How do I shrink heatshrink in an explosion proof room? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I'm not sure what the right community for this is but I'm hoping yall can help. I'm a refrigeration service tech and recently I was tasked with replacing a sensor in a room used to store ethanol drums. Due to the nature of the room every device in it had to be rated explosion proof and I couldn't use any tools that could pose any risk of ignition (no heat gun, basically nothing with an electric motor, and definitely no open flames) while working in there. Normally when I splice wires I use heatshrink to cover the splice simply because it looks far more professional than electrical tape and it holds up better over time. However in this case I could not figure out any way of shrinking said heatshrink without posing a potential ignition hazard so I was stuck just wrapping the splice in tape. We do a lot of work for this company so I'm hoping to find a better solution for the next time I am in a similar situation.

So do any of you know any way to shrink heatshrink without posing an ignition hazard or am I stuck just using tape in those situations?

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

How about heating up a soldering iron outside, turnoff and unplug then take it in and use the residual heat?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I don't think a soldering iron would retain enough heat. I had considered warming something else up with a torch but any hot work anywhere in that site requires all sorts of permitting even where it's possible.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

The options from other responses are better (gel, cold shrink tubing), but just for your edification, sand in a box can work as an extremely effective insulator for a short period. So heat up the soldering iron and stick it in a bed of sand in a box to take it in with you. Most of the heat won't escape the box, but it will spread through the tool, so you'll definitely want gloves.

this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025

31 points (97.0% liked)

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