from
Fire Alarm Cables now in stock
FS Cables adds NoBurn® to its range of fire cables
Within the industry it is now
recognised that in the event of fire
the continued functionality of some
cables is essential to provide
sufficient time for evacuation.
Airports, hospitals and train stations
are just some examples of areas which
rely on maintaining circuit integrity in
order to evacuate a large number of
people quickly and safely in the event
of a fire.
FS Cables have increased their stocks
of the Ventcroft range of NoBurn®
‘Platinum’ (standard) and NoBurn®
‘Diamond’ (enhanced) fire alarm
cables for your convenience. The
benefits of these cables are that they
are quick and simple to install, have
great working flexibility and are Low
Smoke Halogen Free throughout.
The easy strip outer sheath enables
quick termination, saving time and
+++ Metal Prices +++ Metal Prices +++ Metal Prices +++
26th March 2009
COPPER £2,790.47
ALUMINIUM £984.17
SILVER £9.44
NICKEL £6,828.72
All prices per 1000kg except silver per oz. Exchange rates apply at time of trade
+++ Metal Prices +++ Metal Prices +++ Metal Prices +++
Fire alarm cables provide continued functionality in the event of fire
reducing costs, while the Low Smoke
Halogen Free jacket offers additional
protection in the event of a fire,
through greatly reduced emissions of
smoke and harmful halogens.
Issue 9 of ‘The Little Red Book’
Get your free copy for a chance to win an LED flashlight
Issue 9 of ‘The Little Red Book’ is
now available. Expanded to 128
pages, a whole host of new products
are included this time in response to
your feedback.
BS5308 control and instrumentation
cables make an appearance for the first
time as do PV (photovoltaic) cables
for use on solar panels. Dedicated
sections on security and rail cables are
included with expanded details on
armouring, oversheathing and custom-
manufactured cables.
8th September 2008 Change %
£3,962.14 -29.57%
£1,475.86 -33.32%
£6.85 +37.85%
£10,606.53 -35.62%
Spring 2009 Issue 6
it is easily ‘dressed’. This makes
it ideal for installations in either
fixed straight lines or where bent
around corners.
The quality management system for
both NoBurn® standard and enhanced
is fully tested and approved by LPCB
and BASEC. Both cables are ideal
for installations in alarm systems,
emergency lighting systems, air
conditioning units and other areas
which require continued functionality in
the event of a fire.
Large stocks of 1mm2, 1.5mm2 and
2.5mm2 configurations are available on
either 100m or 500m reels. Talk to
a member of our sales team for
more information.
Estimated termination speeds of under
10 seconds can be achieved making
it the fastest and simplest on
the market. NoBurn® also benefits
from great working flexibility meaning
As in issue 8, the latest catalogue In this issue
contains detailed descriptions and
technical information for the wide range • Fire Alarm Cables
of products available to you for next • Issue 9 of ‘The Little
working day delivery. Red Book’
• What's in a Cable?
This includes data, coax, signal and
• Antennax™
control, security, telephone, audio,
robotics, high temperature, rubber and • Next working-day delivery
rail cables, with many available in a • Q&A with Gavin Clements
range of sheathing options such as • Paper Planet Recycling
armoured, duct grade or Low Smoke • In Brief
Halogen Free. • Editorial
Continued on page 3

In Brief
Great prices on
YY Cables...
New lower prices on YY control flex
are now standard at FS Cables. Most
2, 3 & 4 core sizes are stocked either
number or colour coded and larger
multicores are available number coded.
Orders are shipped via TNT for next
working day delivery and the popular
‘cut to length’ service means you
don’t have to buy more than you need.
...and Telephone
Cables
Due to special purchasing arrangements
we have some fantastic deals on
telephone cables including internal
CW1308 & external CW1128 with or
without an armour. BT drop wire in 2
or 4 pair with integral strainers are
also included. This gives you a great
opportunity to save money on top
quality products.
Copper
Tired of (wrongly!) predicting the
fluctuations in copper price, Wired
would like to give you some facts in
this issue.
The electrical industry is the largest
user of copper consuming 42% of the
annual production with Asia
contributing 43% of the total copper
production worldwide.
Copper was first traded on the LME
(London Metal Exchange) in 1877. By
2007, world consumption reached
just under 18 million tonnes.
In April 2008 LME stocks of copper
were 110,000 tonnes. Since then,
stocks have increased steadily to
approximately 500,000 tonnes.
If you apply the rules of supply
and demand, copper prices should
fall. There we go again with those
risky predictions!
What’s in a Cable?
Part 4 - Braiding,
Screening and
Armouring
In this series we have looked at cable
manufacturing, starting with the original
conductor, the insulation material and the
process of laying up the cores.
