looking at various BAND-IT ties, was that the Ultra-Lok open end clamp and installation tool would be the best suited to the client’s projects.
BAND-IT’s team was tasked with supplying the client with application tools and clamps, and provided training to the operators that installed the clamps.
