We buy refinery demolition cable.

What comes out of a plant when it is dismantled

The volume is in tray and control cable. A process unit is threaded with thousands of feet of 600 V tray cable, instrument pairs and triads, and thermocouple extension, all of it supported on ladder rack and all of it cut into handling lengths on the way down. Medium voltage feeders from the substation add weight in a smaller number of pieces.

Grounding conductor is the part people forget. A unit has a grid of bare copper under it, plus ground leads to every structure and every skid. That conductor is often the cleanest metal in the whole lot, and it is usually the last thing pulled because it sits under everything else.

Aluminium shows up in the larger feeders, and it changes the grading. A demolition lot that is mostly aluminium conductor is still bought, but the metal content is lower for the same length and the review reflects it. Copper remains the standard most sellers expect, and mixing the two into one weight figure only confuses the review.

• 600 V tray cable and machine tool wire from racks
• Instrument and thermocouple extension, often shielded
• 5 kV and 15 kV feeders cut out of tray and conduit
• Bare copper grounding conductor and ground leads
• Welding cable, portable cord and temporary power runs

How fast removal damages cable

Pulling cable out of tray is not the same as unspooling it. It is dragged over rack rungs, cut where it will not come free, and coiled on the ground while the next run is pulled. Jacket gets scored, shields get kinked, and a length that was continuous becomes three pieces of unknown length.

Conduit is worse. Cable pulled out of a duct bank has been under tension and often comes out with the jacket shaved where it passed a coupling. Water that sat in the conduit for years comes out with it. None of that shows in a photograph of a pile, which is why a demolition review leans on the cut ends and on weight.

The one thing worth protecting is length. A run that comes out in one piece and is coiled rather than cut is a different material from the same run chopped into ten-foot lengths. Protecting it costs nothing but a decision made while the tray is still open and the crew is still on the rack.

Coil long runs separately and label them. A continuous length is the only part of a demolition lot that can be reused as cable.

Presenting a demolition lot as it is

The mistake sellers make is describing demolition cable as if it were surplus. It was not surplus; it was in service until the unit came down, and saying so does not reduce interest. What reduces interest is a description that implies new reels and delivers a heap of cut tray cable.

Describe the lot in groups: what came from tray, what came from conduit, what came out of the ground, and what was cut from a feeder. Give a rough count or weight per group. A buyer reading that can decide how much of it is reusable and how much is metal, and the review moves on the first pass.

• Whether the cable was in service until demolition
• Rough weight or count per group, not per piece
• Condition at the cut ends and along the jacket
• Any pieces long enough to be reused, kept separate
• Whether grounding conductor is included, and how much

Do not clean the cable up to photograph it. Dirt and silt are part of the condition, and a buyer who sees them reads the lot correctly.

Access and the demolition schedule

Demolition sites are the hardest places to collect from and the easiest to plan for, provided the plan is made early. The site is fenced, access is controlled, and the cable is usually in a pile that will be moved to a laydown area or into a roll-off within days of being pulled.

Ask where the material is going before it gets there. Cable that reaches a scrap pile is already sorted as scrap by everyone involved. Cable that is set aside at the point of removal keeps its description, and that is worth more than any amount of cleaning afterward, even when the pile is small.

Loading is the other half. A demolition contractor has heavy iron on site, which usually means a loader or an excavator can lift a bundle that a yard forklift could not. Say what equipment is available and whether it can reach the pile before the job ends and the iron leaves with it.

Ask for the demolition schedule as well as the address. Material that is about to be moved is easier to collect than material that has already been.