In this instalment of ‘What’s in
a Cable’ we look at the next stage –
braiding, armouring and screening.
After the cores have been laid up
they can either go straight to be
sheathed/jacketed or braided or armoured.
The purpose of screening or braiding is to act
Antennax™
Antennax™ is the new range of
high performance, ultra low
loss coaxial cables designed
to carry signals from a
transmitter to an antenna, aerial
or dish. Developed for microwave,
satellite and telecommunication
masts, the Antennax™ range
is manufactured to ensure
optimum levels of performance.
Designed to emulate the market
leaders such as the Times LMR
series, the Antennax™ range is easy
to cross reference. Let us have
the style or type of the cable
you currently use and we’ll advise
you on the appropriate Antennax™
product together with costs
and availability.
Antennax™ combines the lowest
loss of cables in its class with
the handling and functionality
you would expect from an
FSC cable. The foil and braid
screen delivers high levels of
electrical protection while the
foamed dielectric and flexible
outer jacket ensure that bending
and handling characteristics are
not compromised.
Braiding can be applied straight over the core
bundle or over a bedding or inner sheath. If
no inner sheath is used clear polyester tape or
non-woven polyester fleece is normally
applied. This holds the cores together and
reduces wear if the cable flexes. This also
helps keep the overall diameter of the cable to
a minimum. It is normal to extrude a sheath or
bedding over the core bundle if the cable is
to be armoured or steel braided.
The equipment used to braid cables dates
back to the early textile industry and in some
factories it is not unusual to see 50 year old
machines still working! Nowadays however,
most factories have invested in modern
computer controlled braiders.
The braiding process requires two sets of
bobbins, pre-wound with braid wires, to rotate
in opposite directions to plait or weave the
wires to form a braid. The density or coverage
of the braid, often expressed as a percentage,
as a barrier, reducing the amount of
electromagnetic interference from or to other
varies depending on the number of wires or
strands in each plait, the pitch of the braid and
the thickness of each strand.
signals nearby. Types of screening can
include woven wire braiding or aluminium
coated polyester tape. Armouring, as its Copper braids such as CY cables are
name implies, provides mechanical protection generally used for screening against
to the cable. electromagnetic interference and steel
braided cables such as SY cables are used
Braiding
Braiding can be used for either mechanical for mechanical protection. Other braid
protection, electrical screening against materials used for specialist applications
electromagnetic interference (EMI) or to give include glass or ceramic fibres for high
the cable torsional strength. temperature and Rayon for torsional strength.
Stocked in LSHF (Low Smoke Halogen
Free) and LDPE (Low Density
Polyethylene) these cables are ideal for
both internal and external installations.
The LDPE version offers long life
expectancy and weatherability, ideal for
runs clipped to masts or towers with a
high degree of exposure.
The LSHF version offers protection
where the evacuation of people or
property in the event of fire is critical. A
range of high quality N type and other
connectors to suit Antennax™ are also
available on short lead times.
Antennax™ comes with the usual great
FS Cables services, including ‘cut to
length’ so you only buy what you need,
reducing your wastage and saving you
money. Next working-day delivery is
also standard within the UK mainland,
carriage paid on orders over £100.
Full technical information on
Antennax™ is available in the free,
128 page cabling guide ‘The Little
Red Book’, or via the website
www.fscables.com/antennax.php
When glass or ceramic fibres are used they
are normally varnished to make them easier
to handle.
An important point to watch out for is where
suppliers talk about braid coverage but omit to
mention the diameter of the wires used to
braid it. This can easily reduce the metal
content of the braid by as much as 50%. In a
screened cable such as a CY or coax cables,
this may substantially reduce the performance
of the cable and its ability to deal with EMI.
With steel braided cables the braid should
only be used for mechanical protection. Here
the diameter of the braid wires clearly dictates
the level of mechanical damage the cable
can withstand.
Tape and Aluminium Foil
An alternative and cheaper form of screening
is to wrap the cores in an aluminium or
polyester laminated tape. This can provide
100% coverage but is not as conductive as a
copper braid screen. If aluminium / polyester
foils are used they must be in direct contact
with a bare wire to act as an earthing point.
The ultimate level of screening is an
aluminium / polyester foil in contact with a
high coverage copper wire braid as found on
some Belden style data cables and the FS
Cables Niltox® LF-329 and Risershield
screened power or control cables.
The Little Red Book Continued from cover...
Other popular features have been
retained such as the Belden page finder
for cross reference and revised technical
tables to comply with the 17th edition
wiring regulations. A handy AWG / Metric
converter, stranding charts and guides to
American, European and UK colour
codes are also included.
