What to look for in a Solar Cable?

Photovoltaics are the world’s fastest growing electrical power generation system, bringing about countless benefits not only for the consumer but also for the environment.

A photovoltaic system, depending on where it is installed, involves a number of solar panels, cables, connectors and other components that allow for solar radiation to be converted into electric power. Solar panels consist of a number of cells that contain a certain photovoltaic material, which might be cadmium telluride, copper indium selenide, monocrystalline silicone as well as others.

Due to the benefits from the utilization of photovoltaic systems, large photovoltaic power stations have been built all over the world, especially in the United States and Europe.

Due to this rising demand, the production of solar panels has grown considerably in the past few years.It goes without saying that along with the manufacturing of solar panels, also the manufacturing of solar cables and connectors is increasing remarkably.

Both solar cables and connectors have to be manufactured to very high standards to be able to withstand the elements.Should a solar cable be constructed with cheap materials, it might not be able to withstand high temperatures and fail to convert solar radiation into electricity. Imagine if a factory that relied on electrical power to keep its machines running, suddenly stopped receiving electricity due to a fault in the photovoltaic system. The same applies to families who have chosen to install solar panels either inside their houses or to mount them on top of the building roof.

That is why it is crucial that solar panels, connectors and cables should be made of top quality materials, seeing as they operate in extremely exposed environments.Solar cables should, in fact, be manufactured using sunlight-resistant materials, constructed in such a way to withstand severe weather conditions, be protected against dust, corrosion and water, and be durable and highly conductive.

In addition to that, quality solar cables should be Self-extinguishing and flame resistant, ozone resistant, oil resistant, UV ray resistant and halogen free.

Unlike most cable assemblies that operate in protected environments, solar cables are usually installed outside, which is why it is important that manufacturers do not use cheap materials or an unqualified workforce to construct them.

The choice of materials employed when manufacturing Cable Assemblies for the Solar Power Industry depends on how the cable will be used and where it will be mounted. There are, in fact, cables that are specifically built to be mounted on top of roofs, as well as cables that are suitable to be installed underground.

No matter what type of solar cables you need, they should always be compliant with the EC Low-Voltage Directive.To ensure insulation and avoid toxic emissions, fumes, acids or gas, halogen-free materials are usually employed to build solar cables. When it comes to solar cables that are meant to interconnect individual solar panels, it is crucial that materials should be used that will ensure flexibility and easy installation. Regardless of the materials they are made from, all solar cables should be tested to find out what their operating temperature range is. The standard temperature range is between -40° and +90°.

Summary:

This article aims at illustrating the benefits deriving from the growth of the solar power industry. Solar panels are interconnected by cables and connectors. It is crucial that cables and connectors should withstand high and low temperatures.

Low-Smoke Zero-Halogen Cables

Halogens are generally used as flame inhibitors in many plastics, including PVC (polyvinyl chloride) that goes into cable insulation and electronic products. Sadly, when it comes to the welfare of the environment and people, halogen-based fire retardants can be good and bad. Paradoxically, while halogen keeps plastics from igniting and spreading flames, they can also emit hazardous gases if the plastic ignites.

Halogens are used in everyday products with no harm; but in some circumstances, they can become lethal. Halogens are a group of chemical elements including iodine, bromine, fluorine, astatine, and chlorine. When these elements are exposed to fire, they form hazardous gases. Halogens are inexpensive fire-retardants and at times are added to non-halogenated wire and cable polymers to reduce their combustible quality.

Cancer-causing constituents such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), nitro polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dioxins are all noxious substances which result when halogenated compounds are burned. These gases are not only dangerous when they ignite and are released into the air; but when they interact with water, they can become caustic acids.

Low-smoke zero-halogen cables (LSZH) are fire retardant and have been available for many years for applications in confined areas where people are working. LSZH is a material category used to classify cableinsulation. LSZH cable insulation is made of materials designed to give off reduced smoke and no halogen when exposed to fire.

When combined with other fire deterrents and control practices, fire-retardant cables can help reduce fire-related casualties and property destruction. However, fumes produced by all burning materialsare toxic. Halogen-free fire suppressants areobtainable, but they are not widely used because of the exorbitant cost.

