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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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In Reply to: No arcing until the final fire! posted by Jacques on July 9, 2006 at 12:27:09:
Another very clever idea and very misguided. In the 1970s and 1980s there was a trend to open landscape offices which still exist to this day. The products which facilitate this were modular office furniture including "demountable" office partitions and carpet tiles which could be removed and replaced far more easily than broadloom. Problem, how do you power up computer terminals, peripherals, and task lighting at people's desks? One solution was the power pole but that gave you a forest of poles in what was supposed to be an architecturally completely open space except for the partitions. Enter flatwire, a product consisting of two sheets of mylar with copper conductors between them with a cross section of #12 AWG (American standard for 20 amp circuits.) Some even had layers with phone and data cables. This was put down on the concrete slab beneath the carpet squares. How did you make a connection for office power. A fixture punched a hole in the conductors and applied a cap screw which engaged the copper conductors. Wires to receptacles in the office furniture provided power. Fine, that part worked perfectly. Now for the bad part. Someone wants to reconfigure the space. To do that, they have to rearrange the partitions, furniture, and the electrical fixtures. When they remove the screws from the conductors, it leave a hole which is no longer bridged by the cap screw which had previously bitten into it but two thin areas on each side of the hole. Result, a high impedence point where any current draw by downstream offices would cause that spot to heat up. while I haven't heard of any fires, in major renovations I've seen them burnt to a crisp and a real hazard. Even so called "floor monuments" are a better choice.
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Follow Ups
- you will find a similar problem with underfloor "flatwire" in open landscape offices - Soundmind 13:57:25 07/09/06 (0)
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