Testing Damaged Cables

[X49]

We have a couple of 600V cables in our facility that have been somewhat damaged. The outer jackets of these cables have be compressed (squished) somewhat in one spot. They are #6 AWG SOW cables (non-armored equipment cable) used to supply 600V motors.

We may replace them just to be sure, but is there any method to test them to make sure they are safe to use? They are currently in service and we've experienced no problems. We are planning on doing a Megger test, but this will only test the insulation, not the integrity of the copper. It is a duty-standby application so reliability for either motor is not extremely critical.

 

[alehman]

It it looks bad it should probably be replaced. Really no tests that I know of other than appearance and megger.

Can you cut out the squished part and splice it or install connectors?

Alan
“The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.” Unk.

 

[bjenks]

I do meggar test all the time to determine if cable are bad or not. Make sure you consider the length of the cable when doing the test and that you isolate both ends.

 

[bjenks]

I should have mentioned that meggar does insulation test, but you can also do use a digital meggar ground resistance tester to determine the impedance of the copper too.