Recycled electric plastic cable trough approved for U.K. railway network

Cable trough is a cable protection conduit which is mainly installed along a railway, and reinforced concrete is widely used for this purpose. However, reinforced concrete cable trough is difficult to handle and install due to its weight. It is also fragile and corrosion-prone from chemical substances such as chloride and snow melting agents, so the market has been in search for improved cable trough with better workability and higher durability.

"Green Trough” is a recycled plastic cable trough developed by Furukawa Electric. The product is the first in the world and weighs only approx. 1/4 of reinforced concrete cable trough, and therefore can reduce the work load and construction period drastically. In addition, it has high weather resistance and corrosion resistance parameters, which leads to longer operating life.

To this day, Green Trough has been approved and installed in various different segments such as railway, highway, photovoltaic power plant, large-scale plant etc., all over Japan. The product has also been officially approved by the U.K. railway network.  Green Trough has already been installed in the UK as part of control period 5 (CP5), and total supplied is approx. 100km of Green Trough as of end of September this year.

Cable trough demand is expected to expand up to several hundred kilometers for project such as the High Speed 2 (HS2) project in the U.K, and the global demand of Green Trough is expected to increase more than ever due to its workability, durability and superior environmental performance. As a result, Furukawa Electric intends to further continue the development and improvement of Green Trough in order to take the place of concrete trough, and expand the business not only in the U.K, but globally. In the U.K. market, Green Trough is sold and distributed via Trough-Tec Systems.