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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

(fils connectés ensemble) en câblage volant

English translation:

(wires connected to each other) directly

Added to glossary by James A. Walsh
Oct 30, 2018 21:47
5 yrs ago
8 viewers *
French term

câblage volant

French to English Tech/Engineering Construction / Civil Engineering Technical Specifications - Wind Farm Upgrade
From the Technical Specifications of a public tender to upgrade a wind farm in Morocco.

This part of the document covers the specifications for installing LV cables inside equipment.

I’ve been googling it forever and just can’t determine what “câblage volant” actually means or how to render it in English.

Any help appreciated.

Context:

“Câbles Basse Tension

Le câblage BT à l’intérieur des équipements doit être réalisé de la façon suivante :

• Les faisceaux de fils électriques doivent être formés au moyen de colliers en PVC. Les faisceaux et les câbles doivent être fixés au châssis à intervalles réguliers et doivent être placés dans des goulottes largement dimensionnées ;

• Les longueurs des câbles doivent être aussi courtes que possible. Le Constructeur doit veiller cependant à imposer un minimum d’effort de traction sur les terminaisons des fils électriques et à ne soumettre en aucune circonstance les câbles et faisceaux de fils à de trop faibles rayons de courbure. Un jeu doit être laissé dans les liaisons aux équipements fixés sur rails ou sur charnières ;

• Chaque câble ou fil électrique doit être raccordé à une borne d’appareil ou à un bornier. Deux fils électriques ne peuvent pas être connectés à une même borne ou être connectés ensemble en câblage volant ;”
_____________________

Thanks in advance
Proposed translations (English)
4 -2 connected together "in mid air"
3 +1 flying-lead cable
4 flying or floating wiring
4 -1 (quick-connect) terminal adapter
3 -1 loose wiring
3 -1 no tapping of cables
Change log

Nov 6, 2018 00:27: James A. Walsh changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/141521">James A. Walsh's</a> old entry - "(connectés ensemble en) câblage volant "" to ""(connected to each other) directly ""

Nov 7, 2018 21:02: James A. Walsh changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/141521">James A. Walsh's</a> old entry - "câblage volant (connectés ensemble en câblage volant) "" to ""directly (directly connected to each other) ""

Nov 7, 2018 21:19: Tony M changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/141521">James A. Walsh's</a> old entry - "câblage volant (connectés ensemble en câblage volant) "" to ""[wires] directly (connected to each other directly) ""

Nov 7, 2018 23:48: James A. Walsh changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/14723">Tony M's</a> old entry - "fils connectés ensemble en câblage volant "" to ""wires connected to each other directly""

Discussion

James A. Walsh (asker) Nov 7, 2018:
@Johannes Already done! :)
Johannes Gleim Nov 7, 2018:
@ James If the asker prefer "connected to each other directly", why not enter this into the glossary. You have this option, too.
Tony M Nov 7, 2018:
@ Asker Not surprising, it's just informal 'engineer-speak' (y)
James A. Walsh (asker) Nov 7, 2018:
This term! It really proved to be such a headache to pin down with reliable references! And I spoke to the end client’s translation department on the phone about it loads. I told them the options I thought could work, including some of your suggestions on here (most notably David Sirett’s). They eventually got back to me and agreed that “connected to each other directly” was the best solution here, because they (French and English engineers) all agreed that they essentially understood it as two wires being connected to each other randomly or “in the air” (as Tony suggested). But “solution” is the operative word here, because none of us could actually pin it down with reliable references to justify it as an accepted “translation”.
Tony M Nov 6, 2018:
@ Asker Thanks, James!
There is soemthing counter-intuitive about the KudoZ system, in that you need to add comments to all 'rejected' suggestions BEFORE finally selecting the one you want; it is so easy to do it "out of sequence"!
Anyway, the only important thing is that the glossary entry should be correct!
Germaine Nov 1, 2018:
Ce n’est plus ma tasse de thé, mais finalement, il me semble que les "câbles volants" sont généralement des câbles temporaires ou des câbles ou fils raccordés au moyen d’une simple pince. Comme la phrase utilise EN câbles volants, je pense que la traduction appropriée pourrait tourner autour de "jumper wires". Ça reste à vérifier.
James A. Walsh (asker) Oct 31, 2018:
@ David Sirett I invite you to post your suggestion as a separate answer, please.
It is by far my preferred option so far, and if you post it I can enter it into the glossary properly.
Thanks.
James A. Walsh (asker) Oct 31, 2018:
@ Tony Absolutely! I wasn't at all happy with "freely" — that's why I posted here! Cheers ;)
Tony M Oct 31, 2018:
@ Asker I agree, David's suggestion of "...directly" is much the best, I wish he'd post it as a suggestion; I think your version with "freely" would be unwise, due to technical ambiguity and simply not being standard technical terminology.
James A. Walsh (asker) Oct 31, 2018:
Thanks for taking the time, folks! Good to know I'm not the only one having trouble nailing this one...
@David Sirett - I have to say, your suggested "connected to each other directly" is working best for me so far. This is my understanding too (my draft is "connected to each other freely"), but I find "directly" a better solution here as it coveys the idea of "no connection device/support used" more clearly.
Johannes Gleim Oct 31, 2018:
How to tap wires in the air If anybody likes to tap wires 'in the air' he needs connectors of the  quick disconnect adapters, twist-on wire connectors or the like. This is interdicted by 2 stipulations:
1) wires and cables must be routed in cable ducts,
2) each wire must be connected to it's own individual terminal.

