Which is stronger, the large rocks along a river bed or the water that erodes them? How about a flimsy little piece of emery paper or the piece of steel its polishing? Whats my point here? Well sometimes you see something and figure it will wear a certain way only to be surprised at what years of vibration can do to a piece of equipment. Yesterday I opened up a bacpac blower to do some maintenance on it and found something interesting that really made me think about all this. This is the inside of the blower.
Ya its an odd duck. The pic is zoomed in too far but that entire engine is enclosed in an effort to make it quiet. Air for the blower is drawn in from the bottom, pulled over the hot engine and then blown out the blower nozzle. I'm sure theres an engineer somewhere quite proud of this design. Anyway, the engine has a metal mount and there is a wire that passes over it. Which is stronger, cast aluminum or plastic wire insulation?
You can see the wire and the wear it caused to the aluminum mount. Heres a closer look.
A reasonable person would think the wire would wear first. Let me tell you that after sixteen years of service the insulation isn't even compromised yet. Its close but its still sound.
BLAMO! Mind blown!
Later.
Now that is interesting.....But I would be suspicious of that cable, was it replaced at one time ? I have to agree with you, I think the cable would wear out first.....
ReplyDeleteI can't say if it was replaced. I think its just one tough piece of wire.
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