The Difference Between Prefabricated And Cold Shrink Cable Accessories

Prefabricated and cold shrink cable accessories use basically the same raw materials, but the differences in production and installation processes and design principles make these two types of cable accessories reflect different characteristics.

First let's talk about the prefabricated type:

Advantages: Since there is no need for pre-expansion, the production process is simpler than the cold shrink type, the installation process is simple and the installation operation is simple, and no heating is required, which saves time and labor costs, avoids safety accidents caused by improper operation, and the possibility of installation errors is low;

Disadvantages: Due to the limitations of the prefabrication process, a series of problems are caused, and gaps are prone to occur, which greatly increases the possibility of internal creepage breakdown (of course, this does not mean that prefabricated cable accessories are unsafe, please do not take it out of context, but compared with the cold shrink type, its safety factor in this regard is lower).

Cold shrink type:

Advantages: Wide application area, one specification is suitable for three square cables, simple installation operation, and solves the problem of prefabricated cable accessories not shrinking tightly or not being able to fit in. Good sealing and good operation safety in high humidity, heat, and high salt fog environments.

Disadvantages: Due to the additional expansion process in the production process and the need for expansion and contraction characteristics, the silicone used in cold shrink cable accessories has much higher performance than prefabricated ones (such as elongation and tear resistance, etc.), so the production cost is higher than that of prefabricated accessories; the storage period is shorter. (Therefore, cold shrink cable accessories are generally produced using high-performance liquid silicone. There are some cheap cold shrink cable accessories on the market that use solid silicone to produce much worse performance. They age quickly and are prone to cracking and loose shrinkage. The advantages of cold shrink accessories produced using solid silicone will soon disappear. It is recommended that you do not be greedy when purchasing cold shrink cable accessories. Try to choose products from cable accessory manufacturers that use imported liquid silicone. For example, the liquid silicone of Dow Corning in the United States should be considered the best at present.) Compared with prefabricated ones, the installation of cold shrink cable accessories requires higher requirements for installers and is more complicated.

Prefabricated cable accessories were introduced to the market earlier than cold shrink accessories. Cold Shrink Cable Accessories is based on the basic design of prefabricated accessories and evolved from the progress of silicone materials (because the performance requirements of silicone materials used in cold shrink accessories are very high, the performance of silicone materials when prefabricated accessories appeared could not meet the requirements of current cold shrink accessories). The design concept of cold shrink cable accessories is more advanced.