Green Trough cable conduit approved for use by UK railways

Green Trough, a recycled plastic cable trough developed by Tokyo-based Furukawa Electric, has been officially approved for use by the U.K. railway network.

The product is a cable protection conduit, mainly installed along a railway, designed as an alternative to cable trough made of reinforced concrete, which is widely used in the market, Furukawa Electric says. However, reinforced concrete cable trough is difficult to handle and install because of its weight. In addition, it is fragile and corrosion-prone from chemical substances such as chloride and snow melting agents, according to the company. Therefore, the market has been requesting improved cable trough with better workability and higher durability.

Green Trough is designed as an environmentally friendly recycled plastic cable trough developed by Furukawa Electric, using scrap plastic as a main material. The company says it weighs approximately one-fourth reinforced concrete cable troug and therefore can reduce the work load and construction period drastically. In addition, it has high weather resistance and corrosion resistance parameters, which realise longer operating life, according to Furukawa Electric.

In the U.K. market, Green Trough is sold and distributed via Trough-Tec Systems, which has been a strategic partner of Furukawa Electric.

The company says the product has been approved and installed in various different segments such as railway, highway, photovoltaic power plant and large-scale plant, all over Japan.

Green Trough has been approved and installed in the U.K. as part of Network Rail’s Control Period 5 (CP5) delivery plan. The company says that as of the end of September 2015, approximately 100 kilometers of Green Trough cable trough has been supplied through that effort.

Cable trough demand is expected to expand up to several hundred kilometers for projects such as the High Speed 2 (HS2) project in the U.K., the company says. In such circumstances, Furukawa Electric will proactively continue the development and improvement of Green Trough to replace concrete trough, and expand the business globally.