Fibre optic wrap Ireland

[bren guzzi]

Few guys I worked with have just started " wrapping" in Ireland
you american types will be glad to know.. No outage ... Wrapping on the earth wire.
I was asked to work on this job but as it was only a short term contract it wasn't worth leaving my present job. Chaps I used to do telecoms work with are doing it... All Eastern European,s
My mate Evaldes Lucksioness is in charge. ( He's from Lithuania )

[reppy007]

Usually,not usually when I think of fiber optic ...towers or large insulators never come into mind....but anyway tell your mate Evaldes hello from this side of the pond.

[Rob]

Bren.. What is wrapping?

[Pootnaigle]

Umm whatever wrapping is it aint evident on that pichure

[Rob]

Umm whatever wrapping is it aint evident on that pichure

No Poot... Looks like a couple linemen clipping in the static

[bren guzzi]

Bren.. What is wrapping?

Wrapping is.. Installing a fibre optic wire over an existing conductor. If you zoom into the picture I posted you will see that the earth wire to the right of the tower has the fibre optic installed.
Ive posted a link... That will explain it better,
I installed hundreds of miles of fibre use ing this method .. In the UK , SCOTLAND ,WALES ,NORTHERN IRELAND, GERMANY ,FRANCE AND SWEEDEN. when I worked for the national grid. I was part of a team of 8 linesman that installed it..
EARNED A LOT OF MONEY.. :D
Actually in the video ..two of my crew can be seen ( very bright orange boiler suits ).

We were the first to instal it in Europe " for fujikura".
It might not be apparent for the film but you take two drums of cable that are joined together ( called a cassette ) and WRAP both ways. It eliminates the need for a joint. So for instance if you were wrapping 20 spans you could wrap 10 per cassette. Or five span per drum.
sooooooo you go out five span from the terminal tower. And from there wrap back one way.. And you've ten span wrapped without a joint. Then you set up at tower 15 and wrap back to tower 10 and up to tower twenty.
That way you've installed twenty span of wire with only one joint.

" IF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE" ?????????? :eek:

Just re re watched the film ..EXACTLY ONE MINUTE AND eleven seconds in.. THATS MY BACK..IN ORANGE... AND STEVE HOLDING THE ROPE.. ( national grid orange)
http://youtu.be/s-TPB5h3sm0

[Pootnaigle]

Umm round here itz dun a lil different the fiber is strung under the existin conductor and then a spinner is placed on both as the spinner is pulled along the existing conductor its followed by some thin stainless wire that lashes the fiber to the messenger I reckon the expense of your spinner is what makes it so rare round here the ones we use aint cheep neither but yers installs the fiber as it goes n ours ya hafta string it in furst

[bren guzzi]

It's not that expensive. The tug they use is only a little 2 stroke engine. ( chain saw engine modified ) and the spinner is only a drum carrier with a gearing mechanism ... As the drum leaves the cable behind , it obviously gets lighter.. So the weights on the opposite side of the drum wind in .... Keeping the whole thing balanced.. Simple ..

Very reliable. ( UNTILL the boss promises you will be paid for ten days regardless of how long it takes) As we were spinning our last span he turned up and said. After this spans done you have to go home..doing us out of the weekend pay off...

somebody ;) Accidentally poured a can of coke into the petrol tank..... The tug stopped mid span and it took all weekend to recover it.. Diagnosis " dodgey two stroke..... We called it sticky piston syndrome. We got paid for our ten days.... Ha ha.

[BigClive]

Very neat! What sort of length of run do you get from each drum?

And how do you recover it from the middle of a span if the engine does cut out?

[bren guzzi]

Very neat! What sort of length of run do you get from each drum?

And how do you recover it from the middle of a span if the engine does cut out?

It depends on the type of line... Normally on towers ya get four or five spans.. But as I said ..we send two drums up together that are continuous so from ya start spinning from ya get around ten spans from a " cassette" .. On 400 kv lines it probably equates to 3 or 4 kilometres..
If it breaks down mid span you send a recovery tug from the tower it was heading too..
On the front of the tug there's a bracket and the recovery tug has a spring loaded beak.. A bit like a train coupling..
when you send the recovery tug out to the broken down one it has a winch rope attached ...if it's a long way out the rope is supported by rollers every 10 meters to stop the rope looping towards the live circuit..
Once attached the broken down tug ...with the spinner attached is winched forward to the tower ..the spinner will keep spinning the fibre on the wire as it's geared to spin while moving forwards.

[Pootnaigle]

Umm plumb fancy we hafta get ours back the best way we can and thats usually no so easy we also hafta pull it frum one span to the next and if a dumass dont remember to make sure theys enuff of that stainless steel wire to make the hole span you are garoonteed to get it hung up sumwheres way the heck away frum the nearest pole or tower

[NS Lineman]

Used this method back in the early 90's across the harbour in Halifax Canada . Whole machine without fibre weighed about 100 lbs .The outfit was from England .

