Innovative two-in-one cable guide clamps, designed and developed in Yorkshire by Ellis Patents, are being used to guide and secure 4.5km of power cables being installed as part of an enormous infrastructure project in Vestland, Norway.

The Sotra Connection is a new national road being built by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration between Bergen and Øygarden municipality. The N555 project includes the construction of a new road bridge, the demolition of nine high voltage power masts and the re-routing of the related power cables through a series of tunnels and underneath the current Sotra Bridge – an element of the project known as the Stømkabel Sotrasambandet.

Ellis Patents Cable Guide Clamps, which were originally developed to solve a live project installation problem for Siemens, are being used to guide the power cables into place, before securing them and providing protection in the case of a short-circuit.

Kelly Brown, Ellis Patents head of sales, said: “This is perhaps the biggest infrastructure project in a generation in Norway; and when complete will provide a modern and fast connection from the Sotra islands to the country’s second biggest city and beyond.”

“The fact that our Cable Guide Clamps were specified is a matter of pride for all at Ellis, and goes to show that our new innovations are every bit as trusted as the likes of our Emperor and Vulcan+ cable cleats, which helped to establish us as the world leader in our field.”

The Stømkabel Sotrasambandet specification was secured through Ellis Patents’ Norwegian distributor, Procab.

Ellis Patents’ innovative Cable Guide Clamp works in two stages. Firstly, electrical power cables are guided by it into their final location; with trumpeted entry and exit points ensuring the cable is not damaged when fed through particularly sharp angled turns. Once the cable is laid correctly, the top half of the guide is removed, a fixing piece installed directly onto the cable and the top half re-secured, thus turning it into a fully-functioning HV cable clamp.