Cable thieves have had it easy in Denmark for a long time. The national rail company, Banedanmark’s copper power cables are stolen, recycling sites are ravaged and even neat copper lamps in nice residential areas can´t feel safe. On construction sites, the thieves do not only break into the delivery vans to steal tools, they get creative, and steal copper cables and power distribution boxes and thereby cut the power for the whole construction site. They also go through the waste sorting area and take the small pieces meant to be thrown away. It´s a big problem and costs the responsible electrician a lot of money due to lost wages and production time.
With a relatively high copper scrap price of approx. 4,2 – 4,6 € kg. it is attractive for the cable thieves to continue to ransack the construction sites, as it is almost impossible to secure the copper cables on the site. This also means that the electrician cannot take out insurance on his cable installations. The construction sites are often not very well secured before the entrepreneur’s most expensive products arrive, so sometimes the electrician himself must hire a security company to safe guard his expensive copper cable installations. Some companies have begun to use DNA labeling on the cables, but that only helps when the police find the cable thief and the stolen goods. In the end it can still cost the electrician a lot of money in lost wages and the risk of getting daily fines. But how do you stop the cable thieves once and for all?
The more durable solution
A more durable solution could be to completely avoid the copper cables and replace them with aluminum cables. The price of aluminum is a lot lower on the world’s metal exchanges and is therefore less interesting for the thieves to steal. DanCables flexible Alukaflex® cable concept, for temporary solutions, uses fine stranded aluminum conductors. This provides an equally flexible cable as similar copper cables, and they are shielded by premium rubber or PUR materials that can withstand a 90°C conductor temperature which allows the same current to be run as on a H07RN-F copper cable. So, the construction site has all the power it needs, and if thieves were to grab the cables, they will only do it once. Alukaflex® is equipped with a very recognizable white stripe (black on the PUR cable), which makes it easy to see the difference between them and copper cables. This will stop the cable thieves once and for all.
Additional benefits
- High durability and reliability, thousands cable sets on the market
- Excellent flexibility and ease of use
- Much cheaper than copper cables
- Low scrap value reduces the risk of theft
- Up to 40% lower weight (compared to copper cables)
- Easy to handle
- Can handle a conductor temperature of up to 90°C
Facts
- Back in 2013, a survey by Danish construction Association showed that theft from the construction sites costs 80 million € annually. 60 percent goes to purchasing new equipment, and 40 percent is the cost of lost production time
- In 2017, the number of reported thefts on construction sites increased from 10.2 percent in the first quarter to 18.4 percent in the third quarter
(Source: The Branch Organization Tekniq)
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If you are interested in hearing more about our aluminum cables and services, please make use of our contact us page.
