Case Study: Viatech Cable Solutions
Viatech Cable Solutions develop bespoke access control cable products for security and high-end data systems. The team has over 35 years of experience of installing Access Control cabling solutions across a variety of sectors including data centres, medical, pharmaceutical, airports and defence.
Based in Ireland, the company has a global reach and has delivered several high-profile projects to customers within the data security industry, including production facilities for Tesla, as well as data storage centres at Amazon and Meta (Facebook).
Bespoke cabling systems
Viatech Cable Solutions offer an end to end service from initial cable design, to final manufacture. Ensuring the highest levels of quality and compliance are maintained throughout the process is of upmost importance to deliver superior cabling systems.
The product offering includes the VIA-COMP® range of multicore composite cables which integrate data and physical control. The cables are bespoke to fit individual customer’s access control system requirements. The unique products provide a ‘critical bridge’ between hardware and software systems to enable efficient physical system operations.
Prioritising safety and quality beyond minimum CPR requirements
To demonstrate the highest levels of safety and quality, Viatech Cable Solutions has gained B2ca and Cca classifications for their access control cable product ranges which are fully compliant with BASEC’s System 1+ approval scheme under the Construction Products Regulation, CPR.
As stated in BS 6701:2016+A1:2011 specifiers and installers must ensure any telecommunication cable used as ‘installation cable’ meets class Cca, S1b, d2, a2 (as a minimum requirement).
Testing is undertaken to assess factors such as heat release and smoke production, flame spread, smoke density, acidity, and conductivity to determine the cable’s reaction to fire.
In addition to testing requirements, as part of gaining System 1+ CPR status, Viatech undergo stringent factory audits twice a year to make necessary checks that the cable quality, materials, production processes and controls have maintained the same levels since initial testing.
Ongoing tests in relation to a sample from each cable family and construction are also carried out on a yearly basis, while all cables are tested every 3 years as part of ongoing surveillance. This continued testing and auditing provides assurance and peace of mind to the end users that the cabling systems will not contribute to fire spread should such a scenario occur, reducing risk of harm to both people and the buildings themselves.
Derek Murphy, Managing Director at Viatech comments:
“Our priority at Viatech is to provide the highest quality access control cables into the market. In offering cables that are compliant with CPR to B2ca, s1, d1,a1 classification, we can support our customers to ensure they not only reach the CPR requirements, but they greatly exceed it. This helps to raise the levels of safety and quality of the access control infrastructure across the board.”
Viatech’s commitment to quality and achieving beyond minimum safety requirements for cable products has been highly valuable in their work with Tesla.
Gavin Lakey, Manager, Technical Security Systems Builds EMEA at Tesla comments:
“Viatech Cable Solutions have and continue to be a valued partner to Tesla. From bespoke cable design, guidance on CPR regulations, through to manufacturing and delivery, support from Viatech has been seamless. The quality of product is first class and this has helped shape our minimum cabling standards on security engineering projects EMEA wide.”
Lee Walker, Staff Security Systems Project Engineer, Giga Factory Berlin at Tesla comments:
“We chose Viatech cables due to their adaptability and customer satisfaction focused business model. We have received numerous positive benefits from choosing Viatech Cables. The main ones being the extremely fast response times and adaptability to ensure we get what we ask for. We were extremely impressed with the cable quality and lead times. On many occasions they adapted and pushed to beat their own projected lead times on delivery. The bespoke cable design was amazing not only has it massively reduced overall project costs in terms of costs of cable per meter, but it has also improved costs in terms of time saving.
Prime examples as contractors were pulling three cables per door. Many times, we had one of the three cables mis-labelled causing time delays when cable testing sometimes resulting of re-termination of controllers. Ensuring all colours inside the cables match our devices out in the field also means we can make the whole process very simple for our field technicians when terminating. Not to mention the quality of the cable, tested and rated to B2Ca at a cost which is none comparable on the market. Custom text and sleeve colours to suit each build. In general, Viatech cables are an absolute pleasure to work with. The company is extremely friendly and approachable, they wish for nothing more than customer satisfaction and it shows. Derek himself always goes above and beyond, nothing is ever too much regardless of the ask. I am very happy to use Viatech Cables and will be for the foreseeable future.”
Third-party testing to ensure compliance
Viatech Cable Solutions made the decision to partner with BASEC as their chosen cable testing provider in 2020. Key factors influencing this choice was the organisation’s global reputation as a trusted partner within the cable testing industry, developed over several decades of experience, in addition to the convenience of having all testing requirements undertaken with one testing and certification provider.
Derek Murphy said;
“Viatech very much values its relationship with BASEC. As a third-party testing provider it means we have stringent testing undertaken on our cables, which ensures they are rigorously assessed to the maximum levels of safety. BASEC helps us to maintain the highest standards across the VIA-COMP® range and also gives our customers the confidence to know they are receiving the best quality products available in the market.”
Find out more about the CPR certificates that Viatech Cable Solutions holds here, or click to learn about BASEC’s cable testing and certification services.
