Better By Design

Wave-Rib Duct
Faster and Further Installations.

Wave-Rib Duct*

Wave-Rib Duct Reduces Cable Blowing Costs

Cable placers know that virtually any conduit will work if the
cable diameter is small, placing lengths are short and the
path is straight. However, in the real world of cable placement, increasing demands are being put on cable placing
crews to install more cable per day at less cost. To accomplish these demands, longer lengths of cable need to be
placed to minimize splices, figure eights and set ups.
Experienced cable placing crews know the benefits of
reduced friction when placing cable. With todays advanced
cable blowing equipment, this reduction in friction is even
more significant in increasing the amount of cable placed
and reducing the time and cost of placement.

ARNCO Advantage
The ARNCO patented Wave-Rib design produces a coefficient of friction lower than any previous
design resulting in longer lengths of cable placement.
The high tensile strength of the duct allows the pulling-in of long lengths of innerduct into
a main conduit.
When used with ARNCOs air-assisted cable blowing equipment, Wave-Rib Duct provides the
fastest, easiest and least expensive method for placing cable.

Oscillating spiral internal ribs greatly

reduce friction when pulling for
longer, faster pulls.

In our goal to continuously improve our products, ARNCO

has developed Wave-Rib Duct. Through a unique extrusion process, the internal ribs spiral in reversing directions
creating an oscillating rib pattern. The result is reduced
surface contact between the cable sheath and the conduit
wall, and the lowest static and dynamic coefficients of friction of any conduit design.

Compare the
Bellcore Results

Testing was conducted by Bellcore to determine the performance of ARNCOs conduit products. The Bellcore
results showed that, when used with
ARNCOs air-blown installation equipment, the Wave-Rib Duct placed 50%
more cable than the smooth wall conduit. Testing further showed that lubricated Wave-Rib Duct demonstrated
nearly a 10 to 1 improvement over the
smooth wall conduit in its ability to
maintain a low coefficient of friction
with increasing tail loads going into
sweeps and bends.

Testing the key to developing products that

work efficiently, effectively, inexpensively.
Pulling Tensions
Pre-Lubricated 1-1/4" Duct Comparison
600

500

Pulling Force (Lbs.)

ARNCO developed the Pull Bench Test method for analyzing the performance of our conduit products to simulate
field conditions as closely as possible. This test allows for
accurate determination of both the static (starting) and
dynamic (moving) coefficients of friction under different
pulling loads and speeds.

400

300

200

100

0
75 lbs.

All of the above stated results led to

Bellcores conclusion: the reverse
oscillating spiral design provides the most efficient dissipation
of heat due to frictionresulting in longer cable placement.
* U.S. Patent 5,087,153 Foreign Patents Pending

125 lbs.

175 lbs.

Tail Load (Lbs.)

Smoothwall

Ribbed

Wave-Rib

NOTE: Smoothwall exceeded 600 lb. pull tension with 175 lb. tail load.

With Wave-Rib Duct, you can pull longer distancesbefore reaching the tension limit.

ARNCO Makes A Full

Line Of Conduit Products

Options
Pre-Lubrication permanently lubricated conduit saves time in the field; no need to manually add
liquid lubricant.
Pre-Installed Pull Tape ARNCO offers the widest range of pull tape options in the industry that can be
extruded directly into the conduit. Bull-Line pull tapes are available in your choice of polyester or aramid fiber.
Longitudinal External Ribs will interlock to keep multiple innerducts straight in a main conduit.
Pre-Installed Coax, Dot, or Electrical Cables eliminating field cable placement.
Available in Multiple Colors and Lengths
packaged on reels, coils or in sticks.

Strand-Guard Aerial

High Tensile Polyethylene wall provides strength

for pulling in longer lengths and crush resistance
for direct buried applications.

