info@alpha-beta.ca
Ice Guards,
Ice Breakers for Guy Cables
A severe ice storm in 1998 caused the collapse of many hydro and communication towers in eastern Ontario. Radial ice build-up
on guy cables was responsible for some of the damage when the guy cables became detached from their anchors, causing
towers to collapse. As temperatures rose after the ice storm, the conductive properties of the steel cables caused the heavy ice that
had collected on the guy cables to melt from the inside out, causing the radial ice to slide down the guys. As the large chunks of ice
accelerated down the guy cables at a rapid rate, they encountered the end of the performed guy-grips that attached the guys to the
anchor. The impact force was so great that the sliding, cylindrical ice pushed the guys out of the performed guy-grips, causing the
tower to fall.
We install properly designed ice guards or ice breakers to prevent this from happening. These ice breakers are made of stainless steel,
come in different sizes and are engineered to split sliding ice and break it apart before it can reach the pre formed guy grips, thus
ensuring tower integrity even during inclement weather. Installation of these ice breakers are of particular importance on roof-top
mounted towers.
An extra stainless steel plate on the ice guard is designed for the connection of stranded, bare copper grounding cables that should
be attached to each guy at each anchor. Galvanic corrosion resulting in greater resistance is reduced by using copper to stainless steel
to galvanized steel connections. This ensures a good discharge path for lightning induced currents.