- In this video we're gonna try and give you
a complete guide to heat shrink.
Now, I'm sure there'll be things that we've missed out
that you wanna leave in the comments
and that can drive us into other videos on the subject.
- It is, and heat shrink tubing or sleeving,
depending on what you call it,
always gets lots of comments
when we feature it in other videos on the channel.
So we thought we'd best drill in
to some of the applications that you can use it for,
and there are lots of them.
Depending on which side of the world you're coming from
in terms of if you're at the electronic end of thing,
or you're more interested in big cables,
we've got something for you,
but we're gonna step through all the different types
and the important things that you need to think about
if you're choosing heat shrink and how you will use it.
- [Gary] Let's start with those applications
that we can use heat shrink for.
- Okay, so one of the most common ones to start with
is labeling and identifying conductors.
So either using heat shrink as a colored marker
or as a printed label and obviously you can print onto it
as we've done many times on the channel.
Then it can be used to obviously to protect cables.
So either to replace insulation or to provide strain relief,
or indeed when you start to join cables together as well,
and we'll come onto it later in the video
where there's heat shrink sleeves
with solder already built in,
or wrapped around crimp terminals.
- [Gary] There's something quite mesmerizing
about adding heat to heat shrink
and seeing it change size and shape,
but let's think about those ratios.
- Yeah, well the name gives it away.
Heat and it shrinks.
When you're specifying heat shrink,
one of the most important things is that shrink ratio.
So that's the size that it starts at
and the size it will shrink down to.
So if I take this example here, so this is one from 3M.
That's one of my go-to heat shrinks.
It sounds too geeky, but there we go.
So this one here, MDT, medium density tubing,
starts at 30 millimeters and you shrink it down to 12,
so that's a ratio of three to one.
So the 12, it will not go beyond that
unless you mechanically force it,
but it will naturally shrink down to 12 millimeters.
So that's important if you're trying to seal around a cable.
It can obviously go around a larger object.
If you're bigger than the cable
in terms of the shrink ratio,
it won't fully seal around the cable.
- So that was a three to one ratio.
What other ones do they do?
- Lots of different types of that.
The highest ratio I've seen here is four to one.
If you can find one that's higher than that
possibly a five to one,
put a comment below and possibly what you used it for.
This brown version here is a two to one.
So starting at about six millimeters
shrinking down to three millimeters.
Possibly something you've put over the end of a conductor
to mark it as being for a different purpose
than the color might have originally intended.
- So why don't we use the largest shrink down ratio
for all applications then?
- Okay, so the downside of shrink ratio
is the wall thickness of the sleeving itself
and you can specify sleeves
with different thicknesses of walls when they start.
So this one here is an MDT-A,
so that's medium density tubing.
So quite thick should we say, as opposed to this,
the brown one here that's quite narrow.
So this one here starts at one millimeter
wall thickness of the tube itself,
but when you shrink it down
it's the same as the shrink ratio.
So it goes up in thickness five factor of three
while this one here
has a about a quarter of a millimeter thickness
and that obviously two to one it doubles in thickness.
Now, that can cause you challenges in applications.
So you might actually want the heat shrink itself
to remain flexible when you've shrunk it
where this medium density tubing actually goes pretty solid
and obviously that can have a knock-on effect
depending on what you're trying to use it for.
- I'm sure there's like me
but the Kynar noticed on this 3M heat shrink,
but you've got the letter A
and you haven't mentioned what that means.
- Yeah, so MDT comes in two versions.
So the regular MDT
but MDT-A has an adhesive lining in the heat shrink
sometimes called twin wall heat shrink.
So the first wall being the actual heat shrink itself
the second wall being the adhesive.
And the great thing is is when you heat it up and shrink it
the adhesive also becomes liquified as well
and flows around the component that you're putting it onto.
So that has two advantages.
Firstly it can create a waterproof seal
and you often see this outside used by,
even DNRs will use a bit of this on the outside of building
when they're doing those looped supplies
or you can use it to increase
the strain relief on a component.
Now, we just did a little example here.
Put some regular heat shrink on a cable and it is possible.
It's still pretty tough to pull it off the cable itself
but then when you put the adhesive on there
and it cools down it actually becomes pretty
almost impossible to remove that from the cable.
- [Gary] I've used heat shrink onsite
when I've been doing say a butt crimp
or a through crimp to join two cables together.
Put the heat shrink over obviously to make it waterproof
using in the adhesive one that you suggested.
But is there any other alternatives
to using that traditional method?
- There is actually.
We can actually now get but crimps or through crimps
that already have the outer jacket as heat shrink.
We've got an example here.
We're gonna join two
six millimeter Tri-Rated cables together.
So the yellow color is similar to that regular yellow crimp
you might be familiar with,
but what we actually found with this manufacturer
is they produce a special crimp tool
that's used just to crimp these heat shrink sleeves.
So again, crimp it pretty much like you would
with a normal crimp.
So insert your wire and then crimp it down
and then bring the other wire in, crimp them together.
