Last week’s presentation of Tube-Lube 326 to the attendants of the Western Underground Committee’s January meeting went really well, with the support of the WUC Executive, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Pacific Utilities. A thirty minute PowerPoint presentation was followed up with a walk outside to have a look at SDG&E’s cable pulling trailer.
Two main points emerged from conversations through the afternoon and into the evening’s “Table Talk” session:
1) An environmentally responsible lubricant option generates a lot of interest! A cable pulling lubricant that’s water-based and chemically inert protects your workers on the site, the natural environment surrounding the site, and the installed cable throughout its lifespan.
2) A water-based lubricant doesn’t require a thick surface coating on the cable to do its job. Less thickness per square inch means you’re using less, and a 5-gallon bucket can go two to three times as far as a thicker lubricant. You save money by getting more miles per gallon.
Tube-Lube can also be applied with built-in nozzle sprayers, so the installation crew is doubly protected: besides a nearly blank MSDS sheet, the crew can stand back from the cable under tension and adjust the application from the other end of a twenty-foot hose extension – outside the vault entirely!
Fortunately the weather in Tucson cooperated – we were between the weather systems that deluged on the Southwest through last week. And I took the scenic route down the Pinal Parkway, and one detour up Redington Road into the Santa Catalina range. Saguaro, tumbleweeds, and dust storms!
Apparently Phoenix doesn’t get a lot of rain. That’s what the locals say. They’re supposed to get 5 inches this week – about as much as they got all of last year! Impressive statistic, but I’m from Vancouver, Canada. These grey skies and blustery winds are not so unusual! And it’s warm too.
Unfortunately they did have to close the airport, so I’ll be spending an unexpected day in friendly Phoenix!
The WUC meeting in Tucson was a great success, by the way. I met a lot of great characters, and the presentation on Tube-Lube was very well received – I’ll thank my audience for being so receptive!
We enjoyed a demonstration of Tucson Electric’s Boomer-Dawg winch and had a look at San Diego Gas & Electric’s cable pulling trailer under clear afternoon skies. I’m glad they were able to bring it out to Tucson. The evening “table talk” with Pacific Utilities went well, too!
Hopefully, the storm will blow through tonight and I’ll be on my way home tomorrow. See you next week!
“Hablas espanol?”
“Parlez-vous francais?”
“Sprechen sie deutches?”
“Вы говорите по-русский?”
“你讲中文?”
“هل يتكلمون العربية?”
We added a new feature to the DCD Design website today: instant page translations powered by Google Translate!
Check the left-hand bar of any product page; choose your preferred language; wait a moment to translate. Granted: it’s not a perfect translation, but it gets the gist across!
If you need more, use our Comment page to send a note, and we can find tools to translate your questions.
I’m heading to Tucson next week to present Tube-Lube at the Western Underground Committee’s January meeting. I’m looking forward to the trip – it will be a great opportunity to introduce Tube-Lube as a safe and environmentally responsible product! Here’s a summary of the presentation:
“Tube-Lube® 326 is a water-based pulling lubricant designed to make your job easier – in more ways than one! When the geometry of the pull threatens to exceed your cable allowables or your pulling gear, proper lubricant selection and application lets you pull farther, with a better factor of safety on your cable and your equipment.
Friction coefficients for Tube-Lube are similar to other products, but with only a thin layer of lubricant required, your budget gets more ‘miles to the gallon’ with less mess.
Tube-Lube is easy to apply and easy to clean up: a smaller crew can spray from a distance to satisfy your safety officer and budget; and the overspray is biodegradable, so there’s no environmental concerns to mitigate. Your cable will pull in smoothly without the excess residue that can clog the duct and make extraction difficult in the future.
DCD Design & Manufacturing Ltd. has integrated Tube-Lube spray nozzles into a range of cable pulling equipment, and with a manual-pump or battery-operated applicator tank we have all you need to make life easy and green.”
I’ll be presenting in the afternoon of Wednesday the 20th at the Tucson Doubletree hotel. See the details at the WUC website here, and I hope to see you there!
I responded to a customer inquiry recently that leads us into this month’s sales promotion on breakaway swivels and connectors:
“For your range of gas lines, we have a few breakaway connectors to choose from, with breaking loads from 200lb through 45,000lb.
The 00530 series Min-E-Max connector uses a single pin calibrated for loads up to 675lb. This would be put in series with a swivel.
The 00550 series breakaway swivels are available in three sizes for load ranges up to 2000lb; however, the compact size of these swivels limits the sealing capacity, so – while they do work – they’re not recommended for directional drilling work because mud will infiltrate over time and damage the swivel bearings.
For the larger lines, our standard 00560-010 breakaway connector can be set with different pin combinations in a couple minutes to pull between 750 – 12,500lb. This is the most flexible option, though it needs to be paired with a swivel suited to HDD. (We have still larger breakaway connectors, up to 45,000lb if needed.)
We’ve found that the most flexible solution is a swivel that’s made for HDD, paired with a simple connector with plenty of break-point options. Have a look at the website, locate a distributor or give us a call directly if there’s anything more you need. Thanks!”
Channel
Products