Halogen-free cables, when exposed to fire, do not give off hazardous gas/acids or toxic smoke. LSZH cables decrease the amount of smoke produced through burning. This material is normally used in inadequately ventilated areas, for instance, airplanes and ships. Low-smoke zero-halogen is becoming more common where people may be affected by smoke and toxic fumes.

A side benefit of halogen-free cable includes the fact that it is usually lighter weight; this is convenient especially if the cables are run overhead in a dropped ceiling. Also, the impact of halogen free cables will be lower if there is a fire because there are fewer toxic chemicals involved.

When burned, compounds like polypropylene produce very little smoke and no toxic gases likea PVC cable would. Low-Smoke Zero-Halogen cabling is the safest choice for sites where there is a potential for fire and the potential for people to be near that fire. Low-Smoke Zero-Halogen cables also comply with the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances mandate and similar North American safety and environmental standards.

Low-smoke zero-halogen material means less smoke and better visibility for clearing the area and fewer respiratory problems caused by smoke and less toxicity from halogenated gases. Procure Low-smoke Zero-halogen cables with corrosion resistant tinned copper conductors and stranded conductors for flexibility during installation. The LSZH cables are appropriatefor use in confined areas to save lives, reduce harm, and reduce damage to electronic equipment.

Summary

Halogens are used in cable insulation as flame retardants; this includes the PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Unfortunately, this flame retardant material can cause some health problems (particularly respiratory infections) for people. Although halogen compounds reduce the possibility of cables catching and spreading fire, they also release hazardous gases if the cable does reach the point of ignition. Low Smoke Zero Halogen cables reduce this risk by eliminating the harmful halogenated fumes as well as lowering the amount of smoke given off when these cables are burned.

Improving Your Apple Product Opportunities with the Long Mini Displayport Cable

Technology offers individuals a great deal of advantage when seeking to utilize the most advanced software and systems available to them. In order to get the most out of these technological advances, it becomes necessary for every individual to utilize the right components. Products such as Apple Cinema Displays and Macbooks represent unique options that are ahead of the technological pack created by the Apple Company. When you have the best technology to help you combine these two technologies, you will be able to utilize every aspect of the products you invested in.

For any individual looking to make use of these technological tools together, it becomes necessary that a person invest in the use of a Mini Displayport Cable. This handy cable allows a person to connect their Apple Cinema Displays, supporting a mini display port, to any new generation Macbook, Macbook Pro or Macbook Air. Apple manufactures their Cinema Displays with relatively short cables coming out of them; the displays are designed to sit right next to laptop or desktop computer. The issue that some individuals have with their Mini Displayport Cable is not found with the quality of the product but in the limited range of motion they have utilizing this accessory. It may be a nice feature to combine these two pieces of technology, but when your distance is greatly limited, it often hinders the experience.

Fortunately, consumers can rest easy when they discover what it possible when they take advantage of the Long Mini Displayport Cable to meet their cable needs. Also known as the long haul 24 AWG Mini Displayport extension cable, this unique accessory allows an individual to take advantage of Apple technology from incredible lengths. The longer cable is available in 25 foot, 35 foot and 50 foot, but could go as long as an incredible 17 meters or any size in between when requested. The thicker than normal 24 AWG cable allows for the signals utilized by your technology to travel much further, increasing mobility and reducing your limitations when taking advantage of these Apple products.

It is important to point out to users that due to the new power offered by the 24 AWG that larger overmolds and PCB boards were required to house the connectors for this large gauge cable. This can often result in a connector overlapping an adjacent plug on your computer. If you find this to be the case with your investment, know that you can take advantage of a customized dongle of the 24 AWG cable which will allow you to reduce plug size and salvage that overlapped port. When you are seeking to not be limited by the use of conventional Mini Displayport Cables, take advantage of what is possible from a Long Mini Displayport Cable investment.

Resource Box:
Do not find yourself limited in distance when looking to take advantage of the benefits that can be achieved when you combine your Apple Cinema Display with your next generation Macbook, Macbook Pro or Macbook Air. Free yourself from the limitations of a short Mini Displayport Cable by utilizing the opportunities offered with the Mini Displayport Extension Cable.

Article Summary:
The utilization of Apple products help to keep individuals on the cutting edge of technology as they utilize them at home or in the workplace. When seeking to maximize your opportunities in mobility, take advantage of all the benefits that are offered when you utilize the features presented with Long Mini Displayport Cables accessories.

