Nexans' blue is still blue, but also more climate friendly

Nexans' blue heating cable has been Norway's most popular because it has been so easy to work with. Now the cable changes its name to TQXP and the new product is "slightly" better.

- Now it is TQXP that applies, says factory manager Torbjørn Blomsnes in Nexans.

As part of the aim to contribute to sustainable buildings, Nexans has developed much lighter heating cables with new materials. The market leader TKXP is replaced by TQXP. The new product looks exactly like the old one and is just as easy to lay, but is in return lighter and therefore better to work with.

- We wanted to make a more environmentally friendly product and have therefore replaced the lead with other solutions, says Blomsnes.

Check out TQXP here

Stone Age solution removed

Lead is an excellent conductor of heat, but the most important job it does in the heating cables is to ensure that the cable "lies dead". This means that it is held straight and down by the lead sheath, and does not buckle and come up through the floor when the top cover is put on. This, together with Norwegian-produced quality in the top tier, has given "the blue" a stamp of quality that few others can boast.

But now it was time for changes. By rearranging production via many small measures (and some slightly larger ones), Nexans has managed to make the cables behave nicely without being forced to do so by large amounts of lead, which today must be called a stone-age solution. While the blue color of the cable is the same familiar one, the volume – i.e. the cross-section – of the cable is almost halved.

- One of the many measures that have made it possible to get the cable to behave nicely is a new, annealed earth wire with more, thinner and looser twisted wires than before. This and other measures mean that the cable is "dead", and has by far the same properties as the old cable, says Blomsnes.

And in addition, the weight is thus reduced to less than a third, which makes the cable easier to transport and easier to lay.

Far smaller footprint

Nexans' sales director Jon Seip is looking forward to being able to deliver the new product, and also sees other benefits for the environment, the installer and the end user.

- New concepts offer new opportunities, he says.

- And we should look further than just the phasing out of lead. Lead is expensive, and thus the cables can now be slightly cheaper. Lead is naturally heavy, and transport is expensive and resource-intensive. Handling at the workplace becomes easier for fitters. You can thus lay larger heating surfaces, and still carry less. This has made it possible to develop new and larger assembly sets.

He is also proud of the other advantages that Nexans cables already have.

- Many people are surprised when they hear that the large, international company Nexans has its origins in an over 100-year-old Norwegian cable manufacturer, and that we still supply Norwegian-made cables to the whole world - including the blue heating cables. It's not like everything happens in China. So we not only have short-distance food in Norway, but also short-distance cable! And then the customer service is also close.
 

Do it properly

Whether you are talking about huge, overseas cables or a small heating cable set for a shower room, Nexans has built up a reputation as a premium supplier.

- Both the customers and the electrical professionals in Norway are concerned with quality, and do not settle for solutions that are "almost good enough", says Seip.

- If you are building a bathroom for several hundred thousand, you should be confident that the heating cables in the floor during your investment will work for many, many years.

- We have learned much of this in somewhat harsh, northern conditions, where things break faster than further south on the globe, says technical manager Geir Holberg.

- At least we learned a lot about doing things properly since the start in 1915. And we continue to do so, says Holberg.

Read about the new heating cable TQXP here