Dangerous Adapters Still in Service

by Eugene Palmer

Why is it that rigging companies are often the most flagrant violators of electrical safety?  They seem appropriately concerned with safe loads, fall arrest and training, but then send out the most terrifically illegal and genuinely dangerous electrical equipment.

I am speaking of the Cam-Lock to L16-50 or their even more dangerous little brother the L21-30, adapters that continue to show up from rigging suppliers.  These adapters typically have stripped back 10/5 or 8/4 SO with the individual single jacketed conductors then inserted into male Cam-Lock connectors.

There are numerous dangers with this adapter-

They are physically under-protected because the individual conductor jackets are only the internal single jacket not meant for rough service and easily nicked or cut into.

They are physically under-protected because no Cam-Lock is designed for conductors that thin, and fillers used to increase fit are not designed for the physical or electrical load.  The allen set screws are usually screwed in past the threads and stripped.

They are electrically under-protected because they are inevitably connected to anywhere from 100 to 400 amp services whose circuit breakers are more than 25 feet away.

They violate both the spirit and several sections of NFPA code.

So, when a single 10 gauge conductor with its thin jacket gets brushed against a road case burr, or crushed under a pipe and drape base with its sharp edge, the resulting potential’s only safety stop is a 400 amp breaker up in the catwalk, or down the vom and around the corner 150’ in a locked vault only hotel engineers have access to (as is the case today), or worse.  The resulting shock to anyone electrically near, or the resulting flash from touching a grounded piece of hardware, is extremely dangerous and difficult to control or stop.  That breaker is probably not going to trip, and that cable is probably going to erupt in flames, and any person involved is probably going to have serious or fatal burns, and the only way to stop it would be for a an available person to go switch the power off.

While it is possible that riggers themselves are unaware of this danger, rigging shops certainly know, and further, rigging trainers certainly know.   So why does this equipment persist?  I imagine it is the age-old simple answer that it is easier and cheaper so therefore the safety considerations are ignored.  Simple and reasonably priced alternatives are readily available in the form of small ‘lunch-box” power distribution units that have Cam-Lock inputs and properly sized circuit breaking outlets.  Since most rigging companies have specific connector configurations.  I won’t try to specify one, except to say that Lex Products and Motion Laboratories both offer custom configurations for their small form-factor distribution boxes.  Probably about $1000, maybe more, but please put them in your rental inventory and get rid of those adapters.

I am not a confrontational person by nature, but if there were any extreme by which I would refuse to connect and service a production as an ETCP certified electrician, it is this one.  By supplying this sub-standard equipment rigging suppliers put me and other responsible electricians in the very hot seat of possible load-in stoppage when we demand compliance to clearly mandated standards.   Compare this to an ETCP certified rigger refusing to load a show in because all the motors are years out of inspection with rusty chains.  It is not that different, it is equipment seriously and dangerously out of compliance that jeopardizes the health and safety of workers and public, though in this case probably more the workers.  I am refusing to connect these adapters and have so far not had to stop a load-in because I know where house L21-30 outlets or other alternatives are, but there will come a time.

Rather than put this sort of industry criticism up on social media, I thought I would start with a more personal and direct approach to a few people I could locate on the web since my point is not to cause trouble, it is to get results.  These adapters must be taken out of service.  Please forward to the appropriate supervisory persons in your companys rental department and industry members as you see fit.

However, this is not the first time I have made an appeal to industry, and I am still seeing these adapters.  The next step is social media or commercial publications, where I am sure you will be scorched far worse than anything I could come up with.  Please, as ESTA, USITT and ETCP associated people with dedicated concerns for industry safety, make this stop.  If you already have and I am bothering you with known solutions, I apologize, but I bet you all still have them.

Sincerely,

Eugene Palmer
IATSE Local 107
Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, UC Berkeley