HSSDC and HSSDC2 – New Interconnect Technology for High-Speed Data Transfer for Cable to Board Interface

HSSDC, or high speed serial data connector, is an interconnect technology for high-speed data transfer from cable to board (or vice versa) for applications such as gigabyte Ethernet, storage, servers and workstations. Using HSSDC, copper implementation of fibre channel and other serial data applications can reach speeds of up to 2.125 Gbps over long distances. HSSDC has been approved by ANSI committees for use in fibre channel and serial storage architectures, as well as for being included in the new IEEE 802.3 MHz Ethernet standard.

The HSSDC connectors are fully shielded, stay connected using a “click” latching system and have “make first/ break last” ground contacts that ensure a reliable and non interfering connection. Circuit boards are designed to integrate into either a PC board providing 6 to 8 connections or in a PCI slot which can allow integration of up to four connectors into one card slot.

HSSDC technology has cable plugs that incorporate a small printed circuit board which can include equalization circuitry to extend the usable length of copper cable to over 30 meters. Equalization can reduce the amount of “cross talk” expected over current Ethernet implementations. Cross talk is the undesired interference or talking between one part of a network and another. This reduction of interference decreases the amount of lost data and network load, thereby increasing overall transfer speeds.

HSSDC2 is a newer family of interconnect solutions that includes shielded and adapter receptacles, copper pluggable modules, cable assemblies and a cable plug kit. HSSDC’s plugs are die cast with a stamped latch/ground spring, impedance controlled PCB and seven high-speed contact pads.

Developed from the original HSSDC design, this new connector system utilizes less electricity and has a smaller form factor – providing overall space savings - than HSSDC connectors. This new adaptation of standard HSSDC has been specified by the InfiniBand Trade association for 1X I/O applications and suitable for fibre channel and gigabyte Ethernet applications.

HSSDC2 is currently capable of providing transfer speeds of 2.5 Gbps, an increase of only 0.35 Gbps over HSSDC. While currently only a minor increase, future generations of this system will allow the data transfer capability to be increased by as much as double, to 5.0 Gbps. HSSDC2 products are used for storage devices, routers, network switches, and network interface cards (NICs).

For highest performance, both these connectors are designed with the aid of advanced modeling techniques including electromagnetic modeling tools and sophisticated circuit simulations. This optimizes the equalization circuitry for different ranges of cables, including long distance applications up to 30 meters.

Manufacturing of HDMI Cables

For quality reasons, many customers are now looking for HDMI cables manufactured in the US as opposed to HDMI cables manufactured in China. Our observation, however, is just the contrary. This short article explains why a customer won’t find a US-based manufacturer for this important product.

The term HDMI is an acronym for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. An HDMI cable is used to connect high-definition audio and video sources to displays like HDTVs. Often, HDMI cable has terminals at the end for ease of connection.

The manufacturing of HDMI cable is quite complex. Although a handful of U.S. manufacturers have the capability to produce such cables, manufacturing of HDMI cable is rarely done on US soil. In fact, nobody actually claims to manufacture HDMI cable in the US. The main reason for this is the high labor cost involved in manufacturing, which is very time intensive. Therefore, any US manufacturer - attempting to manufacture this - would have faced prohibitive production costs. On the contrary, the labor cost is comparatively cheap in China and that is why manufacturing of this particular type cable is done in China. Moreover, connectors - suitable for the terminating HDMI cable - are also assembled in China for cost reasons. So, Chinese manufacturers are ahead, cost wise, both in the bulk cable and connector market. For a customer, US-manufactured cables probably don’t exist, and if they did, the cost would be exorbitant.

Consider estore.circuitassembly.com as your preferred HDMI cable source. We, at estore.circuitassembly.com, have our manufacturing line in China. We only purchase raw materials from outside suppliers, but manufacture our own high-quality HDMI cables in this Chinese plant. As a mark of high-quality, our cables have the HDMI trademark sign, signifying stringent quality standards, on the cable jacket itself. This trademark - issued by HDMI Licensing, LLC - can only be used by manufacturers who must pay $10,000 per year to HDMI, LLC. As a manufacturer, Circuit Assembly also pays royalties to HDMI, Inc. on the sale of products bearing the HDMI mark.

So, when you purchase HDMI cable from us, you can be assured of the highest quality for your multimedia experience!