Dimension index · GCTE · GCEB · GCCE
Cold shrink size chart: application range, not nominal size
Sixteen codes on three charts: 8 to 94 mm on the tube, 13 to 80 mm on the cap, 17 to 50 mm across a crutch.
Three charts, one selection column
GCCE-03 is supplied at 45 mm, recovers to 22 mm free, and is specified for 23 to 38 mm. Size against the third figure. The two diameters are the ends of a stretch the factory has already put into the rubber, and neither is a fit.
Nothing is published either side of the band. No derating note, no partial-seal figure, no looser second range. A diameter between two codes sits between two guarantees. Take the code whose band contains it; where no band does, there is no part.
The three sheets do not share a notation. Tube and cap carry one diameter and one length, subscript s as supplied, f after free recovery. The breakout adds a lowercase pair for the fingers and flips Lf from a minimum to a maximum. Same manufacturer, same March 2025 issue line, opposite qualifier on one symbol. Check which chart you are reading before quoting a length.
On one millimetre axis the range is narrower than sixteen codes suggests. The tube reaches 8 to 94 mm, the close-ended cap 13 to 80 mm, the breakout 17 to 50 mm across the crutch and 10 to 17 mm on each finger. Below 8 mm and above 94 mm there is no cold shrink part here at all.
Inside those limits the tube leaves no gap: 8–15, 10–20, 14–30, 17–33, 25–46, 32–63 and 43–94 run continuously, and the five cap bands do the same from 13 to 80. The breakout does not. Two-core is continuous from 17 to 45 mm, four-core only from 24 to 50 mm. A 20 mm four-core body falls under every four-core code charted, and the two-core codes that would take the diameter have the wrong number of fingers.
Length is fixed, and on the tube it is fixed at the wrong end for small work. Lf is 500 mm minimum on all seven codes, so the sleeve for an 8 mm connection is as long as the one for 94 mm. Neither tube sheet offers a shorter code or a cut length. Settle the covered length before ordering: recovery starts the instant the core comes out, and none of the four sheets describes repositioning or re-expanding a recovered part.
Fifteen of this manufacturer's 175 datasheets print an explicit offer of customised dimension, thickness, length and colour. None of the four cold shrink sheets does. So the published cold shrink range is the sixteen codes below, and anything outside them has to be asked for and confirmed in writing rather than read off a chart. No price, lead time, minimum quantity or stock position is published for any of it.
Cold shrink tube: GCTE in EPDM, GCTS in silicone
| EPDM code | Silicone code | Ds (min.) | Df (max.) | Lf (min.) | Application range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCTE 20/7 | GCTS 20/7 | 20 | 7 | 500 | 8 – 15 |
| GCTE 25/9 | GCTS 25/9 | 25 | 9 | 500 | 10 – 20 |
| GCTE 35/13 | GCTS 35/13 | 35 | 13 | 500 | 14 – 30 |
| GCTE 40/16 | GCTS 40/16 | 40 | 16 | 500 | 17 – 33 |
| GCTE 53/24 | GCTS 53/24 | 53 | 24 | 500 | 25 – 46 |
| GCTE 70/31 | GCTS 70/31 | 70 | 31 | 500 | 32 – 63 |
| GCTE 104/42 | GCTS 104/42 | 104 | 42 | 500 | 43 – 94 |
Millimetres throughout. The EPDM sheet of March 2025 and the silicone sheet of August 2025 agree figure for figure and part only on the prefix, so name the compound in words on the order. The two are compared property by property on cold shrink tubing.
Cold shrink breakout: GCEB, two diameters to satisfy at once
| Code No. | No. of core | Ds (min.) | Crutch application range | ds (min.) | Finger application range | Lf (max.) | lf (max.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCEB2 - 1 | 2 | 47 | Ø17 – Ø30 | 20 | Ø10 – Ø14 | 50 | 30 |
| GCEB2 - 2 | 2 | 65 | Ø23 – Ø45 | 25 | Ø12 – Ø17 | 65 | 30 |
| GCEB4 - 1 | 4 | 60 | Ø24 – Ø40 | 20 | Ø10 – Ø14 | 50 | 30 |
| GCEB4 - 2 | 4 | 70 | Ø32 – Ø50 | 25 | Ø12 – Ø17 | 65 | 30 |
Two bands sit behind one code and both have to be met. Measure over the sheath where the crutch will sit, then over one core above the split. A 38 mm four-core body with 16 mm cores is inside GCEB4-1 on the body and outside it on the fingers; GCEB4-2 satisfies both. Two and four cores are the only counts charted, and no finger band reaches past Ø17. Figures as printed on the Cold Shrink Breakout datasheet, Issue 1 of March 2025. The crutch as a subject — how it is installed, how it fails — sits at cablebreakoutboots.com, a sister reference from this site's publisher. The millimetres are indexed here.
