Protecting metal

The price of scrap metal has soared in the last few decades sparking a record number of metal related thefts. The crystalline solid loot is then sold on to scrap dealers often for lucrative sums. Despite changes to the law for scrap dealers to be introduced in November, the black market for scrap metal is significant, estimated to cost the UK some £770 million annually. Everything is a target from manhole covers to road signs to copper wire. Sub stations have been a target as have the car catalytic converters of cars. Even if changes in the law do help to reduce domestic scrap dealers from buying dodgy metals, it is understood that much of the metal is taken overseas for substantial amounts of money. One area that has been particularly vulnerable is the UK rail system, which has been routinely targeted for its copper cables used for communications and signalling. Theft of these wires causes massive disruption and a significant amount of work is often required in repair. The thefts cause massive delays and disruption, impacting safety and costing millions to replace. Cables have even been stolen as soon as they are replaced. The Challenge The challenge this month is to therefore come up with a method of stopping thieves steal quite so much of the railways copper wires. One of the biggest issues with this crime is the ease and speed with which thieves are able to disconnect and remove long lengths of copper cable. The protective measure you come up with should be simple to fit and relatively inexpensive, though due to the cost incurred by the railway the solution need not be 'cheap'. Barricading the lines to make it harder for thieves to access has proved both costly and ineffective in many cases. You could use laser sensors to line the tracks and detect thieves which will then notify the British Transport Police, but this is still not an ideal solution. Really, the measures in place need to be fit and forget, and be able to secure the cables to such a degree that thieves will be unable to remove any material quickly. And to do so would require significant force, noise and effort – all of which will hopefully deter any light fingered crook. The solution we have in mind low-tech but surprisingly elegant and effective. However, there is nothing to say that it is necessarily the best available. We are very keen to see if Eureka's readers can come up with something better. -Solution- Solution to the October 2013 Coffee Time Challenge The solution to the October 2013 Coffee Time Challenge of how to stop metal thieves in their tracks comes from North Yorkshire based firm Ellis. After identifying that one of the biggest issues with railway copper theft was the ease and speed with which thieves are able to disconnect and remove long lengths of the materials, the company decided to design and develop a tamper proof cable cleat that makes removing copper cables nigh on impossible. The cleat's box design makes the job of detaching the cleat from the cable it is securing laborious and time consuming, while the requirement to fit the cleats at regular intervals along cable lengths means thieves simply don't have the time to remove cables before the police arrive. "Quite often the best solution to a problem is the simplest and our tamper proof cleat is certainly a simple, but effective deterrent," says Ellis' managing director, Richard Shaw. "By delivering a great level of security, both in terms of the strength and number of the fixings, we are confident that it will help bring an end to copper cable theft." www.ellispatents.co.uk