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continues from pg 39The suit consists of a hooded jacket,overalls-style pants, socks and gloves. Itis made out of Nomex, a fire-retardantmaterial, and stainless steel fibres. Thismetallic mesh serves as a Faraday Cage,which puts the line worker at the samepotential as that of the conductor onwhich he is working. With the metallicmesh clothing bonded to the conductor,the lineman can work protected inside theelectrical field.Live-line worker touching a wand to thelive conductor to be at the same electricalpotential as the line voltageBarehand technique being utilized to installline dampersThe live-line bucket is elevated and leakagecurrent is tested by touching a wand tothe conductor. Linemen are then hoistedto the level of the conductors and QuantaServices’ patented LineMasterTM roboticarm, remotely controlled by an operatoron the ground, approaches the conductor,which is trapped by means of a hotstick.Once all the lines are captured and therobotic arm has taken their weight, theinsulation assemblies are detached. Therobotic arm moves the conductors awayfrom the tower, and redundant fittings arereplaced with new suspension assembliesbare-handed. The linemen then bond on tothe conductor and install the new assembly.Dead end wedge crimp connectorsLineMaster robotic arm being utilized to holdand manoeuvre live conductorsSpecial wedge crimp dead ends and ferrulesare installed on the ACCC conductor.The carbon composite core provides thesupport for the aluminum conductorswhen the temperature increases, thereforeit is essential to secure the composite corein the wedge and then crimp over theentire assembly.Dead end wedge crimp connectors42 | wattnow | january 2012