Tips & News - October 2013

RPX ® ADSS Cable suspension clamp design

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4 Tell me a little bit about your current role in Hubbell Power Systems.

What were your greatest technical challenges on this project and how did you overcome them?

I am a New Product Development Engineer for Communication OSP hardware. My role is to take a new communication product idea from concept to production.

innovative

The greatest technical challenge was protecting the bending radius of the fiber. Because of the oval ADSS cable construction, it was very important that the cable lay flat in the clamp without exceeding its bending radius. We overcame this challenge with the funnel shape of the clamp. The funnels keep the cable from going beyond a 20 degree bend on both sides. While this is not an extremely difficult problem to address, our concept resulted in a reduction in installation time and cost in addition to solving the problem of the bending radius. This clamp went through five iterations before a suitable design met those requirements What advice do you have for interacting with customers and industry experts for collecting technical information you need for developing a new product? It is imperative to try to understand what is essential to the customer and to place yourself in their position. If you try to attack a project without fully understanding their needs, you will create unnecessary obstacles that delay progress. Also, never be afraid to pioneer an innovative solution. HPS is always pushing its engineers to be creative.

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Hubbell recently released a new product, RPX ® Suspension clamp. Tell me a what makes this clamp unique.

Q& Awith JoshWilson

engineering

The RPX ® Suspension Clamp is specifically designed for a certain proprietary ADSS cable. Due to the cable’s unique design, certain issueshadtobeaddressedforoptimumfiberperformance. The best part about this clamp is it addresses all the cable’s needswith the least amount of hardwarepossible. Thisdecreases installation time which, in turn, decreases cost. The clamp is also designed to protect the cable from operator error, specifically over torque, a major problem in the field. To verify that the clamp would perform as intended, it was subjected to several tests. First, everything was simulated in CAD to assure success of the design. Once satisfied, we developed prototypes. These prototypes were subject to tensile tests to measure when the cable would begin to slip, and IEEE 1222 aeolian & galloping vibration testing. All tests included optical testing as well to verify that the optical performance was not affected in any way. For our powder-coated version of the clamp, we tested the coating and how it was affected in the event of an arch from a distribution line. The clamp passed all tests to our satisfaction, but more importantly, the satisfaction of the customer. 3 Tell me a little bit about the testing to verify the clamp’s performance.

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What inspired you to become an engineer?

I have always had a desire to learn how things worked and why they worked the way they did, so physics and math were always my favorite subjects in school. The older I got, the more I wanted to make things work better. Around 15, I really got into cars and helping friends restore and fix their own. Once college came around, I knew I wanted to be in a position where I could be creative and influence others to be creative. Also, Mythbusters was a huge motivation throughout this period as well.

Never be afraid to pioneeer an innovative solution. HPS is always pushing its engineers to be creative.

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What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

When I’m not working, I enjoy being with my wife, hanging out with friends from church, travelling, and just trying adventurous new things. Most importantly, I enjoy helping others with what- ever they need. Life is about people and not stuff and that is what I try to keep as my focal point every day.

RPX ® is a registered trademark of the Corning Cable Systems brand.

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