Draka’s high density Cat. 6 cable is a lesson in space saving at new academy

Draka’s innovative high density Cat. 6 network cable has been installed at the £28 million Dixons Allerton Academy, Bradford, West Yorkshire. In excess of 67 km of Draka’s UC400 HD Cat 6 Unshielded/Unshielded Twisted Pair (U/UTP) cable has been used to construct the academy’s Local Area Network (LAN).

Cabling contractor Abzorb selected the cable for its compact design. This enabled increased numbers of cables to be run in cable baskets and conduits compared to standard Cat. 6 U/UTP cable, saving the installer both time and money.

The high density cable’s outside diameter of 5.25mm is 25% less than that of standard Cat. 6 cable. “The thing we liked about the HD cable was that Draka has managed to make a Cat. 6 cable that performs as it should, but which has a considerably smaller diameter,” says Kevin Hall, Abzorb’s operations director.

As well as its reduced diameter, installers will also benefit from the compact cable’s improved flexibility, environmentally friendly box packaging and reduced weight. A 305m box of the high density cable is 2kg lighter than the equivalent 13kg box of standard Cat. 6 cable. The Reelex box makes the high density cable easy to move on site and, when the cable is finished, the cardboard box can be recycled.

The high density Cat. 6 cable is also beneficial for existing system upgrades. The cable’s smaller diameter is the same as that of a lower performance Cat 5 cable. This allows existing containment systems to be reused for cable upgrades, enabling savings in both materials and installation time.

Contractors can be confident in the cable’s quality. As part of Draka’s Universal Cabling Connect System, the HD cable has approvals as part of a 3-connector link and 4-connector link channel. As with all Draka UC branded cables the product comes with third party approval for cable performance.