Note: Laymen may also try to strip off wire insulation in the air and crimp or twist other stranded wires around. This is very unprofessional and dangerous, esp. if made manually without tools or solder.
Tony M Oct 31, 2018:
@ SafeTex You wrote::
"And if we translate literally and with "volant" as "flying", we get "flying cabling" which is nonsense. "
Oh deary, deary me! In what translation universe can we say "If a simplistic, slavishly-literal word-for-word translation doesn't work, we are entitled to assume a source text error"?!
To start with, one has to choose the right "literal translation" — another possiiblity here would be 'flying wiring', which certainly does have a valid technical meaning — though probably not one that is very helpful here.
As I havbe already said in my suggestion, the idea of 'volant' as 'something in mid air' refers to the fact that these outlawed connections are unsupported and not firmly anchored onto some mechanically-secure terminal block etc.

This is the sort of engineer-speak that, even though it is informal, accurately describes a general engineering notion.
David Sirett Oct 31, 2018:
avoid? "connected to each other directly" (just a variant on Tony's answer)
SafeTex Oct 31, 2018:
volant = piquant? In France, when you connect to steal electricity or to avoid running new wires, you "pique". And as voler and piquer both have very similar senses, I think the writer has wrongly tried to use "volant" as "câble piquant sur un autre câble"

Proposed translations

-2
8 hrs
French term (edited): connectés ensemble en câblage volant
Selected

connected together "in mid air"

I'm certain that's what it means, although this actual expression is a rather informal one; but I can't for the life of me think of a more formal technical expression for it! It is often difficult to find formal expressions for informal actions that are forbidden!

It means, of course, that where two cables must be joined, it must be achieved by bringing them both to some for of proper terminal block etc., and not just 'bodged' together with, say, a bit of choc-block dangling in mid air.

Of course, such connections might not be literally "in mid air" — it's possible they might beassociated with the main wiring loom etc. No proper electrician would dream of working like this, so the fact they see fit to mention it suggests they may be used to less-than-official methods being used!
Another translation might be "on the fly", but I think this works less well for wiring, as we tend to think of it more in connection with moving objects.

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Note added at 9 hrs (2018-10-31 07:37:13 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I think David Sirett's discussion suggestion of "connected directly to each other" would be a very good solution here. The implication being "without using any formal intermediate connecting device".


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 1 hr (2018-10-31 23:15:43 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Thanks, Asker! Having experienced many of the situations arising in some KudoZ questiosn lmyself, both as a practising engineer and mlore recently, in my FR > EN translation work, I think I have the exposure and technical background to have a pretty firm idea of what it's about. In many of these situations, as here, you really do have to "get inside" the head of an engineer to udnerstand what they're gtting at; this is aprticualrly relevant when trying to cover all possible bases for things that are NO allowed.

