Quality assurance in telecommunications energy and grounding system connections

The development of a connection system to meet the rigorous demands of any telecommunications power and grounding circuit offers a most challenging task. Each component must be designed to provide the highest degree of quality and reliability. One of the most important components in this system is the connector. There have been substantial advances in the development of many new types and styles of connectors and major improvements to mature connector products that fill the needs of this dynamic technology. One such example is the introduction of a compression H-shaped copper tap connector which was conceived to replace aluminum H-taps and mechanical tap connectors previously used in copper-to-copper applications. Replacing aluminum with copper results in the elimination of potential galvanic corrosion of dissimilar metals and also improves electrical conductivity and ultimately reduces voltage drop. This paper examines the most critical industry requirements which include among the most important: voltage drop DC, DC resistance and temperature rise, and how these properties influence connector design