Background
Labrador City is located on the 53rd parallel, which makes it one of the northern most cities in all of Canada. Mining is the major industry so its critical to have a reliable source of energy with minimal downtime. With only one flight entering and leaving this cold city each day, repairs are neither quick or easy.
Problem
Our customer had been having problems with Brass Bolted Connectors for the past 50 years. The loss of power in such a cold, remote area would cause major economic and safety issues. The current connectors on the 2.5" Bus needed replaced, so they contacted DMC Power.
Solution
DMC Power was able to engineer, test and manufacture 8 custom copper connectors for Labrador City in just 6 business days. Once complete, the connectors and Swage Tooling were shipping internationally and installed just 16 business days after order confirmation.
Installation
Installation happened in early December with the weather outside -5 Celsius and very damp. These were 46kV lines, so the installation was 35 feet in the air. The customer was able to receive the parts, complete the tool training, install all the connectors and inspect them in just one afternoon.
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- 2 right next to each other. Note the frost that has already formed!
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- Snowy, sub-freezing temperatures
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- End view
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- Inside close up
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- Side view
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- Aligning the Swage tool over the connector
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- You can see the Swage tool activated around the Connector and Bus bar
