CHAPTER - 1 INTRODUCTION 1.

HISTORY OF CABLE DEVELOPMENT Development of Electric Cables started way back in 1880, when unvulcanized natural rubber insulated cables followed by vulcanized rubber and vulcanized bitumen insulated cables came into existence. Those cables were developed for low-tension application. Unscreened medium voltage cables were developed and introduced after 10 years. Use of fine quality paper as insulation of medium voltage cables came into being which got popularized as paper insulated cables. It took 15 more years to develop first screened cable of 33 KV rating. Until 1930, rubber insulated cables for low tension power and control cables and mineral oil impregnated non draining type paper insulated cables were used for medium and high tension power cables. This combination of low and high tension cables as well as Control Cables were extensively used throughout the world. Cables laid in many countries were being closely studied for their performance during application. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) was tried in control cables in the year 1930. Simultaneously oil filled cables became increasingly popular in developed countries and installation of 275 KV cable was done successfully in France in the year 1959. Improvement on the draining characteristics of impregnated paper gave birth to MIND Cables (mass impregnated non drainage type cables). The viscosity of oil-rosin impregnant at elevated temperature was the result of successful experimentation. PVC became increasingly successful in power cables as an insulant over coming the limitation of manufacturing cables with rubber insulation. As a result of this, all general purpose cables got manufactured in large scale with PVC as insulation material. Both Copper and Aluminium were the conducting medium, though use of copper was popular. Oil filled 400 KV cable was manufactured in the year 1969 in France. PVC insulated cables got application as telephone, instrumentation and other special purpose use. Synthetic rubbers (elastomers) like Butyl, EPR, Polychloroprene, Silicone and many more were used in many special purpose cable development where high heat resistance, oil resistance, weather/temp. resistance etc. were the criteria. The types and range of cables became wider with newer application getting introduced regularly. The year 1970 brought XLPE (cross linked polyethylene) insulated cables for medium and high voltage application. This Polymeric solid dielectric was such a valuable discovery that enabled designers to overcome all limitations of paper insulated cables. 1970 to 1985 was the period of XLPE cable development and replacement of paper insulated cables through out the

world. 10 KV to 240 KV cables were developed in this period. Significant quantities of 10 KV to 33 KV cables were installed using crosslinkable Polyethylene based compounds for insulation and semi conducting screens. Sioplas insulated cables, fire retardant cables, low corrosive gas emission cables, low smoke emission cables, improved telephone cables, screened signaling cables, auto-cables, data cables etc. were developed subsequently and introduced for commercial application. Now, with the above development in place, besides Aluminium and Copper as conductor material, varieties of solid polymer insulation and sheathing materials are available to design and introduce new varieties of cables.

2. CONDUCTORS Conductors primarily are of two categories: 2.1 Non-insulated (Bare) conductors for overhead transmission line: These are mainly of standard Aluminium, Aluminium alloy, Aluminium conductor with steel reinforcement. Very high strength, low sagging are the characteristics designed in these conductors besides having good current carrying capacity. Stranded conductors in this category are designed to form various constructions and are designated properly. In case of Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR), the steel wire forms the central core of the conductor on which Aluminium wires are laid. To reduce transmission losses taking place in such conductors Aerial bunched cables have been developed subsequently. Instead of a single conductor, a bunch of insulated conductors are laid to form the transmission line (i.e. in rural electrification net work). Insulation materials in such cables are designed to take care of possibility of degradation due to environmental stresses (like UV radiation present in sunlight). 2.2 Insulated conductors for transmission and distribution lines. Aluminium and copper normally are the materials used for making conductors under this category. Because of excellent electrical conductivity coupled with ease of manufacturing conductors, copper used to be unique choice as the conductor material for all types of cables for more than 50 years. International electro technical commission established an International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS) with copper of resistivity 1.724 Cm at 20 C as 100%. This 100% IACS value ensures pure copper ideal for electrical application. 100% IACS copper was found to have

