Lubricant is crucial for underground cable installations. The right lubricant reduces friction and protects both cables and workers during installation. Conventional cable lubricants use a soap-based chemistry to reduce friction. However, as soap dries out it becomes sticky and can increase the pulling friction.

There is a new alternative silicone-based option hitting the market that boasts impressive performance characteristics. NEPTCO, the only makers of MULETAPE, has launched MULEGLIDE, a powerful new silicone lubricant to make cable installation jobs faster, smoother, and easier than ever. 

Numerous manufacturers are developing innovative devices to prevent damage that can occur to lines during civil engineering work. One such means is Trace Safe®, currently the only system for water-blocking locating wires. The heart of this innovation is a high tensile strength locatable wire with water-blocking threads. Because of simple connecting plugs, it is not necessary to remove the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) outer jacket of the locating wire. The advantages of Trace Safe lie in its strength; ease of use; lightning protection; and abrasion, compression, impact, and corrosion resistance.

Our customers often ask us to recommend a MULETAPE, a product created by NEPTCO nearly four decades ago, for their applications. There are a number of factors that go into our recommendations. Cable weight is the biggest influence, followed by the number of bends and finally the conduit size. All of these variables contribute to pulling tension and MULETAPE recommendations.

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) installations generate large volumes of spent drilling mud, which must be managed properly to avoid unnecessary treatment and disposal (T&D) costs and environmental risks.  Contractors and owners often choose to solidify drilling mud on-site with superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) because of the cost savings, ease of use, and environmental benefits that SAPs offer.   The following SAP FAQs and dosing recommendations may help you to plan a more efficient and safe HDD operation:

In the underground utility environment, tracer wire is placed to protect all dielectric utilities from damage. Fiber optic cable, water, natural gas, sewer -- all are within plastic pipes that require the use of TRACE-SAFE® tracer wires to accurately identify their positions for the purpose of preventing damage or catastrophic accidents.

The ability to find underground plastic gas lines is critical to public safety, but some gas companies are reluctant to place a metal conductor with their gas lines out of fear that a lightning strike could lead to an explosive situation.

When plastic pipe and tracer wire are pulled back through a horizontal bore, the tracer wire tends to wrap around the pipe.  There are documented cases of lightning strikes that have traveled down the length of the tracer wire.  The extreme heat caused by the high voltage transfers from the tracer wire and has caused the plastic pipes to rupture and create a potential hazardous situation. 

However, there is a product that has been extensively tested and will not transfer the energy of a lightning strike.  Click here to download the test report.

A Project Executed On The Hardest Terrain. 

The Darling Ranges to the north of Perth in Western Australia is a rocky and difficult terrain to horizontally direction drill through. Special rock drilling bits are required to get through the solid granite.

Neptco revolutionized the tracer wire market when it introduced Trace Safe, the world’s first tracer wire that incorporated water blocking technology to protect the solid copper conductor from water ingress.  There are two distinct products that incorporate many of the same features but there are key differences. 

Most planning engineers will require a big tracer wire believing a wide gauge conductor will provide a better signal and be more durable than a tracer wire with a narrow gauge.  Other planning engineers will require a bigger tracer wire because they believe that a wider gauge conductor will last longer once its buried and provide greater strength during a pull back.  In either situation, a bigger tracer wire isn’t better.