I agree that David's idea is best of all.
Note from asker:
Hi, Tony. From early on in my research, I was very much leaning towards "no intermediate connecting device used" in my understanding of "connectés ensemble en câblage volant", so thanks for confirming that so resolutely. I also think David Sirett's suggestion of "connected to each other directly" would be a very good solution here.
As an aside, I must also personally thank you for all your invaluable help here on KudoZ. This job I'm working on is 35k words and the terminology is proving to be a total nighmare. So I've been consulting on here a LOT, and am getting so many useful hits from your KudoZ entries &mdash; kudos!
Oh crap, Tony! I accidentally chose Marco Solinas' answer instead of yours! Totally thought I was choosing your answer until I hit the Submit button! I'l contact ProZ and hopefully they can change this for me. Even posted a public message to Marco that was intended for you..!
Message intended for you accidentally posted on Marco's answer: "Thanks again, Tony. I had to give the points to someone, and since David didn’t rise to the challenge, and I found your explanations so useful, well, there you go &mdash; that’s KudoZ!"
Nice edit of the glossary entry, Tony! Much clearer. I delivered this nightmarishly technical translation a couple of hours ago, and frankly, I'm braindead after all the research! 14 days on the trot... A celebratory glass of wine is being had! Cheers!
Peer comment(s):
disagree SafeTex : "Mid air" gives the idea of overhead cables but this text is referring to cables even installed in cabinets and racks. I'm also pretty sure that "volant" here is "steal (piquer) and not "fly".
47 mins
As I was at pains to point out (and hinted by the quotes), I'm not suggesting literally 'mid-air' — but "without proper support", if you like. I cannot conceive of any situations where one could talk of 'stealing cables'.
disagree Germaine : Makes no sense. On interdit simplement les raccordements par épissures/dominos/pinces.// NO. And not in specs nor on the Web either. This doesn’t even describe 1 connection// Engineers, and the contractors reading their specs, are not really mind-reader.
10 hrs
Technicaly, to an engineer, it DOES make sense; yes, of course that's what they mean: but they're trying to find an all-embracing, non-specific term for ALL that type of connection. / That's the whole point, it takes an engineer to understand ;-)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I ended up consulting the client on this one. Told them the options available to me. The client's French office contacted the client's UK office, and between them they approved the following translation: “Deux fils électriques ne peuvent pas être connectés à une même borne ou être <b>connectés ensemble en câblage volant ;</b>” “Two electrical wires cannot be connected to the same terminal or be <b>connected to each other directly;</b>” __________ Thanks for taking the time, people! Thanks again, Tony. I had to give the points to someone, and since David didn’t rise to the challenge, and I found your explanations so useful, well, there you go &mdash; that’s KudoZ!"
-1
13 mins

loose wiring

See this multilingual document (page 10 for the English, Page 58 for the French) https://autorem.fr/Docs/Danfoss/VLT® Micro/Manual/Multi lang...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-10-30 23:01:53 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

You could say that the two cables cannot be connected loosely of loosely wired together. I think there are many ways to express this. What is important is the idea of something "loose" (or appropriate synonym).
Note from asker:
Hi Marco, thanks - I didn't see this in all my research, but saw something similar (freely). However, I couldn't make that or this work for my context. How could it be worded for: "Deux fils électriques ne peuvent pas être connectés ensemble en câblage volant"? Because "...cannot be connected together in loose wiring" doesn't make sense. Think about it, what does "in loose wiring" even mean?!
Thanks again, Tony. I had to give the points to someone, and since David didn’t rise to the challenge, and I found your explanations so useful, well, there you go &mdash; that’s KudoZ!
Hi, Marco. I accidentally chose your answer as the most helpful! I meant to choose Tony M's answer, and have submitted a query to ProZ to resolve the issue. Sorry!
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : Not normal technical language, and would in any case tend towards ambiguity.
8 hrs
Something went wrong...
+1
4 hrs

flying-lead cable

In this case. Another meaning is jumper cable but it doesn’t fit the context in here.
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : A 'flying lead' is something quite different: basically, a cable that is permanently attached to some piece of equipment, so it has to be externally connected by means of some other device.
3 hrs
agree GILLES MEUNIER
3 days 5 hrs
agree Kim Metzger : https://www.vpc.com/products/flying_leads/
4 days
Something went wrong...
-1
9 hrs

no tapping of cables

Please also see my discussion point on "voler" v "piquer"
Reference:

https://www.energyvortex.com/energydictionary/tap.html

https://www.electronicdesign.com/meters/e-meters-offer-multiple-ways-combat-electricity-theft-and-tampering

Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : Wild over-interpretation! Cannot assume S/T error. 'volant' in technical terms more often = flying, and 'piquer' is informal for 'nick', whereas 'piquage' is formal technical language for a 'dérivation'. And we wouldn't say "tapping of cables" — 'into'.
30 mins
As the asker said, he just can't find "cablage volant" so we are justified to assume a typo, or poorly written French. And if we translate literally and with "volant" as "flying", we get "flying cabling" which is nonsense.
Something went wrong...
-1
13 hrs

(quick-connect) terminal adapter

Normally, "câblage volant" means a floating or flying cabling or wiring. But this is excluded by the 3rd phrase "Les faisceaux et les câbles doivent être fixés au châssis à intervalles réguliers et doivent être placés dans des goulottes largement dimensionnées". On the other hand I cannot imagine really that any serious electrician would consider tapping any wire "in the air". In contrast to this, each wire should be terminated separately.

Background: quick-connect terminal adapters may cause injuries or risk of fire, if not installed meticulously and strain relieved considering heavy currents from the PV panels. Loose quick-connects have high contact resistances, causing overheats and/or sparks.

I think that this stipulation shall prevent use of terminal adapters. Contrarly to this,

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2018-10-31 11:41:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

One example is shown below:

AMP - TE CONNECTIVITY  726308-1  Specialty Terminal, Faston 250 Series, Quick Connect, Quick Disconnect Adapter
https://www.newark.com/amp-te-connectivity/726308-1/terminal...