While an increase in length allows for
more information and products, the
overall size remains the same so it will
still fit comfortably in your pocket or
toolbox. Whether you are on site or in the
office, ‘The Little Red Book’ provides all
the information you need.
Next Working-
Day Delivery
on Thousands
of Cables
From our 55,000 sq. ft. warehouse
based just north of London, FS Cables
offer thousands of cables ‘off the shelf’
for next-working day delivery.
There is no cut off time for orders – if
we can ship your order we will. We also
cut to length on many products offering
A braiding machine weaves the wires into a braid
Armouring
Steel wire armour (SWA) or to give it its
correct designation - single wire armour, is
constructed by winding galvanised solid steel
wires of between 0.9mm to over 3mm diameter
around the bedded cable in a spiral form.
The individual wires are laid parallel to each
other to give almost 100% coverage. This is
Braiding (left) protects against electromagnetic interference while armouring offers the
cable mechanical protection
Issue 9 is also available on CD as an
optimised PDF. Text in the PDF has been
enabled as hyperlinks meaning you can
navigate the catalogue like a ‘mini
website’. This enables quick browsing of
products by name, part number or
Belden reference.
To launch the new catalogue, Wired
is giving away a free FS
Cables LED flashlight to every 5th
respondent to either the enclosed
pre-paid reply card or emails to
littleredbook@fscables.com
These pocket sized flashlights feature 12
incredibly bright LEDs in a solid metal
you both a cost saving and reduced
wastage. Only buy what you need!
Orders over £100 are carriage paid,
under that there is a very reasonable
£6 charge. Pre – 9am, 10.30am or
12 noon and even same-day (distance
permitting) deliveries are also available
for those really urgent shipments.
Our large distribution centre allows
customers to call off their order over a
period of time. This offers a fixed price
and guarantee of supply without tying
up space and helping your cashflow.
Why not make our huge stocks look like
your huge stocks?
one of the toughest forms of mechanical
protection but the drawback is that it
substantially reduces flexibility and can be
slow to terminate.
Steel tape armour is also popular in some
countries particularly on some fibre optic
cables. This form of armour uses two helically
wound galvanised steel tapes, wound in the
same direction – sometimes it is corrugated or
interlocking which helps with both strength
and flexibility but also increases the price.
The advantage of steel tape armour is its
resistance to vermin and termite attack and
its relatively quick manufacture and low cost.
Once screened or armoured the cable is
then sheathed or jacketed. We will look at
this process in the next instalment of
‘What’s in a Cable’.
housing and are very robust. They come
supplied with 3 AAA batteries and are
low power consumption.
We have 250 torches to give away and
these will be mailed out free of charge to
every 5th respondent to Wired while
stocks last.
Next working-day delivery is carriage paid
on orders over £100 to mainland UK
Editorial
It would be difficult to write this without
acknowledging the current market
conditions. Certainly some projects are
being put on hold or cancelled and some
sectors will spend a lot less this year
on development and growth than they
did last year.
There is still strong demand in some
sectors however and while it appears
fashionable to predict gloom, doom and
despondency there are still a large amount
of projects going ahead.
A common problem in the industry has
been the fall in copper price which has
resulted in practically every distributor
holding stock that was purchased at
significantly higher rates. With lead times
of up to 25 weeks, an order placed in July
2008 with copper at USD$8800/ton would
not have arrived until late 2008 when
copper had dropped to USD$3200/ton.
Many distributors are now sitting on some
very expensive stock.
With much of the data and signal range we
sell, copper is not such a significant part of
the cost. On our higher copper content
items we have decided to drop the prices to
give you a saving immediately and to allow
us to restock at new lower prices.
We have also seen more customers buying
exactly the length they need rather than a
standard drum length. This has reduced the
average value of orders but increased the
number of orders!
If you are experiencing cash flow problems
please talk to us. We hate putting people
on stop but if we don’t have a dialogue we
fear the worst.
Finally the latest ‘Little Red Book’ has been
very well received, expanded to include
some new product ranges. If you haven’t
got your copy yet send back the reply card
with this issue. You could also win a torch!
Best wishes
Jon Herbert
jon@fscables.com
Q&A
with FSC Global Director Gavin Clements
Right to Left :- Gavin Clements, Greig Martens, George Richardson, Rosie Howell-Hughes,
Rebecca Wills, Artem Arseni and Daniel Butterfield
How was FSC Global formed?
FSC Global Ltd was formed in November
2001 when the amount of overseas
business we were doing justified creating a
dedicated company.
Typically the markets we serve such as
marine, power generation and petrochemical
are very different to the UK side of the
business which tends to centre around
electrical contractor, OEM, security and
specifier type work.
