In an effort to ensure constant connection between power cables, the relevant equipment and electricity, high voltage cable coupler manufacturer KonNx designs, manufactures and distributes high and low voltage cable couplers and connectors for use in heavy industrial applications (such as opencast/underground mining and tunneling).

The name, the company explains, is a reference to the word “connection”, which is ultimately what the company’s products do – they connect power cables and electricity.

However, considering that industry experts are familiar with the concept of cable couplers and connectors, KonNx explains in layman’s terms that they are products which supply equipment with power.

In many cases, this equipment is the primary production equipment used in an operation, such as through draglines, electrical shovels and drill rigs on a mine site, incorporating various products ranging from 1.1 kV to 35 kV and 60 A to 800 A.

The safe and reliable performance of KonNx’s products – designed to create long-lasting solutions that persist and perform despite the environmental challenges posed by mining, tunneling and other excavation projects –  is therefore “crucial to industrial operations”, the company says, emphasising that cable couplers and connectors are vital for safe and efficient mobility of equipment.

The company explains that mobile equipment could be connected to a power source by "hard wiring" cables but warns that this is a time-consuming and risky task. In comparison, cable couplers and connectors offer a safe and efficient means to mobility of equipment, the company says.

As a basic example: Say a mine costs downtime at R100 000 per hour and that to move a piece of cable that has been "hard wired" into a machine takes 30 minutes. That change has cost the mine R50 000. Using one of KonNx’s couplers would cut that time down to about ten minutes, making it “a big saving” before taking the safety aspect into account.

KonNx’s product design is of such a nature that it is homogeneous with the cable and therefore eliminates phase-to-phase faults. Though these faults are not a regular occurrence as industrial sites usually have procedures and protocols to avoid them. However, KonNx notes that they happen often enough to be of serious concern.

“The more power that is running through a system the more catastrophic a phase-to-phase fault will be. A serious explosion would develop and could risk people's lives if they were close to the explosion,” the company says.

KonNx cites its commitment to ‘going the extra mile’ and its quality processes, as two of the key characteristics that set it apart from competitors, noting that these aspects are integral to its current and future successes.