Tray cable · Harris County / Greater Houston
We buy tray cable.
Tray cable is the plant standard for anything that runs without conduit. A tray removal yields a mixed lot of power and control, and the footage on each reel is only half the story.
Walk into almost any plant on the Ship Channel and look up. The cable in the tray is tray cable: multi-conductor, jacketed, rated for installation without conduit, and used for everything from a motor feeder to a thermocouple pair. It is the single most common power and control cable in Houston industry, and it is the most common thing left over after a project.
We buy it in the shapes it actually appears: full reels from a scope that was descoped, partials from a pull that came up short, and the long cut lengths that come out of a tray during a demolition or a reroute. The lot is rarely uniform. That is expected, and the review is built around it.
TC and TC-ER in the tray
Tray cable is a factory assembly of insulated conductors cabled together under an overall jacket, rated 600 V or 2 kV. The TC-ER suffix adds the exposed run allowance, which lets the cable leave the tray and travel to a motor or a junction box without conduit for a defined distance. That single allowance is why plants standardise on it for equipment connections.
Constructions vary more than the name suggests. Conductors are usually PVC/nylon insulated copper, from 18 AWG control pairs up to 500 MCM power conductors, in two to twenty or more conductors. Shielding appears on the 2 kV and instrumentation versions. Jackets are PVC, CPE or a low-smoke material where the plant requires it. Two cables with the same conductor count can be different products, so read the print before quoting a size.
What a tray removal actually yields
A tray run is pulled in long, and it comes out in pieces. Cable is cut at each end and often at every junction, so a three hundred foot pull may arrive as six lengths of fifty feet. The jackets carry scuff marks from tray edges and tie wraps, and the cut ends are usually long enough to inspect but too short to re-terminate without trimming.
Volume is real, though. A single building tray can hold thousands of feet across a dozen constructions, and a turnaround that reroutes a rack will produce a trailer load. The work is in the sorting: separating power from control, shielded from unshielded, and the lengths that can be re-used from the ones that are conductor and jacket.
- Long cut lengths from tray demolition and reroutes
- Partial reels from pulls that came up short
- Full reels from a descoped or deferred project
- Mixed conductors, 18 AWG control up to 500 MCM power
- Scuffed jackets and tray-edge wear on the outer layer
Cable that was pulled out in one piece and coiled on a spool is the best of the tray material. Ask the crew to coil rather than cut where the schedule allows.
Power, control and the shielded side
Power tray cable and control tray cable behave differently as lots. Power cable in 8 AWG and larger carries enough copper to stand on its own, and a fifty foot length of 4/0 is worth handling. Control cable in 16 and 18 AWG is mostly jacket by weight, so it is reviewed in volume and rarely as a single length.
The shielded constructions are the ones worth pulling out of a pile. Two kilovolt tray cable with a copper tape shield, and instrumentation cable with individual and overall shields, are specific products that plants still buy. A reel of shielded 2 kV with most of its length intact is a different proposition from a bundle of unshielded control pairs cut at every junction.
Sorting pays for itself here. A pallet divided into power, shielded power and control can be reviewed in one pass, and the footage of each group can be estimated by weighing the bundle. Mixed into one gaylord, the same material takes a day to separate and the review starts from a lower estimate.
- 600 V power, 8 AWG to 500 MCM
- 2 kV shielded power and feeder cable
- Control cable, 18 to 10 AWG, multi-pair and multi-conductor
- Instrumentation pairs and triads with overall shield
- TC-ER exposed run cable from equipment connections
Keep shielded and unshielded cable in separate bundles where you can. Sorting it later costs more than separating it at the tray.
Sending a tray cable lot
List the constructions rather than the individual pieces: voltage rating, conductor size and count, shielded or not, and roughly how many feet of each. Photographs of two or three jacket prints do more than a long description, because the print carries the temperature rating, the voltage class and the manufacturer in one line.
Say how the cable was removed and where it is now. Cable coiled on a spool and banded travels well. Cable bundled loose in a gaylord needs to be described that way, because it changes both the loading plan and how the length is estimated. If any of it is still hanging in the tray, photograph the run before it comes down, while the supports and the routing are still visible.
Questions sellers ask
Do you buy tray cable cut into short lengths?
Yes. Tray removals almost always produce short lengths, and they are bought as part of the lot. Pieces under ten feet are grouped and graded on conductor content rather than on re-use, so they do not need to be sorted out before the rest is offered.
Is TC-ER worth more than standard TC?
It is reviewed separately because it is a more specific product with a wider installation allowance. Whether it carries more depends on size, shielding and condition, but it is worth identifying on the jacket print so the lot is not graded as generic tray cable.
Can shielded and unshielded cable go in one lot?
Yes, and it usually does. Separate them into bundles on the pallet where possible, note the approximate footage of each, and photograph both jacket prints so the review does not stall on a sorting question that a single photograph would answer.
What about control cable in 18 AWG only?
It is bought in volume rather than in single lengths, because the copper is small relative to the jacket. A pallet of control cable is a normal lot. A single partial coil of it usually travels with other material from the same building.
Buying desk · Greater Houston
Got this cable in stock?
Tell us what is on the reel, where it sits and what condition it is in. A buyer reviews the lot, asks for photographs of the tag and the cut end, and comes back with a real answer — not a request to call a call centre.
- Cable type, size and voltage class
- Footage, reel count or weight, and condition
- City, and whether the site has loading equipment