Banana Peel® saves time and money

Market needs are continually changing the limits of technology. Wire and cable products for Security, Detection and Building Management Systems as well as for ITC line and Industrial products need to deliver uncompromising quality and leading-edge technology. However, cost reduction remains a constant requirement as is improved performance quality.

This is why Banana Peel® technology was developed by Belden to meet the needs of the installer to save time and decrease labour costs. Access Control Banana Peel is a new line of access control composite cables featuring a patent-pending design that affixes the individual cables to a center spline, eliminating the need for an overall jacket. By eliminating the overall bundle’s jacket, a whole step in the termination process can be removed. In addition, the individual cable components are all instantly identifiable thanks to colour coding and print legends. Individual cables can be “peeled” of the centre spline and terminated. The elimination of the overall jacket reduces the diameter of the composite, so the cable's overall bend radius is improved and use of a smaller size conduit is possible.

Range of applications

Access Control BananaPeel is available in PVC, Plenum and LSNH versions for more cost-effective security installations and PTZ BananaPeel® composite cables for pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras as well as a wide range of single coaxes, coaxial/twisted pair composites and unshielded multi-conductor constructions for fixed cameras in Close Circuit TV and Surveillance installations.

New Generation Banana Peel composite cables for both riser and plenum PTZ applications are comprised of the following components in order to accommodate control encoding schemes or protocols such as Manchester, Sensornet and RS-422:

- Coax (video): 1 RG-59

- 1-pair (power): 18 AWG

- UTP or STP (control): 23 AWG UTP, 22 or 18 AWG STP

Key benefits

Banana Peel Composite cables enable more cost-effective security installations, since they offer the installers of access control devices — including electronic identification equipment such as card readers, retina scanners and hand-scanning devices — a host of labour-saving and easy-identification features.

Access Control Banana Peel composite cables offer labour savings through two innovations: the complete elimination of the overall jacket and the use of color coding and application printing on the four individual cables. In addition, Banana Peel bundles held together without an overall jacket are markedly more flexible than jacketed versions. Bundled cables are usually very stiff, especially when rated for plenum use, and the jackets of traditional cables are also notoriously difficult to strip for termination.

Whether the installation takes place in a commercial building, a hospital, school, corporate site or government facility, Banana Peel cables bring a whole new level of ease and convenience to any site that needs to implement a limited access, secure area. Banana Peel composite cables are desirable because they decrease labour costs, and they are easier and quicker to install than individual cables that must first be bundled, then pulled.

In general, the use of composite cables will decrease labour costs since they are easier and quicker to install than the more labour intensive procedure of bundling and pulling individual cables. Banana Peel Composite cables go a step further by being both easier and faster to install than traditional composite cables. Unlike other composite cablesthey offer the following key benefits:

• No overall jacket — Banana Peel cables feature a patent-pending design that affixes the individual cables to a center spline, eliminating the need for an overall jacket.

• The absence of the overall jacket eliminates a whole step in the termination process: the stripping of the jacket.

• Without the overall jacket, the individual cable components are all instantly identifiable and ready for termination. Peel the individual cables off the center spline and they are ready.

• The elimination of the outer jacket means that Banana Peel cables have a smaller OD than traditional composites. This improves the cable's overall bend radius for faster, easier installation. A smaller OD also means a smaller size conduit.

• Breakout versatility is assured since the individual cables can be connected to the junction box or can be rerouted to the application site.

• Short circuits, caused by contact with the center conductor while stripping off the outer jacket, can be prevented.

• The individual cables are color-coded by application for easy identification so termination problems due to incorrect choice of cable are minimised.

Labour and Cost Savings

In Chart 1 we see the labour/time savings of installing a single access control door across the four key installation processes: Set-up time, pulling time, termination and troubleshooting / testing / powering up — mostly using a 2-man crew for the individual cables and a 1-man crew for the installation of the Banana Peel cables, since less labour is needed when using Banana Peel (no special pulling of individual cables, etc). Under this scenario, installers can typically expect a labour savings of 30 to 60%; in this instance, the contractor firm experienced a savings of 31%.

By applying the minimum labour savings expected (30%) to cost data regarding the installation of a single access control door (see Chart 2), we find the following: Use of Banana Peel Composite cables may offer end-users a $420 reduction in overall costs.

Other key applications

In addition to the range of Banana Peel products for security applications, the new Banana Peel technology has also been made available for Mini High-Resolution component video cables. Available as 1281S3 (3 coaxes), 1281S4 (4 coaxes), 1281S5 (5 coaxes) and 1281S6 (6 coaxes) - all on 500 and 1,000 feet put ups, these cables are designed for high resolution VGA on large screens, HDTV, Hi-Res CAD, animation, editing and special effects.

The Banana Peel Hi-Res Composite Video cables series 1281 is an enhanced version of traditional RGB cables and features 25 AWG solid copper center conductors for lower attenuation and easier termination, flexible PVC jackets and high frequency Beldfoil® foil shields that are used in combination with an interlocked serve copper shield for 100% coverage. This shielding design also prevents the shields from bunching up when flexed, yet the shield is easier to comb out than a full braid.