Office building becomes ‘smart’ with data cables from Draka

There is no such thing as coincidence. Huge bundles of blue Draka UTP cables hang from the ceiling in front of a patch cabinet that needs to be assembled. But it's break time and the mechanics of Schut Elektrotechniek are talking about theater shows by the world-famous Blue Man Group. Not suspecting that they deserve the title 'Blue Men'.

Building automation

The stately office building at Pelmolenlaan 10a in Woerden is being transformed for a new tenant. Completion will take place in a few months and a housing corporation will move in. The building from 1996 will be a Smart Building full of electronic devices that can communicate with each other. In addition to an extensive data network for the many dozens of workstations, there will be a KNX system for the automation of LED lighting with motion and presence detection.

Complete installations

The four levels have been completely stripped, except for the main route of the ET installation and the cable ducts.

"The challenge is to use existing devices, such as the air handling units, to make a working installation as neatly as possible according to the current technical standards and within the given time," says Schut.

A familiar challenge for the director and his regular mechanics. The small installation company from Soest is mainly active in the utility sector and has built up a lot of goodwill over 22 years, including with the manager of the office building. It commissioned an integrated approach to the ET installations, from charging stations to emergency lighting and from fire protection to data network.

Don't run away but solve

The installation work is on schedule, despite the replacement of the group cabinets.

"Our strength is working accurately and not running away from the unknown, but solving." Schut also recognizes this attitude in Draka. "At a certain point, all of Draka's UTP cables ran out, both at the manufacturer and the Technische Unie. Then Dennis Premsela from Draka arranged a pallet so that we could meet our deadline. The few times he is there, he arranges it and that's nice."

High-performance data network

The new tenant foresees a lot of data traffic. That is why high demands are placed on data cabling. A high transmission speed of 10 Gb/s was required for the choice of cable. Schut is familiar with the wide range of cables that Draka has for Smart Home, Smart Building and Smart Industry applications. The end user wanted to have the existing Cat.5 cables replaced by Cat.6A, which has a much higher bandwidth and is 10 times faster.

Bridging distances

It became exciting when the distances between the two patch cabinets on the third floor and some workplaces turned out to be too large (more than 100 m). On Schut's advice, one patch cabinet has therefore been moved to the ground floor and they are interconnected with a 12-wire fiber optic coupling.

"Glass is more stable, faster and less expensive than copper."

Always back to Draka

For an installation company, every meter of cable counts. Fortunately, as a director and cooperating foreman, Schut knows all the ins and outs of cabling. He pays attention to price and quality as well as to processability and supply.

"I have been working with Draka for over twenty years. The cables we use are nice to process, peel off easily and you usually pull through them in one go. Moreover, the support of Draka is good; For example, we make the cable calculations together for large power supplies. Sometimes I try something different, but I always go back to Draka. Working with Draka is very pleasant."

Skillful

The men of Schut Elektrotechniek are bursting with enthusiasm. With a few smooth movements, they pull the last UTP cables and then roughen the blue coating slightly before coding the cable with a black marker.

"Draka doesn't like that, but prevents the marking from fading," Schut laughs.

Still a little less 'Blue'.