Process Design and Optimisation
Comissioning CSS 2™
CSS 2 for monitoring of the cleanliness of the insulation during the production of XLPE insulated high and extra-high voltage cables.
The cleanliness of the insulation material is a primary quality charcteristic at the production of power cables for high and extra high voltage applications.
The entire XLPE-material is examined online for purity in the flow channel directly before the crosshead.
It is set up as quality control tool. The improvement of running time and cleanliness quality of different XLPE compounds for EHV application
Degassing optimisation
The main purpose of the degassing process for AC application is to remove methane. Methane is a gas that is created during the cross linking process and should be removed safely afterwards. After installation of the cables methane will only diffuse in the direction of the joints or terminations.
Certain companies recommend an upper limit of 30 ppm of methane.
The degassing process depends on many parameters.
Naturally the thickness of the complete insulation and the temperature play the most significant role. The temperature should be limited to the deformation temperature of the outer semi-conductive layer.
Ultrascreen™
Ultrascreen is an equipment measuring the thickness of all different layers inside the cable online from various angles.
We were involved in the start up of one of these equipments at a big cable maker.
In the first step he monitored only the accuracy of the measurement in correlation with the x-ray, where he saw differences.
Variation in the Ultrascreen measurement were afterwards correlated to overall cable testing results. With the help of the measurement we could locate potential cable faults much easier.
In the second step we regulated the extrusion conditions with these measurements and reduced the failures during testing significantly.
