12 electrical tips and tricks with 3M products.

From moisture, to loose wires, to fire hazards, you work tirelessly to avoid electrical failures. Yet, in your profession, you encounter them constantly.

What if you could work smarter – not harder – without compromising quality?

At 3M, this is our specialty. Our products are built upon four pillars: safety, reliability, quality, and efficiency. We apply our 46 core technologies to help improve your electrical maintenance jobs and electrical installation applications.

Here are our top electrical tips and tricks to help you get the most from your product applications.

Our best electrician tips of the trade to help get the most from your 3M products:

1. Does your electrical tape break in the cold? Does the temperature make it hard to pull off the roll? For strong weather performance choose  Scotch® Professional Grade Vinyl Electrical Tape Super 88. It’s designed to perform in temperatures ranging from -18°C to 105°C.

2. Can’t get your Scotch® Linerless Rubber Splicing Tape 130C to stick when you’re splicing solid dielectric cables? Make sure you’re applying the rubber splicing tape with the sticky side up.

3. Speed up splices or cable terminations by simplifying the task. There are no special tools required to install 3M™ Cold Shrink Products. This gives you easier and faster installation, and better long-term reliability.

4. Don’t substitute for standard silicon dielectric grease! Remember to use the red dielectric compound on all 3M™ Cold Shrink QS-III Splice installations.

5. For re-enterable connections, use Scotch® Varnished Cambric Tape – sticky side up – as base layer. This abrasion-resistant tape has excellent dielectric strength and can be used in areas where mechanical protection and puncture resistance is critical.

6. For easy installation and wide wire ranges, choose 3M™ Performance Plus Wire Connectors. The spring bites the wire quickly with less effort – helping make it easier to tighten for a hold that lasts.

7. Too many tools to keep track of? 3M™ Mechanical Shearbolt Connectors QCI Series eliminate the need for connector tools and dies.

8. Prevent breakers from tripping by making sure you don’t exceed maximum circuit lengths. TTS™ Self-Regulating Heating Cables use an advanced carbon polymer materials technology and adjust their heat output automatically as air temperature changes. This helps you avoid production lines shutting down.

9. Don’t forget to test your smoke detectors semi-annually. The 3M™ Smoke Detector Tester is a smokeless aerosol spray that tests the functionality of residential and commercial smoke alarms.

10. 3M™ Quick Drying Contact Cleaner helps to tackle precision cleaning jobs such as sensors, relays, motor controls, switches, contacts, electro-mechanical assemblies, circuit breakers, printed circuit boards, plugs, jacks and terminals. And, it leaves no residue!

11. Make your underground assets easier to find. 3M™ Dynatel™ Locator has built-in features that help locate the cable and pipe path and energized power cable, so you can track faster.

12. Use 3M™ Asset Tracking App to get real-time visibility of your assets. This tool helps you manage and track your assets, to improve the overall management of your project.

Need more expert electrical advice? Talk to a 3M expert.

Do you have a question we haven’t answered? To learn more about any of the products listed, or to troubleshoot a project with an expert like me, reach out to our team.

We are here to help!