Cable Tray Supports

"The quickest and simplest
support system, off the shelf
and direct to site"

Cable tray supports are an essential part of any flat roof installation involving air handling units, refrigeration units, air conditioning condensers, extractor fans and similar service units. Sure-Foot cable tray supports provide an effective and flexible solution which does not damage the roof and can be easily moved to provide maintenance access. But why are cable tray supports needed? And what are the features of the ideal cable tray support?

What Are Cable Tray Supports and Why Are They Used?
Every service unit installed on a flat roof will need a power cable to supply it. Large buildings such as office blocks, hotels, schools, hospitals or residential apartment blocks will have many such units. Allowing all the cables to trail along the roof directly creates a number of problems. They are a safety hazard to contractors working on the roof, but perhaps more importantly they are heavy and difficult to move for the purposes of maintenance. Direct contact with the roof also increases the chance of damage to a cable or sustained contact with water, both of which increase the risk of service outage.

It is generally not desirable to try to embed cables into the roof or to build permanent cable supports, as these involve roof penetration. In addition, it is a general requirement that different service units can be added to, replaced or moved around over the lifetime of a building, so any fixed solution tends to be outgrown sooner or later. Instead, the industry standard solution to this problem is to organise the cables into cable trays. These are lengths of open container, usually made of steel, aluminium or sometimes reinforced plastic, in a ladder or basket configuration which allows water to drain through, as well as making the tray as lightweight as possible. But these cable trays themselves need to be raised off the roof surface, resulting in the need for cable tray supports.

What Are the Ideal Features of Cable Tray Supports?
The ideal cable tray supports will satisfy the following design requirements:

Not penetrate or damage the roof surface
Allow support for any type of cable tray
Allow cable trays to be arranged in any configuration
Allow cable trays to be easily moved or reconfigured for maintenance purposes
Allow service runs to be installed simply and quickly, saving on labour costs.

Sure-Foot cable tray supports satisfy all these requirements, making them an ideal choice for contractors requiring a flexible solution that will be compatible with existing infrastructure.

How Do Sure-Foot Cable Tray Supports Work?
Sure-Foot cable tray supports consist of two main elements, which can be ordered separately or together as required to cater for both standard and bespoke arrangements:

Base Support Foot - Sure-Foot's unique polypropylene foot, provides a non-slip foot, which is sturdy but flexible and so will not damage the roof surface. The 362mm diameter rubber foot can be supplied on its own and fitted to existing structures, or with a leg assembly mechanism with a standard 41mm x 41mm fitting.

H Prop Kit - The kit comprises two H Frames, each with two base support feet, and allows a cable tray to rest at the top of the "H". The supporting vertical struts feature a simple bracketing system which allows contractors to adjust the height of the frame as required on site.

Using the H Frame cable tray supports, a contractor simply arranges a number of H Frames at intervals underneath the cable tray as required.

What Types of Cable Tray Can Be Supported?
Sure-Foot can support any type of cable tray, including basket, ladder or tray designs. The contractor can build the H or "goal post" shaped Frame for most standard cable trays or can use the feet to create supports for a bespoke arrangement if required.

If the standard rugby post H shaped frame is used, this will accommodate a cable tray of width up to any width.

How Many Sure-Foot Cable Tray Supports Will Be Needed?
This will depend on the weight to be supported, which will be affected by the number and type of cables inside the trays, the weight of tray itself, and the strength of the tray.
As a guide, for standard configurations, tray supports should be placed at intervals of around 1.2 and 1.5 metres. Contractors are advised to calculate the weights operating in their particular project and to check for deflection of the cable tray at different support intervals. Calculations should take into account the likelihood of additional cables being added in the future.

Sure-Foot offer next day delivery to site or office as required.

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