adequate mechanical strength and flexibility, which supplemented its usefulness in conductor making. The wide fluctuation in copper prices and its price rise has given birth to Aluminium as the next choice as conductor material in the year 1950. The mechanical strength of Aluminium metal was inferior compared to copper and its hardness remained to be a factor of concern. Under identical condition, the conductivity of Aluminium was found to be 61% to that of copper, though its specific gravity was one-third that of copper. Current ratings of Aluminium cables are generally found to be 78%-80% that of copper cables of same conductor size. Because of economic advantages, all technical difficulties were overcome during manufacturing of conductors. Designers took adequate care in calculating the electrical requirements while designing equivalent Aluminium conductors as replacements to copper conductors. Subsequently an electrical conductivity (EC) grade of 99.5% pure Aluminium was decided to be used in all types of cable manufacturing. With Aluminium and copper forming the major materials for conductor making, the types of conductors got popular were (a) Solid Circular Conductor (b) Circular Stranded Conductor (c) Circular Stranded Compacted Conductor (d) Sector Shaped Stranded Compacted Conductor (e) Flexible Circular Conductor (f) A combination of Sector shaped and circular stranded compacted conductor (Milliken Conductors). The above types of conductors got used in cables covering almost all application. Besides these (a) bunched conductors with tinned copper material found use especially for rubber insulated cables and (b) copper clad Aluminium conductor which was tried as a substitute of Aluminium conductors for flexible application. Such conductors, though constructed solid up to 1.5 mm2 and stranded up to 10mm2 did not become popular. For low tension power cables, solid, stranded circular and stranded shaped (compacted) conductors are generally used. For medium and high tension cables, mostly circular stranded compacted conductors are used. The configuration followed for stranded conductor making consist of a central wire on which concentric layers of 6,12,18,24,30,36 and 42 are found to build up desired cross-section. Usually layers are provided with alternate direction of lay to make a conductor tight. For compacted conductors, layer wise compaction is done and the outermost layer becomes bright, smooth and practically gap-free. 3. TYPES OF CABLES Cables are of many types based primarily on their application. Some of these are: a) House Wiring Cables: Till the advent of PVC as a cable insulation/sheathing material, this oldest type of cable was manufactured using copper conductor (solid) lapped with varnished cotton tapes or, unvulcanised rubber or cotton braided and varnished. With PVC being the insulation/sheath material, the two types of

b)

construction of house wires became popular (i) PVC insulated and sheathed, circular copper, 1,2 and 3 core cables and (ii) only PVC insulated, Circular copper, single or bunched multicore cables. Such cable constructions are still predominantly being used everywhere. The cables are rated for 1 KV maximum and cores are identified by coloured insulation with black or, grey as outer sheath colour. Wiring System Cables: These cables are used for bringing power supply to home. Single core or, Circular multicore Copper/Aluminium (Stranded/solid) conductor, PVC/elastomer insulated 1100 V grade, PVC/elastomer sheathed cables are most commonly used Flat 2 and 3 core constructions are also used in this category. These cables may have a bare earth continuity conductor (ECC) or, not. Wiring system cables are made using 1 mm2 to 35mm2 conductor. cables are mostly unarmoured. The

c)

Control Cables: ontrol Cables are used for powering control equipments and find use mostly in industries. These are multicore copper cables with PVC/elastomer as insulation, inner and outer sheathed with PVC/elastomer compound. They may have armoured/unarmoured construction. The voltage grade is 1100V. In control cables, the cores are bunched systematically and may be either colour or number coded. The no. of cores may be as high as 61 and beyond based on requirement. Cables for Railways: he cables used in Railways are either meant for locomotives and rolling stocks or, for signaling purpose, besides power cables. The locomotive cables are mostly single core cables used in ducts or conduits. The highly flexible nature of these cables call for use of tinned bunched copper conductors with elastomer insulation and sheath. The protection from heat, flame, oil and other hazards are additional requirements besides high flexibility. The voltage grade may be of 1.1 KV or higher. For signaling purpose, screened/unscreened PVC/Elastomer insulated, Copper conductor, steel armoured PVC/Elastomer sheathed cables are used. They are of multicore construction and are buried underground. Special protection from flame and corrosive environment are sometimes additionally designed.

d)

e)

