What Is The Difference between Communication Cement Pole And Anticorrosive Wood Pole in Use?

1 Introduction

Before 1980s, preserved wood poles (hereinafter referred to as "wood poles") were mostly used in communication lines. At that time, wooden poles were often called tarred poles because the preservation of wooden poles was treated with tar at post offices or long-distance service stations.

After 1980s, the demand for electricity poles for communication construction became explosive growth, and the production of wood poles is limited, at that time by the limitations of the preservation process, the service life of wood poles is shorter, the maintenance cost is higher, so in many geographical areas of the cement poles soon replaced the wood poles. After that, in addition to log resource-rich regions (such as the eastern provinces), other regions of the new pole road rarely use wood poles.

In recent years, with the rise of labor costs, in mountainous areas or other traffic inconvenience, due to the cement poles are difficult to transport to the location of the pole, and the cement poles are heavier, poles from the sub-tunneling point manually carried to the location of the pole will produce higher handling costs, so the lighter weight of the wood poles are back in the project began to use.

2 Introduction to cement poles and wooden poles

Communication cement poles are usually ring-shaped concrete poles, and the longitudinal force reinforcement in the pole is prestressed steel. The shape of the pole is conical, taper 1:75, a little diameter is generally 150mm.

Wooden poles are mostly made of camphor pine, ponytail pine, larch and fir. Wooden pole diameter requirements are more relaxed, usually, 6.0 meters high ~ 10.0 meters of wood poles, its slightly diameter range of 12cm ~ 16cm. wood poles on the taper generally do not require.

The current wood poles of the preservation of the general use of oil-impregnated method, is to meet the conditions of the log poles by peeling, drying, pressurized oil-impregnated drying made. Antiseptic oil is usually a mixture of anthracene oil and coal tar. The oil-impregnated depth of wood poles is generally not less than 15mm, and the service life is generally not less than 25 years; if the oil-impregnated depth is insufficient, the service life of wood poles will be shortened.

3 The difference between in the project use of cement poles and wood poles 

(1) Pole weight and construction difficulty

Taking 8 meters pole as an example, the weight of cement pole is about 400kg, while wood pole is only 80kg. because the weight of wood pole is much smaller than cement pole, so the construction difficulty and construction cost of wood pole are lower.

(2) Service life

The service life of cement pole is not less than 60 years, and the service life of wood pole is not less than 25 years. However, the service life of wooden poles may be more than 60 years if the selection of materials is suitable and the anti-corrosion measures are appropriate.

(3) Pole strength

Theoretically, the bending resistance of wood poles is much better than that of cement poles, but wood poles will gradually decay in the course of use. From the point of view of engineering practice, the strength of both types of poles meets the needs of communication construction.

(4) Product quality consistency

The quality consistency of cement poles is high, while wood poles have large differences in tree species, wood defects, pole diameter, weight and so on.

(5) Fixing of hanging and pulling wires on poles

Suspension lines are usually fixed on cement poles with hoops and cleats, and usually fixed on wood poles with nails and cleats. Due to the wire in the wood pole with nails need to be fixed in advance in the wood pole drilling, thus increasing the construction difficulty, so the project is often also used in the hoop method of fixing the wire, but need to pay attention to: wood pole diameter difference is large, according to the wood pole diameter selection of the appropriate size of the hoop.

Tie line in the cement pole is usually fixed by the tie line hoop, in the wood pole is usually fixed by the pole guard plate. Wooden poles due to the taper is not sure, the material is flimsy, should not be used to pull the wire hoop fixed.

(6) Pole price

The difference in the price of poles is related to the region, but the overall difference is not large. In most regions, the price of cement poles and wood poles with the same pole height is comparable.

4 Conclusions and recommendations

Both cement and wood poles can be used in communication projects. Cement poles have a longer life and high consistency of product quality, but they are heavier and suitable for use in construction sections with convenient transportation. Wooden poles are lighter and less costly, and are suitable for use in inconveniently trafficked segments, temporary pole road construction, or in geographic areas with abundant log resources. In areas with very strict forest pest control requirements, forest management may not allow the use of wood poles.

The quality of wood power poles is less consistent, and the quality of wood power poles should be carefully inspected prior to construction. However, the inconsistency in the quality of wood poles is not an inherent characteristic of wood poles, but rather the result of so many years of lesser adoption of wood poles by operators and overly lax requirements for metrics in product standards. For example, the United States, regardless of power or communication lines, still use a large number of wood poles, obviously, as long as the product quality requirements are appropriate, the performance of wood poles to fully meet the needs of the use.

Currently, China's forest coverage has increased from 12% before the reform and opening up to about 24%, wood is no longer a scarce resource. With the labor cost increasing year by year, the necessity of using wood power poles in the construction of pole road is also increasing. The consistency of quality and longevity of wood poles could well be dramatically improved if operators were to impose certain constraints on the standards of wood poles at the time of procurement.