Why form a separate company?
The requirements of export are quite
different to the UK home market, particularly
in the areas of specification and
documentation. Customers’ needs tend to
be a lot more bespoke as well with much of
the work being project based. Having a
dedicated company allows us to focus on the
customers’ unique requirements and
ultimately provide a better service.
Paper Planet Recycling - Tree Planting in Marston Vale
On a chilly November morning last
year, David Keene and Suzi Coggins
from FS Cables went to The Forest
Centre in Marston Mortaine, near
Bedford on a tree planting mission.
This was in aid of Pearce Recycling
whose Paper Planet recycling
programme is widely used in offices
around the country. The scheme
encourages the recycling of office
waste such as paper, plastics, tin cans
and card.
Pearce Recycling invite companies
using this programme to plant trees
according to how many bags of
recycling they have produced over that
Like FS Cables we are based at Alban Point
in Hertfordshire, with over 55,000 sq. ft. of
warehouse space plus a large yard for
packing goods into containers on site.
The 5,600m2 of stock we hold plus a
manufacture to order facility means we are
able to provide cable for many different
applications quickly and efficiently. Goods
can be shipped by courier, air, sea, rail or
road to meet the customers’ needs.
How many of you are there in FSC Global?
Starting with a team of three, the company
has more than doubled in size over the years
to seven members of staff. Greig, Daniel,
Rosie, Becky, George, Artem and myself.
Daniel and Artem look after the Kazakhstan
and CIS markets while Greig, Rosie, Becky
and George focus on Europe and the Middle
East. Dubai and the UAE represent big
markets for us.
Alban Point, Alban Park, Hatfield Road, St. Albans, Herts AL4 0JX
General Sales: 01727 840 841
Fax: 01727 840 842
www.fscables.com
sales@fscables.com
Becky joined us last year and looks after
much of the office administration and
dealings with freight companies. Artem is a
Russian speaker and recently moved into
sales from the warehouse. He also brings
with him plenty of ‘hands on’ experience of
the products!
How do you promote the business
globally?
Exhibitions are a good way of reaching new
customers – we are typically doing around
2-3 per year. They are mainly energy related
shows such as oil and gas and offshore. Last
year we attended KIOGE in Kazakhstan and
ADIPEC in Dubai. This year we will be at
Offshore Technology Conference 2009 in
Houston and Trako 2009 in Poland.
We are also members of various export
organisations aimed at developing business
for UK exporting companies.
You mentioned that customers’ needs
tend to be different overseas?
Yes that’s right. First of all the average order
size tends to be larger but less frequent than
the UK side.
We also have to provide all the paperwork
such as certificates of origin and legalised
documents, as well as arranging packing of
goods suitable for shipping by road, sea, rail
or air. We aim to offer the fastest, most
efficient service of any cable distributor
wherever the customer is working.
year. Fifty bags of paper is equivalent to
one tree and we were allocated five
trees to plant.
Upon arrival, David and Suzi were
ushered onto coaches to be taken to
the planting site. After brief
demonstration on how to plant a tree
correctly, shovels were handed out and
the tree planting began.
David and Suzi rose to the challenge
and planted 36 trees in total, 31 more
than the allocated amount! Over a
1000 trees were planted on the day by
the 120 companies who participated.
OEM Sales: 01727 849 801
Contractor Sales: 01727 849 802
Credit Control: 01727 849 827
Purchasing: 01727 849 805
Marketing: 01727 849 806
Just like at FS Cables, building customer
relationships is critical to ensure we supply
what is required on time and to the correct
location.
What about on the product side?
It tends to focus around the larger power and
instrumentation cables, armoured or un-
armoured types. Cables to NEK 606, IEC
60092-3, and BS6883 are popular, as are
power cables to BS5467, BS6724 and
IEC60502. Fibre optic, coaxial and
microwave cables are also stocked and like
FS Cables, many cables are available in Low
Smoke Halogen Free versions.
We are often asked to provide custom
manufactured cables with various options to
cope with contaminated ground, UV, heat,
chemicals, or LSHF sheathing, fire resistance
or armouring. Often solutions can be found
with short lead times and low minimum order
quantities.
Tell me about some of the projects you
have supplied to?
Over the years FSC Global have worked on a
variety of projects around the world, from
hospital fire safety systems in Malta, UN
emergency supplies in Iraq, to oil pipelines
and power stations in the Middle East.
We have also supplied large amounts of
LSHF and fire resistant cables for mass
transit systems such as the Porto Metro and
Bangkok underground.
The paper planet recycling programme
is part of the FSC commitment to
reducing detrimental impact on the
environment. Currently work is being
undertaken to achieve ISO14001 status,
expected during the summer.