Use of color-changing pigments to detect wire and cable hazards

摘要

Most wire and cable (W&C) conductors perform an excellent job of carrying electricity as intended. However, even the best wire and cable will often get pushed to their limit because of unforeseen chronic or acute factors causing excessive electrical resistance and precipitating dangerous levels of conductor heat. While a certain allowance of excess resistance and heat is typically factored into the construction of today's manufactured W&C jacketing or insulation, often the user (whether it be; residential, commercial, industrial, military, etc) only recognizes that their wire or cable is experiencing a dangerous thermal build-up upon the "pungent smell of melting plastic" or worse…the smoke and heat of an ensuing electrical fire. As an innovative and inexpensive response to the need to provide a visual safety warning to the user of potentially hazardous over-heating of wire and cable, recent advances and availability of thermochromic materials make them ideal when applied to wire and cable as a means to indicate and warn of hazardous electrical circuit malfunctions.