Volume 5, Number 2 March/April 1997
Technology Transfer
IGHTNING CAN WREAK HAVOC
on electronic equipment, but a cable designed by a North Carolina inventor provides
homeowners a level of protection not available before, saving homeowners millions
of dollars in damages if its use is widespread. Sam Gasque of Protective Wire and
Cable invented Lightning Retardant Cable (LRC), which improves lightning protection
over standard coaxial cable by at least 700 percent.
Gasque has been developing LRC since 1985; he patented it in 1993. Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) helped him prove his product, Gasque said.
LRC's two-choke design keeps lightning from traveling through the cable and into a person's home. It can deter lightning damage to expensive electronic equipment, such as satellite dish systems, antennas, television cable systems and sprinkler systems.
The first choke, a "drain wire," is wrapped around the cable at an angle. Gasque said studies of lightning show that it travels along a straight path. The spiraled drain wire in Gasque's design "at every turn cancels out the lightning's magnetic field" as it begins to travel the cable. The second choke, a "spiral shield," is at another angle in the opposite direction. Gasque said this wire acts as an inductor and "enhances the cancellation of a lightning strike."
KSC and Marshall Space Flight Center's Outreach Program are helping Gasque decide what adjustments, if any, would be needed in the drain wire if larger cable were used. Gasque said LRC has been tested "in the confines of a lightning strike." It was installed in several homes on a South Carolina island that has a history of frequent lightning strikes. LRC's performance was monitored for several years, during which it took several direct hits. Gasque said not once was lightning carried into the homes through LRC.
"If you use Lightning Retardant Cable, it will greatly reduce the chances of lightning damage. This doesn't take the place of a surge protector unless it has a coax[ial] hookup. But, this might redirect the effects elsewhere," Gasque said.
Runway lighting systems at airports also may be protected by LRC. All airports have some degree of lightning problems, Gasque said, and runway lights could suffer extensive damage in the event of a lightning strike, especially if an underground stream is near the runway.
A Canadian company manufactures LRC. A North Carolina company, Consumer Lightning Products, packages the cable for home-use customers, Gasque said.
For more information, contact Sam Gasque at Protective Wire and Cable. Call 704/696-2890.
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.
