The design of safer street furniture and roadside structures includes a range of available electrical disconnection systems which are essential in ensuring both both post and environment become voltage free after damage or impact with a post.

Breakaway plugs offer a physical resonse at the source and moment of damage to a post where live cables may be torn of tethered. This safety measure concerns not only the occupants of the vehicle involved in a collision with a post or column but also the emergency services personnel who attend the road traffic accident and the subsequent maintenance operatives who manage and repair the post and site.

IPL group promote the use of Molex connectors for both passive safety applications and standard post installation.

The Molex plug is pre-assembled to cable lengths defined by the customer. The plug is IP68 rated and exceeds “waterproof” demands as a true sealed connector system. It includes built-in tether to attach plug to post and an integrated cap which remains attached and can not be misplaced. Alltogether this saves money and time on site and ensures factory production control and quality.

In passive safe post installations, the complete cabling system must not interfere with the impact performance of the passively safe classified post. In tests carried out on traffic signal posts installed in RS115 sockets, both the armoured cable and disconnection plug did not interfere with the clean breakaway of the post.

The Molex plug can also be used on standard (non-passive safe) post installations. In conjunction with the RETENTION SYSTEM, it offers improved maintenance and safety benefits and allows individual traffic signals or other electrical posts to be isolated and easily removed. The cable and plug disconnection system when fitted at the access door of the post allows operators to simply pull the plug, disconnect the cables, remove the post from the RETENTION SYSTEM and pull the cable back into the RS socket. The RS socket is then sealed with the plug provided and the site is safe for public use and ready for the next post installation.