Smart and fire resistive cables and wires

Smart cities have smart cables and wires installed, but can they resist the biggest threat ‘fire’ and save the entire city? The industry experts discuss out how much imperative it is to have fire resistive cables and wires in smart cities.

With rapidly growing population, prosperity and increasing human demand for power and infrastructure, and resources, smart cities have becoming a necessity in modern India. Smart cities are the future of mankind. But what exactly do we mean by “smart”? It is the ability of the devices to monitor and control the optimal performance-to-energy efficiency ratio, in order to provide you with real-time insights like, how the power is being transmitted, water usage, accessibility, etc. But can wires be ‘smart’ and also ‘save’ us from any fire incident at the same time?

Fire resistance cables in smart cities
Countless residents live in a smart city and modern day skyscrapers, hence, fire safety becomes a necessary part of the city planning. If the fire and safety equipment is not perfect, it could lead to a disaster in case of fire. In order to effectively protect public life and property, modern buildings must have complete fire and safety equipment.

Ankit Tayal, Co-Founder, Step Industries says, “Considerable amount of cable is utilised as media by electricity transmission, process control, alarm, surveillance and communications systems etc. and in case of fire, these cables must continue to maintain its original function and normal operation of equipment for a long period of time to facilitate the fire and safety work. Therefore, having a fire resistant cable becomes imperative in smart cities.”

However, wires cannot tell you how much power they consume, but the devices they are connected to, can. Naman Singhal, Director, Prime Cable Industries Pvt. Ltd. says, “Reliability cannot be always dependent on the devices. What if the temperature monitor fails to report a hike in the system? That is where products like flame retardant wires come to the rescue.”

Recently, there was a fire in a 10-storey building in Delhi, due to short circuit. Had they been fire resistant cables installed in the building as a precautionary measure, then possibly they could have averted the incident and a lot of people might have been safeguarded. A.K. Schroff, CEO, Ankur Technocrats says, “This is the case with the common cities where the need of fire resistant cables and wires are necessary. So, when we talk about the high-tech cities, it’s highly imperative that all the smart cities are installed with fire resistant cables, especially the multi-story buildings.”

Flame resistant or flame retarded cable for smart cities?
Now there is a slight confusion in this segment, FR cables are of two types flame retardant cables and fire rated cables. Tayal says, “While their names may seem that they’re the same type of wires, but in reality they are two very different cables.”

Flame retardant cables have a specific function – to resist the spread of fire. When a fire breaks out, these wires are not expected to function during the fire, but what they do is prevent the spread of the lit area by restraining the combustion. Fire rated cables are the ones which are designed to keep operating even under extreme temperatures and even fire. These are mostly used in situations where power delivery is required in emergency situations, or the equipment used for evacuation process when a fire breaks out in a building. Not only this, these can be used in areas like emergency lights, fire alarm systems, public announcement systems and service lifts.

Apart from installation, there has to be an understanding for the essentialities of having fire resistance cables, especially when there is a persistent misperception among the people between fire resistant cables and the flame retarded cables, as both are termed as FR. According to Schfroff, “People usually fail to realise the difference among the two, so the builders and the designers of a smart city or any other builder must be conscious of the meaning and should rather opt for fire resistant cables and not the flame retarded cables. So, using fire resistant cables is imperative. If we use the proper material and cables for fire resistance, we would be able to avoid many fire accidents.”

However, Singhal has a positive take on flame retarded cables. He says, “Flame retardant wires are designed with a majority prospectus of safety attached to them. So, even if the system fails, you can be assured that the wires can handle the surge and not let it spread. Hence, we can say that products like FR cables, can provide a rigid backbone to the smart city architecture.”

Design parameters for fire resistant and fire retarded cables
When a wire burns, harmful gases are released, toxic fumes are generated from the smoke that arises, and sometimes if the temperature goes too high, may even damage the structural integrity of the space it’s enclosed in! For this, we have to make sure, first, that the wire should resist high temperatures. Now the wire can itself resist temperature; the main issue here is with the insulation. Insulation, even after burning, should not release toxic fumes, especially halogen acid gas, which the wires generally release on burning.

For best results, oxygen barrier is created between the wire and the insulation. Now this the most ingenious way of fire retarding, if there is no oxygen, it will not burn! Simple, isn’t it? Not so much, the laying and maintenance of such cables is very expensive and difficult, hence it doesn’t have a wide consumer acceptance.

Singhal says, “For fire retardant cables, a lot of parameters have to be kept in mind while determining what materials go into their making. What we can do for the masses is, use stronger, lighter materials and use partial oxygen barriers. This way, we can be tension-free, without breaking the bank!”

Several builders use cables made with the thermo classic polymers. However, these cannot withstand high temperature and will be a failure. Schroff says, “The cables must be of cross-linked polymers which can stand high heat density and higher temperatures. The exact proper material and the polymer used in the fire resistant cables are rarely manufactured in India.” So far, cables with fire resistant properties are always imported. Sometimes, in India, people usually install any cable and claim them to be fire resistant, as no one would verify their facts by testing those cables.

According to Tayal fire resistant cables are designed with a majority prospectus of safety attached to them. So even if the system fails, you can be assured that the wires can handle the surge and not let it spread. Hence, we can say that products like FR cables, can provide a rigid backbone to the smart city architecture.

Fire resistant cables can provide a rigid backbone to the smart city architecture.
Ankit Tayal, Co-Founder, Step Industries

Flame retardant wires are designed with a majority prospectus of safety attached to them and can handle the surge and not let it spread.
Naman Singhal, Director, Prime Cable Industries Pvt. Ltd

“Use of proper material and cables for fire resistance, would enable to avoid many fire accidents.”
A.K. Schroff, CEO, Ankur Technocrats