[Rob]

We've gotten out of installing fiber... Probably close to 12 years ago. When we did install it we ran it in just above the secondary on distribution poles and clipped it in shoes w rubber grommets.

[bren guzzi]

We've gotten out of installing fiber... Probably close to 12 years ago. When we did install it we ran it in just above the secondary on distribution poles and clipped it in shoes w rubber grommets.

We call that stuff " fibre span". I installed loads of that stuff as well. Some call it " self supporting fibre".

[bluestreak]

Ran some self supporting fiber optic in the late eighties then in the nineties did a 115 kv line rebuild using fiber optic shield wire, since then they've done most of the transmission system with new shield wires. As I recall the shield wires had twelve strands of fiber optic in two bundles of six and any and all the Co. needed was two for all it's needs so it made money renting out the other ten.

[bren guzzi]

Ran some self supporting fiber optic in the late eighties then in the nineties did a 115 kv line rebuild using fiber optic shield wire, since then they've done most of the transmission system with new shield wires. As I recall the shield wires had twelve strands of fiber optic in two bundles of six and any and all the Co. needed was two for all it's needs so it made money renting out the other ten.

The stuff my mate is wrapping in Ireland has 64 strands in each wire..but they are " double wrapping". Instead of one drum on the spinner with a counter balance weight. There is two drums of cable per spinner... So 128 strands installed.
when we did our first wrapping job. " IN LONDON" it was 8 strands.
they thought that was more than enough to cater for London's needs. Mind you that was the early nineties.. Not a lot of people had smart phones...or P,C,s. :eek:

[paul maxwell]

Hi rob,if you want a clearer photo of the tug and spinner(drum included) have a look at my profile Picts,I have some Picts of a jobs in Rochdale a few years back,up until last year we did a lot of wrapping for various dnos all over Great Britain the tug and spinner are owned by a company called AFL based in Swindon in England,they also supply the fiber cable.

[BigClive]

That's a whole lot of data. With fibre it's not just data at the speed of light, but you can have different wavelengths (colours) of light going down the fibre too and each is a complete set of data channels.

10 spans is good, but it still means a modest number of fibre splices. Do they buffer it at every splice or just every group of splices? Is the fibre run down the pylon to the buffer or is it up top with a feed from below?

[bren guzzi]

That's a whole lot of data. With fibre it's not just data at the speed of light, but you can have different wavelengths (colours) of light going down the fibre too and each is a complete set of data channels.

10 spans is good, but it still means a modest number of fibre splices. Do they buffer it at every splice or just every group of splices? Is the fibre run down the pylon to the buffer or is it up top with a feed from below?

I don't know what " buffering " is Clive.
They joint it at ground level and on towers it goes into a joint box just above the barb wire.. On poles it's still jointed on the ground but the joint box is clamped to the wire..
They run the fibre optic to ground level in water pipe that's clamped to the inside of the tower..

[BigClive]

Buffering is when they boost/amplify the signal on long runs. It basically cleans up the signal and retransmits it.

[bren guzzi]

OH !!!! No they only joint it... Must be buffered at the ends of the run.

[Rob]

Hi rob,if you want a clearer photo of the tug and spinner(drum included) have a look at my profile Picts,I have some Picts of a jobs in Rochdale a few years back,up until last year we did a lot of wrapping for various dnos all over Great Britain the tug and spinner are owned by a company called AFL based in Swindon in England,they also supply the fiber cable.


Thanks Paul... I'll take a look

[bren guzzi]

They got the machine stuck today..I don't know how a single wire rescue was allowed, totally illegal in the Uk. We,d have to use a helicopter or a crane. ...
but maybe the rules in Ireland allow it. ( DOUBHT IT THOUGH)
looks like they had a fun day..

[bren guzzi]

The irish/ Lithuanians did some more wrapping today.sent me This photo...( I asked him why 8 men were standing under a tower.. :D )

[Pootnaigle]

I wudda told you cause its too hard to stand above it

[reppy007]

Im more interested in how they mounted that telephone booth/guard shack on the tractor:D

[Rob]

With the cameraman it's 9

[paul maxwell]

Just wondering who the wrapping company is,I thing hat looks like a A.F.L tug? Is it afl and if so did you catch da engineers name coz I know one of them is a fellow scot:D

[bren guzzi]

Just wondering who the wrapping company is,I thing hat looks like a A.F.L tug? Is it afl and if so did you catch da engineers name coz I know one of them is a fellow scot:D

I think it is Paul. I will find out ..messaged my mate. ;)

[bren guzzi]

Yep Paul. AFL.