A LIFE SAVER SCOPE

When its intended to work on any Electrical Power Cable, either for the purpose of carrying out repairs or for
tap arranging additional feeders, it is vital that special precautions be taken to secure the safety of the
employees.
After the cable has been made dead and connected to earth at the point of supply, the cable is cut, usually by
metal hacksaw or cutters.

CRITERIA
It often happens that the cable to be cut is distant from the circuit disconnect, grouped with other cables and
some buried in the ground. In order to avoid any possibility of a mistake and a “live” cable being cut, most
authorities insist a sequential rigid four step procedure be followed which requires the disconnection of power at
both circuit ends, identification of cable markers, electronic instrumentation signal checks and finally cable
mechanical spiking.
The authorities made the final step mandatory which requires that a wide iron spike be driven, either with a
hammer or extended stick into the cable intended to be cut before allowing further work to proceed. If by any
mischance a “live” cable is spiked, the resulting high magnitude short circuit current should trip out the feeder
circuit breaker.

SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
This method was somewhat crude and there is grave danger to the employee carrying out the spiking
operation, the sudden thrust of substantial electrical fault energy capable of exploding the cable and creating a
high velocity spray of conductor, shield and/or sheath metal fragments. Even the sight of fault flashover could
cause permanent blindness.

SAFETY FEATURES
In order to enable the spiking operation to be carried out in perfect safety, the ACCLES & SHELVOKE CABLE
SPIKER spiking gun has the great advantage that it can be remotely controlled at the moment of firing by
means of a landyard release device.
The operator can thus stand at a point of safety and if by chance a “live” cable is spiked, the damage will be to
local cable only.
As the speed of penetration of the spiking punch is so rapid, it has been found in practice that even if a “live”
cable is spiked, no damage to the cable spiker results. If however, the fault current happens to be extremely
high it may be that the actual spiking punch itself may suffer, but yet be capable of tripping a normally operating
breaker. The punch, is of course, easily replaceable and a spare can be fitted in a matter of seconds.

An added feature of the ACCLES & SHELVOKE CABLE SPIKER is that the wide punch shears the cable partially
or depending on the cable size completely, hence reducing additional cable cutting effort.

APPLICATIONS
The Accles & Shelvoke Cable Spiker is suitable for use with all types and voltages of power cable including
single, multiple, conductor laminated, polymeric, elastomeric, unshielded, concentric neutral, interlock
armoured, wire armoured, leaded covered etc.

PREVENTS ACCIDENTS
The Accles & Shelvoke Cable Spiker is a quality durable tool designed to positively
electrically ground out any required power cable for definite manpower prevention
and life saving