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New Cable Designed To Deter Copper Thieves
Hugh Pickens writes "Pervasive thefts of copper wire from under the streets of Fresno, California have prompted the city to seal thousands of its manhole covers with concrete. In Picher, Oklahoma, someone felled the town's utility poles with chain saws, allowing thieves to abscond with 3,000 feet of wire while causing a blackout. The theft of copper cables costs U.S. companies $60 million a year and the FBI says it considers theft of copper wire to be a threat to the nation's baseline ability to function. But now PC World reports that a U.S. company has developed a new cable design that removes almost all the copper from cables in a bid to deter metal thieves. Unlike conventional cables made from solid copper, the GroundSmart Copper Clad Steel Cable consists of a steel core bonded to a copper outer casing, forming an equally effective but far less valuable cable by exploiting the corrosion-resistance of copper with the conductive properties of steel. 'Companies trying to protect their copper infrastructure have been going to extreme measures to deter theft, many of which are neither successful nor cost effective,' says CommScope vice president, Doug Wells. 'Despite efforts like these, thieves continue to steal copper because of its rising value. The result is costly damage to networks and growing service disruptions.' The GroundSmart Copper Clad Steel cable is the latest technical solution to the problem of copper theft, which has included alternatives like cable etching to aid tracing of stolen metal and using chemicals that leave stains detectable under ultra-violet light. However the Copper Clad Steel strikes at the root of the problem by making the cable less susceptible to theft by both increasing the resistance to cutting and drastically decreasing the scrap value."
It might stop them from being able to get money from the cable, but it's not like it's going to deter them from stealing the cable in the first place under the assumption that the cable is copper.
Based on the Darwin slush pile, I'd say electrifying them is doing a fair job of it.
Uh, the article does not explain what is new about this. Copper clad cable has been around forever. It has been used for High Frequency antennas where the tensile strength of the steel is important and the skin effect keeps the RF currents near the surface. I don't think there is much skin effect at the frequencies they are promoting this cable to be used for. As others have already pointed out, the problem is not limited to electric or communications cable. Plumbing, and HVAC systems are also prime targets. Better regulation of metal recycling and the prosecution of those recyclers who do "look the other way" would go a long way to stopping this problem.
Of course a few more charred bodies like was found on a building roof near here recently when a copper thief THOUGHT the 660 volt power line to the chillers was disconnected and it wasn't could also be a deterrent
Flamebait? I was completely seriously. I don't commit crimes - those who do obviously don't want to be part of our society.
One generation from now, being completely serious will be a capital crime in our society (you'll need a good deal of craziness to survive).
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I think most of the lines in question are carrying AC current. this current tends to stay at the outer surface of the wire due to something called skin effect. I'm sure the steel is just there to give the wire diameter and strength.
We desperately need that here in Alabama. At present, there are plenty of crooked scrap dealers who buy the copper, then immediately load it on trucks and take it up to Tennessee, where it's melted within a matter of days. Even if you mark the copper, it doesn't make a bit of difference. It's long gone by the time the police show up to ask questions.
I agree. Take pictures of anyone selling scrap metal. Get their ID.
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
So ... let me ask you this, Goebbels. (Hey, if you can invoke Geoffrey, I'll invoke him right back.)
A bunch of teenage-and-twenty-something kids come into your facility with a huge bundle of telecom cable. The insulation has been burned off. You just KNOW that they're legit; right? You don't even ask for ID?
Sorry, dood, but you ARE part of the problem. Calling me a Nazi for pointing that out to you doesn't change that fact.
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
No cash for copper. ID required and a direct deposit to a bank account.
Have gnu, will travel.
Vancouvers supervised sites more than pay for themselves just in reduced emergency room care, and when the feds tried to shut them down, the Supremes ruled that it would have been both an infringement on the provinces' right to administer their health-care programs, and an infringement on the individuals' right to security of the person by putting them at increased risk of dying.
As someone who has never been into recreational pharmacology, I say just legalize it and deal with it - it's a social, not legal, problem. Or stop being hypocrites and ban alcohol, tobacco, and every other product proven to affect brain function, including coffee, tea, sugar, breakfast cereals, any product containing corn or corn by-products, chocolate (don't you DARE!!!) etc.