Smooth-Cor

Field Installation
the ultimate test
Coefficient Of Friction

After lab testing we took Wave-

Pre-Lubricated 1-1/4" Duct Comparison

Rib Duct to the field to confirm

.16

Perma-Guard

our development work. The

results were very impressive. In

.14

direct comparisons with

smoothwall pre-lubricated duct,

Coefficient of Friction

.12

we found that Wave-Rib Duct

.10

had up to 30% less pulling tension, depending on the difficulty

.08

of the route.

.06

This means you could be

Bridge-Duct

pulling substantially farther

.04

with Wave-Rib.
.02
.00
0

25

50
75
100
Tail Load (Lbs.)

Smoothwall

Ribbed

125

150

Wave-Rib

NOTE: Wave-Rib Duct has significantly lower C.O.F.

than all types of innerconduit at 25, 75 and 125 lb. tail loads.
With Wave-Rib Duct, the Coefficient of Friction is
lowereddramatically. And with lower C.O.F., pulls are
longer, faster and require less labor.

Armor-Guard

Advancing technology for cable

installation products and services.
The first polyethylene conduit to gain popularity was
smoothwall. This conduit had high tensile strength
for pulling into main conduit and good compression
strength for direct burial application. Difficult and/or
long pulls though were limited due to high surface
contact. (See cable footprint chart.)
Corrugated conduit was the next design to be tried. It
offered the benefits of lower costs and lower cable
pulling friction as a result of the cable sliding over
the tops of the internal corrugations. But, this design
was more difficult to install in the field as only short
sections could be pulled without excessive stretching
and breaking. In direct buried applications, corrugated proved to be too flexible, would not lay straight in
open trench work, and it also lacked the tensile
strength for plow applications.

History of Conduit Design Cable Area Foot Print

Contour Surface Area Comparison
1st
Generation

2nd
Generation

3rd
Generation

4th
Generation

ARNCO
your single source for cable installation products,
equipment, materials and service.
ARNCO offers a wide range of products, services and
systems to maximize cable placement productivity including:
Wave-Rib Duct
Starburst Ribbed Conduit
Smoothwall Conduit
Smooth-Cor Corrugated Conduit
Perma-Guard Cable-in-Conduit
Stargard Armored Conduit
Bull-Line Pull Tape
Tension Master Pulling Equipment & Accessories
Hydralube Cable Lubricants
Cable-Prep Cable and Utility Cleaners/Degreasers
Air-Trak Cable Blowing Equipment
Maxx-Trak Cable/Conduit Pusher

Call ARNCO for all your cable installation needs!

1-800-321-7914

Smoothwall

Corrugated

Ribbed

Oscillating
Wave-Rib

ARNCO developed Wave-Rib Duct to combine the

best properties of smoothwall and corrugated. This
design had the high tensile strength of smoothwall
but lower friction as a result of internal longitudinal
ribbing. The internal ribbing approached the lower
surface contact area of corrugated conduit when
pulling cable (see footprint chart).
It was not until ARNCO research engineers developed the oscillating spiral internal ribbed design
Wave-Rib, that all desired properties could be combined into one conduit. The oscillating spiral ribs
resulted in low contact surface area with the cable
and the sliding action over the tops of the ribs that
produce extremely low friction.
A further benefit was that even in extremely difficult
pulls, very little cable sheath abrasion occurs.

860 GARDEN STREET ELYRIA, OHIO 44035

PHONE 440-322-1000 FAX 440-322-1001
800-321-7914 E-MAIL info@arncocorp.com
WEB SITE www.arncocorp.com

ARNCO SOUTH CAROLINA

1164 Industrial Avenue
Sage Mill Industrial Park
Graniteville, SC 29829

Printed in U.S.A.

ARNCO UTAH
80 East Union Avenue
North Salt Lake City, UT 84054

ARNCO Corporation 2001

ARNCO de MEXICO
Carratera A Mexico y Periferico Sur
Zona Inustrial
San Luis Potosi
78090 San Luis Potosi, Mexico
SWR-0710-OP5