It's still a pretty strong joint
without the heat shrink component
but then you bring in your heat gun
you'll see the out diameter
of the yellow sleeving shrink down
but also the adhesive flows at the end as well
creating a waterproof seal and crimp in one operation.
- [Gary] And you think the adhesive when it runs out
is actually giving it strain relief as well
making the two halves actually joined stronger together?
- Yeah, it is and there's lots of these out there
on a well-known online retailer but we chose these ones,
we're not making any particularly endorsement to 'em,
but there's two things I liked about them.
The one that sold it as a system,
so the crimp tool and the crimp.
So they're telling you exactly the right dye to use
which obviously helps to create the correct crimp pressure
and strength in the joint.
But also they actually advertised the crimps
as actually been made from copper,
which a few years ago we bought some
from a well-known online retailer
and it wasn't copper we found inside Gary, wasn't it?
- No, we rubbed it away,
we rubbed away the silver and we found gold underneath.
We thought we were gonna be super rich
but it was actually brass, wasn't it?
- Yeah, and that obviously does not work well
when it comes to crimps because it's just brass, isn't it?
It's malleable and doesn't really just bite into the cable
as it should do.
- The system also has you covered
when you're thinking about forks, rings,
and spade crimp connections as well, doesn't It?
- Yeah, so we've made a ring crimp here as well.
So that again is the same principle.
You crimp it on with the special tool
designed for this crimp terminal,
but then once you've put it on you can shrink it on
and again you see the glue flow out the front
and the back of the crimp terminal itself
and that is an incredibly strong and robust
that's both got you some strain relief
in terms of bending the cable.
So if this was in an area
where it's gonna be flexed quite often
but also protecting it against moisture ingress.
Now, obviously the terminals ourselves are plated,
but the actual copper wire
obviously when it's exposed isn't.
So I think that is a great little solution
for a lot of applications where you are worried about
moisture possibly chemical environments
- And if you contrast that with what we see a lot onsite,
especially on Instagram where we've got these ring crimps
maybe going onto a bonding clamp
but for some reason people like to identify
with the old green and yellow sleeve as we've done here
but that doesn't seem as good, does it?
- No, I'll give you two top tips there Gary.
Actually the identification, the wire is green and yellow.
- [Gary] Absolutely, I'm not worried about
connecting my finger to it
'cause it's to a obviously a clamp and the pipe.
- Yeah, so again people do that a lot of time.
I'd say that sleeving
is really designed for identification purposes,
adding it to that crimp
what has it done with the crimp?
Well, it hasn't really increased the mechanical strength
'cause that's actually provided by the crimp itself
which is pretty solid.
It looks pretty, should we say.
Now, that is a good application
so if you want to add insulation to it,
so if you say had a large ring crimp like that
you're putting it on a really heavy duty cable
and you wanted to obviously give that a level of protection
in case people are in their with their hands
and don't really wanna accidentally touch live parts.
Not that you should ever be anywhere in that situation,
but obviously we can increase safety where possible.
But in this instance here we've used this.
It can add some insulation to it
but more it's providing extra mechanical strength
and particularly strain relief
if it's gonna be bent around there.
You can see we're not actually bending near the crimp joint.
We're somewhere around it.
Again this is this medium density tubing
thick wall thickness
and you can see the glue's flowed around it.
So I don't think that crimp joint is going anywhere soon.
- So we're right here, these funny little things.
These look more adept maybe for the world of electronics
than they do for electricians.
- Yeah, so back to the soldering community
and we're not always there like an opinion.
So this is a heat shrink sleeve with a solder ring built in.
Basically, you join your cables together,
bring your heat gun in and in the same operation
the tube itself reduces in size, the glue flows,
and finally the solder in there flows around
the conductors inside to create a secured joints.
Now, we've saw these in Shorts before
and people were aghast at such wizardry.
These have been around for some time
and you can even get ones with a military specter
which sort of somehow suggests
there is a proven application of them somewhere.
A little top tip from us when we're using them
is you need to get the copper
as short as possible in that joint
because if you have too much exposed copper
the solder flows too far along the cable
and you don't get a secure joint.
So I would say if you're gonna use these
have a little practice first
to make sure that it's suitable for your application.
- My attention was drawn to this
more than any other cable on the table.
One I'm very familiar with, a steel or armored cable,
but it looks now as if we've got a combination
of a shrink here an insulation here and a shrink here.
What was the thinking behind this one?
- So heat shrink doesn't just come in tubes.
It can actually get molded parts
so you can get cable and sleeves.
So this one here has got three ports
on the end for three cable outputs.
I've also got a four one here on the bench as well.
These are adhesive lined as well.
So they're obviously gonna shrink
and seal around the cable to form a moisture proof seal.
Now, we see a lot here onsite
and people struggle with the old
bringing the armored cable into the meter box
for that final termination.
- [Gary] Well, you say struggle.
I don't think they do struggle.
What they do is just bring the armored cable in
and have just that single layer of insulation
then make it into switches
and obviously other gear that's within the meter box,
but of course we've lost
the secondary layer of insulation haven't we?