Cold shrink end cap: GCCE, and the only recovered wall in the range
| Code No. | Ds (min.) | Df (max.) | Lf (min.) | Tf (min.) | Application range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCCE - 01 | 25 | 12 | 60 | 3.3 | 13 – 20 |
| GCCE - 02 | 35 | 16 | 75 | 3.4 | 17 – 30 |
| GCCE - 03 | 45 | 22 | 80 | 3.4 | 23 – 38 |
| GCCE - 04 | 55 | 22 | 80 | 3.4 | 23 – 48 |
| GCCE - 05 | 90 | 45 | 100 | 3.4 | 46 – 80 |
GCCE-03 and GCCE-04 both close to 22 mm from a 23 mm floor. They part only on supplied diameter and on how far up they reach, so 23 to 38 mm is in range for either. Tf is the single recovered-wall figure anywhere in cold shrink; the tube and breakout charts carry no thickness column. One caution on the floor: the sheet's feature list opens the range at 10 mm, its chart starts at 13, and the drawing label beside it reads GCCE1 Ø 13-20. Quote 13. These dimensions are indexed here because this is the network's only cold-shrink dimension page.
One breakout, three sources, two different upper temperatures
GCEB appears on two of the manufacturer's pages whose selection charts and property tables match figure for figure, and whose feature lists give upper operating limits 15 °C apart. The datasheet PDF, Issue 1 of March 2025, agrees with the higher of the two. Two sources to one is not a settled figure, so no operating temperature for GCEB is printed on this page and none should be quoted from it. Ask for the limit in writing before a specification leans on it. The tube and end cap sheets carry no such split.
The notation, as the three charts actually print it
- Ds
- Inside diameter as supplied, printed as a minimum. What the part is held open to on its core. Nothing is ever fitted to it.
- Df
- Inside diameter after free recovery, printed as a maximum: what the rubber reaches with nothing inside it. On the end cap chart every band floor sits exactly 1 mm above it — 12 to 13, 16 to 17, 22 to 23, 22 to 23, 45 to 46.
- ds
- Finger diameter as supplied, on the breakout chart only. That sheet's legend reads D body diameter, d finger diameter, because a crutch part has two and specifies both.
- Lf
- Length after free recovery. A minimum on the tube and the cap, a maximum on the breakout: identical characters, opposite qualifiers, on sheets carrying the same issue month.
- lf
- Finger length after free recovery, breakout only, 30 mm maximum on all four codes whatever the core count. A finger that must seal further down the core needs something else over it.
- Tf
- Thickness after free recovery, 3.3 to 3.4 mm, on the end cap chart alone. That sheet's legend expands D, s and f but never T. Thickness is the reading consistent with the magnitude and with the other charts; the manufacturer has not confirmed it.
- Application range
- The band of substrate diameters a code is specified for. The only column to select against, and the only one with no published behaviour on either side of it.
- Crutch
- The point where a multi-core cable divides into its cores. A breakout seals that transition; a tube and a cap have no geometry for it.
Following a dimension out of this page
- Cold shrink tubing, GCTE and GCTSThe two compounds set against each other, property by property and method by method
- Cold shrinkCore-pull recovery, the 1.1 kV ceiling, and the four parts the range contains
- Heat shrink size chartWhere sizing reverts to recovered ID and recovered wall, and a ratio starts to mean something
- Heat shrink or cold shrinkWhat decides it when one diameter is served by both
- Shrink tube materialsEPDM and silicone against polyolefin, on temperature and chemistry
- What to send with an enquiryThe figures that turn a measured diameter into a code
Send the widest diameter, then the one behind it
Two measurements and one word pick a code off these charts. Diameter over the connection, cut end or crutch at its fattest point. Diameter of the cable, or of a single core, behind it. Then whether the part must be close-ended. On a multi-core add the core count, since two and four are the only counts charted.