Addressing fire security risks is the need of hour

Shreegopal Kabra, Managing Director, RR Kabel Group, in an interaction with EPR Magazine, highlights the challenges and myths towards safety in wires and cables.

How are the present energy trends impacting the demand for green/ sustainable wires & cables in India? 

There is a positive and growing demand for wires and cables. But when it comes to green, my question is how many people are familiar with the concept. When we talk about green wires and cables, RR Kabel are the only group of companies that provide 100 percent rich and green wires. Moreover, rather than focusing on or talking about Green, we must also look at the safety aspects. So, green might be the trend, but safety remains to be a critical concern.

What kind of measures are in place to ensure safety through cables and wires? 

Before talking about the safety norms, we must recognise and get aligned with the present scenario and developments taking place in India, and in the world. Today, globally, if we look at the high-rise residential and commercial buildings, they use Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LS4s) wires, whereas in India, we are still using PVC wires. PVC is not suggested to be implanted in electrical products whether residential or commercial premises, because it’s hazardous and harmful for human lives, due to the smoke that follows the fire accident; and PVC wires tend to produce great amount of smoke resulting into loss of visibility, gas emission which further create difficulties in vision, and in breathing.  

Apart from LS4s, people also prefer to use Flame Retardant Low Smoke (FRLS) Wires. I would like to highlight that, we are one of the largest manufacturers for cables and wires. While talking about fire safety, there are wires such as FRLS wires, and building wires. FRLS is nothing but modified PVC. If an FRLS wire will generate 70 percent smoke whereas a PVC wires generates 100 percent smoke. So although there is a percentile difference, but the impacts remains to be the same, whereas, the LS4s wires, the smoke non-toxic, non-corrosion and release 4 percent smoke only.

In a nutshell, when it comes to safety, it’s imperative to look into these aspects and prefer to have installed LS4s wires in electrical premises.

What are the existing challenges in promoting these wires for appropriate application? 

We, RR Kabel, as a company are promoting these wires, but we need more support from the industry as well, as other companies’ claim that wires usually don’t catch fire. We must understand that no wire exist which can’t get a fire. There are some wires in the market that generates less smoke, but they too can experience fire instances and fire accidents. Here, a wrong myth is being promoted which itself is a huge challenge for us to deal with, and we, as a company are making possible efforts in promoting the safety aspects into the consumer group and among the industry. Cost is another concern for the consumers.

But, that should not be a major concern as the pricing difference is not much. If you look at the primary cost, any project or any building costs, `2,500 to `3,000 per Sq. Ft., of which 10 percent (`300) is towards the electrical cost; so, what, will be the ideal cost being allocated for the installation of cables and wires. Here most of the people ignore the quality and safety aspect as this product is usually assembled behind the walls as a part of interior construction. 

These issues are a result of lack of awareness and lack of knowledge, and increased awareness pertaining to the safety and the critical and vital aspects of them will further allow the consumer to acknowledge and install quality wires cables in any building. This applies to the consultants, HVAC engineers, MEP engineers, architects and the builders. An owner who visits the job sites to verify the lighting, switches, paints, walls, etc; but nobody really looks at the wires. So, this is the critical challenge.

Panel wires are used in the electrical panel board, and building wires are used for installations in a residential or commercial building. These panel wires and the house wires do not have a single steller. If you look at the panel wires of UK and the US, they are BS63 compliant, and their building wires are BS606 compliant; whereas, in India, we have only IS-694. If you look closely, people in India are making Class-V conductors for panel wires. Since copper infusion in those wires is less cost of the same is reduced by 4 – 5 percent. So, even if your energy cost is less and the risk of fire accidents is more, people are still opting it and the companies are producing them.

By we, at RR Kabel don’t sell or market any such wires which are harmful and has risks. But when we talk about projects, we started using Class-V conductors as our clients demanded to have them installed in their project premises; so, we are not really looking at the safety aspects. I was in discussions with the BIS and convinced them to look at the safety aspects, to which they agreed, but then again there wasn’t any additional support. And this is a concurrent challenge, as the concept of flexible wire itself is wrong as the term doesn’t really exist in the world’s electrical industry. In India, we have the lowest standards for electrical products, and not just in the wires and cables but also in any electrical equipment or accessories.

How do we address the difference and create awareness about flame retardant and flame resistant wires? 

Terms like frame retardant and flame resistant are the marketing terms. Any wire, has to have capabilities of zero-smoke. Smoke is the biggest challenge to deal with, especially after the fire incidents and accidents. Any wire can fall prey to fire, but we need install wires that cause or release minimum smoke or zero-smoke, and wires like PVC and FRLS tend to release maximum amount of smoke after a fire incident or accident. So, rather than promoting or developing flame-retardant or flame resistant wire, we should be focusing more on zero-smoke wires.

What can be the solution to meet these challenges? 

There’s only one solution that the government should create laws to address these issues on a regular basis. An appropriate and stringent law and regulation in place, along with specific norms will further ensure that these specifications are thoroughly followed. 

How is RR Kabel moving ahead in bringing in new products? 

We are constantly growing as a group of companies, and in terms of businesses, we are experiencing very good exports. We are making best possible attempts to maintain a balance, and believe that may be in some years, or in a decade or two people will comprehend to critical safety aspects and will prefer to have them addressed in an appropriate manner.