For an electrician, safety at work is of the highest priority and in the UK, we have stringent safety laws and regulations to ensure the health and well-being of electricians. Here we discuss the role printed cable ties play in this.
The importance of identifying electrical cables
Electrical accidents can happen due to unsafe equipment or installation resulting from incorrect identification of cables. The UK’s Wiring Regulations or ‘regs’, set out the safe and proper practice for fixed cabling installations, including the testing of wiring. In 2006, cable colours were standardised in line with international standards IEC 60446 and BS 7671, enabling quick and easy identification of wires.
UK core electrical cable colours
Brown – this is the live wire which carries power in a domestic installation.
Blue – this is the neutral wire which is the power carrying wire.
Green/yellow stripe – the earth wire is the safety wire.
The use of printed cable ties enables electricians to identify problem wires quickly to reach a speedy resolution, for example in a power outage. At cableties-online, we supply phase marking cable ties, which comply with UK Wiring Regulations and are an approved method of cable identification.
What are phase marking cable ties?
These are coloured nylon 6/6 cable ties that have been pre-printed using a hot foil method. Industry-recognised colours – orange, brown, silver, black, and blue – are marked with industry-recognised notations - N, L, L1, L2, L3 to indicate live circuits and neutral wires. Electricians use phase marking cable ties for cable identification in single and multi-phase metering installations.
The benefits to electricians of phase marking cable ties
- Phase marking cable ties are completely compliant with UK Wiring Regulations.
- The hot foil printing process transfers pigmented foil onto the cable tie using heat and pressure, giving high definition graphics that are clear and easy to read.
- They are supplied in convenient bags of 100 ties, and conform to the industry approved size of 200mm x 4.8mm
- Our phase marking cable ties are approved by all energy companies in the UK.
- Phase marking cable ties offer the same tensile strength as all our nylon 6/6 cable ties.
- The ties are printed along their entire length for good visibility.
- They are durable and weather resistant.
Other pre-printed utility cable ties
Our printed utility cable ties are printed with ‘Water’ on a blue tie, and ‘Gas’ on yellow ties and are ideal for differentiating the cables for different utilities.
In addition to our pre-printed phase marking cable ties and utility cables, we also supply standard, UV & heat stabilised, releasable and metal detectable custom-printed cable ties, with a choice three printing options – text only, numbers only or a combination of text and numbers - which enables sequential numbering of items.
Printed cable ties and electrical supplies from cableties-online
With extensive experience in the supply of electrical supplies and phase marking cable ties to independent tradespeople, we always hold large stock quantities of everything you need for your electrician’s toolkit, with free UK delivery on all orders over £50. For more information, our sales team is available via email at sales@cableties-online.co.uk or telephone on 01623 412160.