Seriously - the war on drugs is hypocritical. It's also one that cannot ever be won. Seriously, the way to reduce drug use is to set an example, and to keep an open, non-judgmental attitude when talking to people who chose to use drugs - not have a bunch of drug-addicted politicians pass laws against it.
They just need enough money to buy a rock of crack. Tomorrow is another theft for another rock.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
Maybe instead of making cables harder to steal we should make citizens that don't want to steal them...
At a certain point having a "welfare state" might become cheaper overall. Then most of them won't bother to steal if you provide them with food, shelter and tv/"youtube"/game consoles/parks.
Not a big difference if you're going to put those you catch in prisons where they are fed and housed...
Of course you'd also need to fix the education side to it, compulsory education for kids, free education (maybe even up to undergraduate level), free meals for school-kids. That way you don't get stuck with 20% or more of your population being under-educated and not very competitive with the rest of the world in terms of cost/ability.
'Despite efforts like these, thieves continue to steal copper because of its rising value.
Are you really sure that's the root cause of this?
I think they are more throwing a fit because he crams them into dark green korean war surplus tents in the 115 degree Arizona heat with no cooling and limited water. I think they are more throwing a fit because he also uses hot boxes as additional punishment in those conditions. I think they are more throwing a fit because he is literally running concentration camps here in the US.
I say we kill all the meth addicts. Seriously. Bullet to the head and a proper burial in a pine box. People need to *FEAR* doing drugs of this variety
I got a better idea. Let's kill all the tyrants who want to imprison or murder other people because they disagree with how that person lives his life. Tired of meth addicts stealing copper? If the shit was easily and readily available (like it should be, since it's ridiculously cheap and easy to produce) then this small segment of the population could continue to exist in harmony with the rest of society.
If we're gonna start lining people up against the wall and shooting them Nazi style, then I propose we do it to the hateful, moronic, and downright IGNORANT elements in our society such as YOU. See how slippery this slope gets, and really damn fast?
Wish I had mod points. Pity the social policy says you're shit unless you can pay for your health and education. A healthy and educated population wouldn't need to steal $10 worth of copper. Side effect from screwing the population.
Nominal skin depth in copper at 60 Hz is about 9 mm. It takes a lot of current to require wires with a radius greater than 9mm.
Which would be indistinguishable from solid copper until cut to a depth of more than 9mm and still contains a substantial quanity of copper.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2620558&cid=38698508
That said, perhaps they should also do a test of the teachers, perhaps the direct reason for the difference is Finland has better teachers ;).
BUT even so Finland might have better teachers because the teachers were once students themselves, and if most of the students were well-educated, then most of the teachers would be too...
Whereas if you have crappy students each generation and most teachers coming from the "crappier end" of very unevenly educated students, you're not going to get very good results.
In a democracy if you leave too many people "behind", unless you're at the very top, you're still eventually going to pay for it one way or another, as long as those behind can still vote ;).
Wrong, skin effect is related to frequency. There is almost no skin effect at 60hz, or even that much effect on audible frequencies in the 20khz range.
I'm suspicious of copper clad steel solution. Copper is costly and has been for a while. If cladding steel with copper saved enough copper to discourage thieves then it would also be vastly less expensive. If so, why hadn't this been done purely for cost reasons?
Not to mention the fact that plutonium is far more valuable than copper. Thieves from all over the world, and possibly from other worlds, would hurry over to come and steal the plutonium clad wires.
Then why do north european countries with socialized healthcare and education AND social security still get hit by copper thieves?
There are always people who want still more. Claim social security and go out stealing copper to get more money. Or do you think thieves are such noble people they don't claim social security because they got another source of income?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The sad part is for this to actually be effective the thieves have to be smart enough to know the difference and when you are talking copper thieves you are usually talking methheads....not the brightest bulbs on the best of days. All they are gonna get is a shitload of cut lines followed by finding the line half melted in a ditch somewhere when brainiac figures out it isn't worth scrapping.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.