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The modern era of business has made structured cabling one of the most important parts of a company's infrastructure. Given the ongoing financial pressures felt by many industries, it is not a surprise that many companies are looking for cheaper solutions when it comes to their cabling.
That has, unfortunately, led to a rising problem of counterfeit cabling entering the market, creating a great deal of concern among experts and analysts alike.
Counterfeit products are generally inferior products and have much higher failure rates. They are typically designed to only meet the materials' limits, meaning that if put under load they may overheat and possibly burn out.
In contrast, genuine products are specifically designed for purpose and are developed as a result of in-depth research and knowledge.
According to the Approved Cabling Initiative (ACI) one of the most worrying trends is the mis-selling of Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA) cable under the guise of data cable (Cat5e/Cat6). CCA cable has an aluminium core with a copper coating and whilst does have some legitimate uses, is not compliant with UL and TIA standards and will not perform as required in this scenario.
Why worry?
As with many other products and pieces of hardware, counterfeit cabling is always of a lower quality than the real thing. And, like with any other goods, price is often the first clue into authenticity.
It goes back to the old adage, "If something's too good to be true, it usually is". Cables well below the price brackets of well-established names should always be double-checked.
Even if it comes with a brand name, UL number or ETL logo, a suspiciously low-priced cable could still be counterfeit, substandard, or non-compliant.
CCA cable is also noticeably more brittle. It can be easily identified by looking for the silver colour at the end of the conductors or by scraping away the thin copper surface on the conductors to reveal the aluminum.
Another sign is weight. Boxes of CCA cable weigh substantially less than solid copper cables.
Installing counterfeit cabling presents a substantial issue to public safety and liability. The consequences can be hugely expensive, with damages mainly stemming from negligence and fraud and in some cases outright criminal violations. The risk of cutting corners is, therefore, simply not worth it from a financial point of view.
Playing with fire
Safety is another concern attached to the use of counterfeit cabling. A number of fake cables use riser cable instead of plenum, which often fails fire and flame-resistance tests due to having little or no heat protection.
The use of lower fire-performance materials means they are unsurprisingly highly combustible, putting the safety of workers and other occupants of a building at risk.
Danger to performance
It is worth stressing that the likelihood of anyone being hurt due to counterfeit cabling is low, but that does not mean it can be used as a justification for installation.
Indeed, the most pressing problem is that of poor network performance.
The fact that many counterfeit cables are made using cheaper substandard materials means they often deliver poor or erratic network performance.
"This is an extremely important issue and while the dangers associated with CCA products are not life threatening, as with faulty electrical cables, they can have a disastrous effect upon a company's reputation and livelihood," Iain Ballingall, a spokesperson for the ACI told Engineering and Technology Magazine.
"Squeezed by competitive pressures, a number of wholesalers and distributors are demanding increasingly lower cost products from their supply chain which in turn forces further compromise in terms of product quality and ultimately the most expensive element of the cable, the copper conductor."
What to do
While many substandard products have been prevented from entering the European Union and the UK, the issue of counterfeit cabling is still a hot topic for many experts.
Testing is one option, but may be impractical due to companies feeling the pressures of finances and time.
At the same time, given that cabling is invariably built into a property, making the cost of taking out defective goods and replacing them significantly greater than the cabling itself.
It is always good to therefore purchase from a reputable brand. Comtec is a leading name in the sale of various cabling solutions that are suited to a wide range of projects and industries.
