IEEE 1493-2024

This guide serves two primary purposes. The first is to outline many of the issues associated with using a solvent as an electric cable cleaner. The second is to provide a variety of tests that can be used for evaluating the performance of solvents intended for cleaning electric cables or cable accessories used by electric utilities. Tests for assessing the compatibility of a cleaning solvent with various cable and cable accessory components and tests for assessing cleaning effectiveness are included in this guide. Although many materials are used in cable systems, this guide covers only the basic cable and cable accessory components with a focus on electric power cables. The guide may be applied to materials outside the scope of this document at the user’s discretion. The compatibility tests include suggested or target acceptance criteria to help assure that the solvent does not harm the component it is intended to clean. As this document is a guide, these values are not requirements. They are only provided as guidelines and based either on industry standard requirements for materials or on the best judgment and experience of the working group members who prepared the document. The values will be modified by the P1493 Working Group as additional data become available. The cleaning effectiveness tests are comparative tests with no specific performance requirements. Throughout this guide, the terms solvent and cleaner are both used to describe the chemical intended for use as a cable cleaner.

There is currently no defined independent guide or standard for evaluating chemicals used to clean electrical cables and accessories. This protocol will provide the test methods and acceptance criteria for the critical properties which determine the acceptability of a chemical for use to clean sensitive electrical cables and accessories.

Revision Standard - Active. Test procedures for evaluating the physical characteristics of cable-cleaning solvents and their compatibility with extruded dielectric cable components and cable accessories (joints and terminations) are provided in this guide. Compatibility is established by placing component samples in contact with the cleaning solvent for a short period and then measuring the physical or electrical properties of the component. The measured values are compared with values for samples that have not been in contact with the cleaner. Suggested performance values are provided. Also provided are suggested procedures for evaluating the cleaning effectiveness of cable-cleaning solvents. Absolute performance values are not provided by these comparative test procedures.