Cable braid dimension?

[Dmacnumberfour]

Hello,
I was curious if any one could tell me the diameter of a cable braid with roughly 400 cables in it. I need to get sleeves for the cable to fit thru.
Thanks for the help.
Dmac,

 

[daronwilson]

Well in order to help you, we would need to know what type of cable you are talking about. I'm not sure what you mean by cable braid, are you saying you are going to make a hole through something and put 400 cables in it so you need to know how big to make the hole?
It is only my opinion, based on my experience and education...I am always willing to learn, educate me!
Daron J. Wilson, RCDD
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com

 

[Dmacnumberfour]

daronwilson,

It is going to be Cat5e, yes I am going to need to know so I know how big the conduit will have to be to fit the cables in. Sorry I didn't clarify that in the earlier post. The braid is just the cables all together at the termination point. When you braid them all together to look really nice and neat. Thanks for the help.
Dmac,

 

[daronwilson]

OK, don't have time to look it up today, but I can do it tomorrow for you. Basically the table and formula are in the National Electrical Code and I'm headed out for the evening.

Tomorrow I'll look it up unless someone else comes up with it first. It is only my opinion, based on my experience and education...I am always willing to learn, educate me!
Daron J. Wilson, RCDD
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com

 

[marklouie]

Hi,

I think that this might help...

http://www.mygeneralcable.com/Gcabl...uitCapacities/NA/NA/web/ConduitCapacities.pdf

 

[daronwilson]

Very nice link, sorry for the delay, the table in the NEC doesn't expand nearly as well as the one you posted.

Here's the deal:

The NEC and the table posted are based on a 40% fill factor. This may or may not be a requirement depending where you are and what the conduit is used for. This last code revision, the NEC exempted horizontal runs of communications cabling from the conduit fill requirements. I have no idea why, but they did. So if this is a sleeve from the equipment room into the drop ceiling area for your cables, I think you could look at 90% fill factor. However, if this is a run of conduit and has a bend in it, I would think it may not be considered horizontal cabling and the fill requirements may apply.

Back to the table, if you assume Cat5e at about .25 for area, and you have 5" sleeves, 40% will get you 163 cables per sleeve. If you were going to bump that up to 90% or so for a short sleeve only, you could get 408 cables in or so.

If you are looking for code and standard compliance, I would stick with the 40% to be safe, you would need three 5" sleeves.

Hope that helps, sorry for the delay in responding.

Good Luck! It is only my opinion, based on my experience and education...I am always willing to learn, educate me!
Daron J. Wilson, RCDD
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com