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Note added at 15 hrs (2018-10-31 13:29:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Another means for tapping wires in the air:

Twist-on wire connectors are a type of electrical connector used to fasten two or more low-voltage (or extra-low-voltage) electrical conductors. They are widely used in North America in residential, commercial and industrial building power wiring.

Twist-on connectors are also known as wire nuts, wire connectors, cone connectors, or thimble connectors. One trade name for such connectors, Marrette, is derived from the name of their inventor (see History) and, in Canada, this type of connector is often referred to as a marrette regardless of the actual brand of the product.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twist-on_wire_connector
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : Over-interpretation — extrapolation well beyond what the source text actually says. You are seeking to make a very general notion into something much more specific, which even if it were to be right in some cases, would be wrong in many more.
59 mins
Too harsh acc. MHO. My proposal coincides with your considerations by specifying the means for connecting flying wires. If no terminal adapter is used, no wire can be attached to the same terminal. This quite obviously.
Something went wrong...
1 day 12 hrs

flying or floating wiring

Another more general approach, not specifying means for tapping as with my other proposal:

But first the literal translation:

• Each cable or electrical wire must be connected to a device terminal or terminal block. Two electrical wires cannot be connected to the same terminal or connected together in flying/floating wiring;

Qu’est-ce que un « câblage volant » et son contraire ?

Un câblage volant ne peut pas être généralisé à grande échelle. Il devient rapidement encombrant et gênant. Il est de ce fait soumis à une usure plus rapide.
Il faut donc mettre en place un système de câblage structuré qui devra être :
• Permanent, c'est à dire fixe et stable, qui ne devra pas être déplacé pour éviter l’usure, qui ne se croise pas avec les câbles électriques sources de perturbation.
• Évolutif, c'est à dire qui s’adaptera à tous les besoins futurs. L'ajout ou le déplacement de PC ne doit pas entraîner le déplacement du câble et ne doit pas nécessiter de trouver un nouveau cheminement.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

Blocs de jonction multiconducteurs enfichables Push-in pour la construction modulaire d'installations de commande
:
Caractéristiques principales
• Raccordement Push-in
• Couplages modulaires pour profilés, découpe de paroi et câblage volant
• Zone d'enfichage COMBI standardisée
https://www.phoenixcontact.com/online/portal/lu?1dmy&urile=w...

- Cat 5e : débit 100Mbit/s, mais tu peux aller jusqu'à 1Gigabits/s avec un câble de qualité et bon raccordement. Largement suffisant, à l'heure actuelle en câblage volant (raccordement d'un pc à la prise murale par exemple).
https://www.developpez.net/forums/d1450550/systemes/reseaux/...

10.1-Câblage
10.1.1-Séparation des courants forts et des courants faibles.
10.1.2-Proximité d’émetteur récepteur radio.
10.1.3-Fixation des câbles sur un élément stable (câbles volants interdits).
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

DIRECTION INDICATORS Connect to the RED/GREEN wire and to the GREEN/BLACK wire located in the flying wiring harness placed behind the fuse box.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

EC-TYPE EXAMINATION CERTIFICATE
:
Interconnections between the electrical components in each part of the enclosure shell are made by means of a flying wiring loom. Adverse mechanical loading of the wiring loom is prevented by means of a restraint loop comprising an insulated stainless steel cable, the ends of which are anchored respectively in each part of the enclosure housing.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

An ungrounded floating wiring system can produce another serious problem. If the first ground fault is an arcing fault instead of a solid connection, it will react with the system distributed capacitance to produce serious overvoltages. In one plant, an arcing fault on an ungrounded system damaged 58 motors.
https://books.google.de/books?id=YqrbBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118&lpg=P...

yes this is quite normal if there is a significant length of disconnected wire in close proximity to the live cable, as there will be capacitive coupling, typically 100pico-farads per m for the "T&E" cable used in house wiring. Don’t be alarmed though, the capacitance is a high impedance and the voltage will collapse as soon as any current is drawn, so there is no shock risk from voltages induced in short lengths of 'floating' wiring. The same effect can cause fluorescent lamps to flicker even when off if the switch wiring is long.
https://community.screwfix.com/threads/mains-tester-on-earth...

And if it is absolutely necessary to make changes during operation, a technician may have to improvise with floating wiring. Incorrect wiring or the lack of suitable cables will inevitably complicate the job.
Maintaining continuity of EMC shielding and environmental ingress protection are other important considerations when connecting external equipment to the control system.
http://www.pbsionthenet.net/article/45863/Panel-interfacing-...
Peer comment(s):
neutral Tony M : Your refs. are using 'floating' in 2 quite different ways, only one of which is approximately relevant here, and equates in fact pretty much to my notion of "in mid-air".
6 days
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