- Yeah, so here's my way of,
and it'd be interesting to get anyone's opinion on this,
of restoring that basic insulation
on that additional mechanical protection on it.
So we've put the molded heat shrink component
on the end of the SWA cable
into there I've inserted some regular sleeving.
So this isn't heat shrink, this is just regular PVC sleeving
and I've done that so that you can still bend it after.
If you put heat shrink on there and you shrunk it down,
it'd be more difficult to bend it
- [Gary] And you purposely chose gray
to make it look like tails.
Was that you're thinking
or it was just the one you got outta the box?
- I think that's what I bought at the time,
but it does look like it.
Lot of surprise to get people scratching their head.
But then on the end I've just sealed the PVC sleeving
with some identification sleeving as well.
- [Gary] Okay. So it stops it pulling off then, doesn't it?
- Yeah, it stops it pulling off,
but you still can twist that around.
Again, you could opt for an adhesive option
but one thing you do find
with these more exotic heat shrink parts
is they tend to be available in black once you get up there.
- Okay, so what's this little wire one?
It seems as if you had to go and made your own version
and as I feel here this one was quite hard really.
Don't tell me you've had
that soldering iron out again, have you?
- Well, I have badly soldered that for everyone
just to chip in on the comments.
So again, if you wanted to make your own wire splice
and branch off to something,
you can make your own little strain relief
and moisture proof seal in one operation.
So I've used quite a large diameter heat shrink there
but while it's hot I've just gone in with the pliers
just to nip the little area in between
where the two cables separate.
- It must give you a fantastic seal as well there, Gordon.
That's a good little hack.
You do like the novel approach.
I've got a piece of heat shrink that says heat shrink label
on the label of the heat shrink there Gordon.
So what's that?
- Yeah, so again that's one of the biggest comments we get
when we feature this in our Short videos
is where do we get the eFIXX printed heat shrink
that I've got here?
It's in gold so gold writing on the red heat shrink.
We actually got this done by our good friends
down at Penn Elcom.
We did a great video down there on LED tape.
Did a great application for heat shrink sleeving
on the ends there if you're not doing that.
They've got a rather exotic printer
that allows 'em to do that.
However, most quality electricians label printers
you can have an option to put heat shrink sleeve in there.
So we've got the Brother version here as well.
We've also done it with the Phoenix Contact
that we've featured in another video as well.
And depending on which software you can use,
you can even drag in your own logo
and obviously make a pretty professional job.
It does tend to only be in the sort of thinner grade
heat shrinks so great for identification.
I don't think you're gonna find one that you can both print
and label it waterproof parts in one operation.
But I think it is that a great option
for all sorts of applications.
Technology installs to another level.
- It does.
We've talked a lot about shrink,
but how do you shrink the shrink?
- I think I need a shrink working with you Gary
but when it comes to the heat shrink
we've used two tools in this video.
The first one for the light gauge stuff
we'll suggest the Metabo battery powered one
which is great for if you want to identify cables
and the smaller thin wall heat shrink is okay.
The battery does get eaten up pretty quickly.
- [Gary] It does.
- If you want to use this on the thicker wall sleeving
and get the adhesive to flow,
you'll need a lot of batteries and a lot of time.
I will suggest stepping up to a man's powered one
which has obviously a significant amount of power
and it doesn't run out as well if it's plugged in.
Obviously we do see people using lighters
and even onsite people will use a gas torch
and people ask us the question
PVC cables are rated for hundreds of degrees
or 90 or 70 degrees you'll see on cable jackets.
Obviously this is only temporary.
It's a quick process and remember when cable's made
they are using melted plastic at the same time.
- Yeah, I'm thinking that goes back
to your LED tape, does it?
'Cause you've got a soldering iron.
That gets hot and you might be thinking,
"I'll be able to waft a soldering iron over it."
We've all tried that in the past.
It tends to catch and stick, don't it? At some point.
- [Gordon] Yeah, I would say,
if you're using a heat shrink with a heat gun
and you start seeing the plastic of the cable
start to turn brown and bubble you're doing it wrong.
- Shameless plug time then.
So where do we get all this kit, the heat shrink
and all these adornments you've got on the desk?
- Well, you have to shop around a little bit.
So I will put a link in the description of these kits
that we've used here, which are Wirefy one.
So that's not wifi.
It's Wirefy, I think is as I respond that
and they make the crimp tool here
which we actually think is quite good
'cause of those interchangeable heads
and they've got the solder sleeves and they're pretty good.
If you're dabbling first the heat shrink
that's a starting point.
If you are doing sort of higher specification installations
I would go with some trusted brands.
So the big ones out there, Raychem
and 3M that I've used for decades
and that's got me loads of problems on that.
These molded parts
I got from a company called Hilltop Products
and I'll leave a link for them as well.
So again, they'll do lots of specialist stuff
and I think they all also sell 3M components as well.
- Well, you've got years and years behind you
so thank you for all that knowledge you've given us now
and you've given us some more knowledge
in a series of videos we've done on ferrules.
And if you wanna check those out, it's just over there.