The mainstay for location of buried gas assets for decades has been solid copper tracer wire, due to copper’s superior conductivity and corrosion resistance.
But copper wire has real flaws – it is an expensive metal with an often volatile price, making budgeting for procurement difficult and an attractive proposition for copper thieves.
Plus the strength of solid copper often does not stand up to the rigours of underground construction, especially directional drilling.
Enter Copperhead, the leading North American supplier of Copper Clad Steel tracer wires.
Copperhead tracer wires are the intelligent alternative to solid copper.
Copper-clad steel is a bimetallic product manufactured through a metallurgical bond that combines the mechanical strength of steel with the conductivity and corrosion resistance of copper.
Once combined the two metals are inseparable and copper-clad steel has little scrap value, making it unattractive to thieves.
Copperhead tracer wires are strong, conductive, and corrosion resistant, and being 11 per cent lighter than solid copper, it saves on freight costs.
Tapex will be ranging two copper-clad wire types – Copperhead High Strength, for trenching or ploughing, combines the strength of fully annealed high-carbon steel with the conductivity and corrosion resistance of copper; and Copperhead Soloshot, for directional drilling, a wire engineered specifically for the rigours of directional drilling, with six times the breaking strength of solid copper.
Copperhead has a complete tracer wire system including Copperhead wire, SnakePit test stations, grounding anodes and SnakeBite locking connectors.
For enquiries about the Copperhead Tracer Wire System, contact Tapex on 02 9502 6000, email {encode=sales@tapex.com.au title=sales@tapex.com.au} or visit www.tapex.com.au