Showing posts with label strain relief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strain relief. Show all posts

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Outlets, inlets, receptacles, plugs, jacks, whatever you call them, they oughta be correctly mounted

Alex, I'll go for $1,000 for "Places you shouldn't stick your finger.  Ever."


Note the missing cover plate and the uninsulated wiring sticking out.
Should not have an ungrounded outlet in a commercial building - or any building for that matter.


Note the extension box pulled off the wall.


Note the box and ground conductor completely missing.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Electrical Safety - Equipment Maintenance

Most stage equipment that uses electricity has a power cord with a (male) plug or (female) receptacle on one or both ends of it. Maintaining those connections is vital to both the operation of the device and the safety of those using it. Below is the back-end of a stage lighting instrument that has the cable strain relief missing, which in-turn allowed the inner wiring to become frayed and short-out to the casing. Here is a cable end plug that was hurredly assembled to get it working for a show, but the cable clamp (strain relief) was never tightened-down to take the stress off of the inner conductors.
Here is a 2P&G cable end that was not properly secured to the outher sheathing of the stage lighting instrument cable, and over time it frayed apart.
The same thing can happen to extension cords, twofers, and just about any other cable connection. When you find these types of equipment damage, the best thing to do is red-tag the equipment as non-usable, and submit it to your repair shop for correction

An ounce of prevention
In general, the root cause of these types of connector failures is due to people yanking on the cable instead of grasping the plug body when they remove them from their mating device. Take care of your equipment and it may not seek revenge by failing at five minutes to eight, or worse yet, shocking you to get your attention.