In daily work, I often receive questions from my friends and new friends about the shelf life and service life of cold shrink cable accessories. In fact, many people are confused about this issue. Today I will introduce it to you.

First of all, what is the definition of shelf life? Many people confuse it with the definition of service life. Simply put, it is the maximum effective time from the date of manufacture to the use of the product. In other words, from the date of manufacture, during this required period of time, as long as the product is stored according to the manufacturer's requirements, when used, the performance is in compliance with the requirements. This is the manufacturer's commitment to the customer. If it does not pass, then it is a product quality problem of the product itself, which can be communicated to the manufacturer for resolution. The definition of service life is that after the product is installed, under normal working conditions, the product can run stably for a long time. This is actually a theoretical calculation value. The actual service life is closely related to the actual working conditions, so the service life is only a design concept, not a manufacturer's service commitment, and is one of the references for customers to choose products. If there are quality problems in actual operation, it still needs in-depth analysis and inspection.

Before installation, since the cold shrink cable accessories are mainly made of silicone rubber and then expanded, they are a kind of fiber material, which cannot prevent the problem of fiber material aging. There are many aging factors, such as temperature cycle, ultraviolet light, external chemicals, etc. This is also a process that fiber materials cannot resist, just like human aging. We can only adopt good "maintenance" measures and try to "remember ourselves". Therefore, starting from the material production, the material will gradually enter the aging cycle. Especially after the cold shrink cable is expanded, aging will greatly increase the shrinkage permanent deformation rate of the cold shrink tube. The shrinkage range of our cold shrink accessories is limited. If the permanent deformation is too large and exceeds the design capacity, it may cause the quality problem of untimely installation. It is mainly this factor that makes the cold shrink accessories a product with a shelf life that is not easy to be too long. Generally speaking, after one year of expansion, the cold shrink cable accessories will have obvious permanent deformation. The general shelf life of domestic cold shrink accessories is one year. In recent years, with the development of technology, especially the improvement of silicone rubber processing technology, the shelf life of some high-quality products can be guaranteed for 2 years. Therefore, it is recommended that if you buy cold shrink cable accessories, use them within half a year as much as possible, and do not store them for a long time. At the same time, the purchase plan should be scientifically arranged according to the construction period. In addition, if the storage is unreasonable, such as long-term placement in areas with large and rapid temperature changes, long-term proximity to heat sources, long-term high temperature exposure, etc., it will greatly affect the shelf life of cold shrink cable accessories. There are also cold weather conditions, such as the cold regions of Russia. Due to the low temperature, the ultra-low temperature ductility of silicone will be revealed, which will also greatly affect the contraction performance of the cold shrink cable connector, and even make it unusable. It may also crack after installation. This is also the reason why cold shrink materials cannot be widely promoted and used in cold regions such as Russia.