Cables for Ships & Shipyards: The cables under this category are used for distribution, lighting, control equipment and offshore oil installation services. Because of safety regulations and hazards, the cables under this category are treated as one type of special cables. Based on exact application, the sizes of conductors vary from 1.5 mm2 to 185 mm2 and are primarily of copper. Use of PVC is limited, where as EPR forms the major insulating

material with PCP or CSP as the sheathing material. Cables may be of armoured or unarmoured type with voltage grade ranging from 1.1 KV to 11 KV. The temperature of operation ranges from -30c to 90c. Special requirement include high flexibility, resistance to hazardous atmosphere like oil, acid, saline water, heat, flame and corrosive gases. Besides IEC standard, standards and specifications devised by shipping agencies as regulatory bodies are to be referred while designing cables. f) Mining Cables: Three main types of cables are in use under the category Mining Cables. i) ii) iii) Cables used in the distribution network for power supply to mines. Trailing cables, i.e. unarmoured flexible cables for supplying power to coal cutting machines. Pliable wire armoured/steel wire armoured, flexible cables for supplying power to coal conveying and loading machines, remote control gear, coal face lighting and movable transformers. Auxiliary multicore control cables are also used for large mining machines. Unarmoured flexible but robust cables for power supply to hand-held shot hole drilling machines. In all these categories, mostly copper is used as conductor. Type (i) is PVC insulated, copper conductor, armoured (specific armour resistance is desired) and PVC sheathed cable and are of 1.1 KV grade, size may go up to 300mm2. Coal cutting trailing cables are designed to be very tough as these undergo trailing operation. A combination of high mechanical strength and flexibility make the construction special. The cables are designated for 3 phase operation and consist of 3 individually screened power cores, an earthing conductor and a pilot conductor. 3 & 4 core construction have also been developed subsequently. The cables and meant for 1.1 KV application. Copper conductor of size 16 to 120 mm2 with EPR insulation and PCP/CSP outer sheath is the construction. Pliable wire armoured cables find application in supplies to machinery in open cast mines, quarries, cranes, dredgers, excavators, tunneling machinery. These cables have voltage rating from 1.1 KV to 11 KV for single or 3 phase supplies. Copper conductor ranges from 2.5 mm2 to 150 mm2, EPR insulated and PCP/CSP sheathings are used. With copper wire braiding, pliable wire armour and tough rubber sheath, these cables become very heavy and need extreme care during handling. g) Welding Cables: These cables are used to connect the secondary side (High current) of the welding transformer to the welding electrode holder. The cables are very

iv)

widely used through out the world. The design of such cables have to consider that the cables are meant for high current and low voltage application. Normally these are single core cables with bunched copper or Aluminium conductor covered with a tough general purpose or heat resistant elastomer cover to be used for 70 C and 85 C conditions. Normally 25 mm2 to 120 mm2 is the range of conductor with tough natural rubber or tough PCP rubber compound. h) Telecommunication Cables: For speech and data transmission, paired cables are used which are known as telecommunication cables. Plain copper conductor of 0.9 mm is covered with thin polyethylene layer intended to withstand maximum 1 KV. Twisted paired cores are laid in a combination of one pair to as high as 1200 pairs. The construction takes care of proper pairing and lay length so that interference of signal does not take place which may lead to cross talk. Core and pair identification by a combination of two self-coloured cores are followed as per practice of relevant standards. Inner sheath is of black polyethylene, steel tape armoured and PVC outer sheathed. In case of jelly filled cables, a thick viscous jelly is filled between cores to prevent ingress of moisture/water. Modification in construction takes place to supplement more features in modern cables based on requirement. The latest fiber optic cables consists glass fibers coated with polyester layer to improve flexibility and brittleness. The paired cables are capable of communicating more signals per core as many signals of different wavelength can pass through a single fibre. The cable sizes become much smaller in this case as no.of pairs required reduces drastically in comparison to conventional cables. i) Data Communication/Instrumentation Cables: The necessity to transmit accurate and high-speed data/informations have led to development of cables suitable for these applications. Such cables are broadly known as electronics cables as along with data, need to transmit signals for application in computers, robotics, television, aerospace etc. Data transmission equipment normally use three types of cables like screened and unscreened twisted pair cables, coaxial cables and optical fiber cables. Considering the specific application and type of equipment used, selection of cables are made. For example, if long distance communications is desired where interference of signal is a factor, screened cables are preferred. But if the transmission is restricted within a short distance and speed of transmission is low, an unscreened cable is desirable. A Transmission network has to look for primary parameters like resistance, inductance, capacitance and conductance and secondary parameters like impedance and attenuation. These are to be considered, calculated and properly balanced while selecting and designing a cable. Both materials used as conductors, screened and insulation as well as cross section

