What is Cold Shrink Tubing?
Cold shrink tubing is tubing that shrinks in normal temperatures, so there is no need to heat the tubing to shrink it. It’s supplied on a removable core in a pre-stretched shape. The inner core is removed during installation, allowing the tubing to narrow down around the cables, allowing a tight and compact installation.
With cold shrink tubing, it’s easy to insulate wires, connections, repair wires, and bundle wires together. Although it has the same functions as heat shrink tubing, cold shrink tubing should be considered when the environment is potentially explosive or flammable and safety is a concern. It’s also suitable for limited spaces that you may encounter in many industrial applications.
Where Would I Use Cold Shrink Tubing?
Cold shrink tubing is a great alternative to heat shrink tubing in certain environmental conditions. You can use cold shrink in field installations to splice joints, or cable trench applications in hazardous environments that may be exposed to oil, gas, and chemicals; or use in confined spaces where flammable gases are a concern. Because you don’t need to use a flame, like a heat gun, to shrink the cold shrink tubing, it can’t be overheated or split like regular heat shrink tubing, which may cause further complications to your spliced cables.
6 Key Benefits of Cold Shrink Tubing
- Easy to install
- Reduce installer errors
- Large size range
- Helps improve electrical properties
- Excellent environmental sealing properties
- No special tools needed for installation
Conclusion
Cold shrink tubing is very useful when environmental factors play a role in your application. With its ease of installation, it’s a great alternative to heat shrink tubing. It also covers a wide range of cables and conductor types, including connectors.
When choosing the size of cold shrink tubing, you will want the outside diameter of the cable to be at a midpoint between the recommended minimum/maximum ranges of the cold shrink tube. If you have any questions, please contact our knowledgeable sales team and we’d be happy to help pick the right shrink tubing for your application needs.