How to tighten a 50mm SWA gland with no access to locknut

[edexlab]

Inside the p shape marked in pencil is where I can gland into

 

[edexlab]

One of the mechanical guys onsite is 6'7" and he can only get his fingertips near the centre,
What you can't see on pics is an 80mm post either side of the panel which means you need to double jointed too!

 

[Wilko]

Contractors singles on RHS of panel top

View attachment 44077

Hi - do you know roughly the load on those singles?

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I take it the panels are not aluminium or made from a non-magnetic alloy?

 

[edexlab]

Panel built in France nice job it's just a shame the sparks glanding into it have made things difficult also no one told the guy that built it that there was no clear access from above,
it's meant to have a trench which it would have had a 12" trench below ( still no good to me)
But they decided to move the Panel onto another wall anyway

 

[edexlab]

I'm back onsite tomorrow I'll get some better pics then

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Would it be possible to install the glands before connecting the cable using a socket inside the panel and a spanner outside?

 

[edexlab]

It's definitely steel but those magic glands mean it's not a problem

I offered to redo those cables and run them all nearer the back to give myself more room but was told it wasn't possible yet there's plenty of spare cable at the other end

 

[Marvo]

It's definitely steel but those magic glands mean it's not a problem........

This confuses me...which isn't difficult. The photo is a bit blurred, did they cut a slot in the panel between the bushes containing the singles or is it just a pencil mark they left?

Nice looking panel by the way, shame there wasn't a routing and glanding plan done in advance.

 

[edexlab]

The load isn't huge our engineers who are controls engineers massively oversized the cables ( I've had words)

This will make you laugh they basicly add up all MCB ratings in the panel no diversity at all they've obviously never been involved in quoting

This isn't our normal job but we've been asked to do it as part of the job and their guesstimate came in at less than half the quote from a French company
As I've hot experience with SWA it's become my problem

I've had this discussion before and put clamp meters on all the panels under full load on other jobs and shown them

2 of 50mm cables could have easily been 16 mm to be sure they could havevused 25mm if it was borderline which would still be oversized to allow for any future load increases which will never happen

The others are sized about right with the Volt drop

 

[edexlab]

No slots,
I've done that myself before on a temporary job running single cables from a generator to a steel enclosure acting as a JB
I could be wrong but I have never heard of any gland which stops this being a problem

 

[edexlab]

No slots,
I've done that myself before on a temporary job running single cables from a generator to a steel enclosure indoors acting as a JB just for testing a machine

I could be wrong but I have never heard of any gland which stops this being a problem

 

[Marvo]

It will be a problem if the panel is of magnetic material regardless of what material the bushes or glands are made of. I'm really not buying this magic gland story, if it was the engineers that came up with that pile of baloney it's either some private joke they've got going on or I think they might actually be taking the ----.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I’m not aware of any magic glands that will stop eddy currents in magnetic material.
Whenever I’ve installed cables in transformers, the gland plate has always been non-magnetic.
Sometimes a right pain to drill.

 

[Wilko]

Yep, it would be magic if a gland prevented eddy current heating .

 

[Lucien Nunes]

I had a similar problem once. Solution was to MIG-weld pairs of nuts either side of a spacer so that each stopped the other from turning. Sprayed over the weld with cold galv afterwards. You could weld or braze them all to a spine if you could get it in as a single piece. More risk of them not lining up with the holes in the DB though.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I had a similar problem once. Solution was to MIG-weld pairs of nuts either side of a spacer so that each stopped the other from turning. Sprayed over the weld with cold galv afterwards. You could weld or braze them all to a spine if you could get it in as a single piece. More risk of them not lining up with the holes in the DB though.

Hmm, perhaps a solution would be before installation, to weld a short bar of steel between the lock nut and the 6mm Banjo bolt nut?
Another option would be to cut out and thread a small rectangle of plate steel so that both the Banjo bolt and the gland can be screwed through holes in the panel into the steel plate?

 

[edexlab]

Yes they're just bog standard metallic stuffing glands
Basicly the guy doesn't want to redo the job, I made sure the French customers electrical Engineer knew I thought it was a load of rubbish and advised him to ask for proof of this , I thought he would press this but he's been away now on holiday for 4 weeks

Some good ideas for the gland problem very much appreciated definitely gives me other options to try so thanks to all who have contributed!

 

[Marvo]

Let us know how it goes and post some pics if you've got time.

 

[Simon-0116]

Do you mean can only tighten from bottom. If so get a steel lock nut, weld a long side piece of steel to it. So when spins locks against casing. Job done. Used to weld lock Nuts to gland plates to make tightening easier. Then obliviousy paint welds.