Connector Products Inc.'s Western Regional Sales Manager Dave Martin attended the time trial, which took place during a linemen training session over several says during April and May 2009. The utility had two objectives:
1. To train the linemen on all the connectors they might encounter on their system.
2. To determine the time savings, if any, between the shoot-on connectors the utility was already using on its system, and CPI mechanical wedge connectors.
All linemen had experience installing fire-on style connectors with gloves. This was the first time they had installed CPI bolted wedge connectors either by hot stick or gloves. All installations were performed using hot sticks and linemen did not know they were being timed.
The simulated job was installing a floating dead end then connecting a pole mounted switch to the conductor on either side of the dead end. Three connections were made using the shoot-on style connectors currently used on the utility’s system and three connections were made using CPI mechanical wedge connectors. Four linemen participated in each installation in two or three bucket trucks.
The traditional shoot-on connectors pictured above took an average of 5 minutes, 31 seconds per installation.
CPI’s bolted wedge connectors offer substantial hot stick installation time savings when compared to shoot-on connectors. It is expected that since this was the first time any of these linemen installed the CPI connectors, their installation time will improve with more experience.
It is likely that installation time can by cut in half by utilizing CPI connectors instead of shoot-on wedge connectors.
For more information or to get a copy of the Time Savings Analysis, please contact Dave Martin at davemartin@connectorproducts.com.
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