geometry of the cable has to be worked out to take care of primary and secondary parameters. Coaxial cables enjoy superiority in many application related to this subject but at lower frequency of transmission, restricted space available, more flexibility requirements, lower cross talk etc call for balanced twisted pair cables. Generally for these variety of cables plain copper conductor or other metal clad copper conductors, copper covered steel conductor etc. are used. Even silver plated conductors are used. Polyethylene is the preferred insulation material having low and stable permittivity and power factor. Copper tubes/copper wire braids are used as screens, even metal foils are used in some cases. PVC sheath is preferred always even if armoured construction is involved considering indoor and outdoor environment. j) Other types of Cables/Special Cables: Besides the various types of cables described so far, there are some more types like cables for lifts and material handling equipment, cables for pumps and motors of various ratings, cables for automobiles, special purpose flexible cables and cords, under sea/submarine cables, fire resistant special purpose cables etc. Power Cables: Power cables are used for the transmission and distribution of electric power. Power cables were one of the first developments so far as cables are concerned. Rubber insulated/sheathed and paper insulated lead sheathed power cables were in service before PVC, XLPE and synthetic rubber insulated cables came into existence. Modern day power cables mostly comprise of these three polymeric materials as insulation and sheath. Medium and high density Polyethylene compounds are used as inner/outer sheath in some EHV cable design. Power cables have been developed worldwide with voltage ratings from 1.1 KV to 400 KV which are successfully used in various countries. The design and manufacturing method changes from type to type with basically making changes in materials and construction. Power cables are installed for towns/urban/rural electrification, in industries, oil fields, collieries/mines, undersea, hazardous atmosphere. Layings have been done both underground and above ground (in open to air and in trenches, pipes). With the development in power cable technology, development has also taken place in accessories like jointing and termination materials, methods, and technology. The reliability of joints/terminations have also improved. The heat shrink and cold shrink joints/terminations have overcome all demerits of conventional resin cast joints/terminations. 4. EMERGENCE OF POWER CABLES:

k)

Power cables are cables used primarily in the distribution network of power supply from generating stations to end users. In its primitive form power cables were meant to be overhead bare conductors insulated with air in its surroundings. Because of the obvious risk of running overhead bare lines in cities and urban areas, the need for the development of power cables was visualized. After an era of paper insulated cables running into decades, the modern day power cables are all polymer insulated/sheathed cables, which find use both underground and in open installation. The broad classification of power cables is made with respect to the voltage grade of its application and are normally designated as Uo/U, where Uo designated the voltage between the conductor and earth and U as the voltage between the conductors for which it is suitable. For normal operating system the ratio of Uo:U is 1:3. With this concept in mind generally cables have been categorized into 4 voltage ratings (a) low voltage power cables designated as 1.1 KV grade (b) medium voltage power cables designated up to 33 KV grade (c) high voltage power cables designated up to 132 KV grade and (d) extra-high voltage power cables designated and developed up to 500 KV grade. Today the share of polymer insulated power cables is approximately 95% including low voltage domestic distribution cables. (a) Low voltage power cables are rated up to 1.1 KV. They are now in distribution networks, main supplies, public or industrial premises lighting installations either outdoors or underground. The cables may be somewhat flexible or rigid (based on type of insulation/sheath material used). It is extremely important for the cables to give high performance in the event of overloads or short-circuiting. The cables may be of single or multicore (4 cores or 3.5 cores) with circular or sector shaped Aluminium/copper conductors. Sector shaping of conductors are done from 16 mm2 and above up to 400 mm2. Otherwise single core and multicore circular conductors range from 1.5 mm2 to 1000 mm2 for Aluminium and up to 630 mm2 for Copper. PVC, EPR and XLPE are the insulation materials used based on application and temperature ratings points of view. PVC withstands 70C under continuous condition and 160C during overload/short-circuiting. EPR and XLPE withstand 90C and 250C respectively. Both unarmoured and Galvanized Iron (GI) strip/wire armoured multicore cables and Aluminium wire armoured single core cables are used. Colour coding of phases are done by using coloured insulation or by the use of coloured polyester identification tapes over conductors. Both the practices are popular. If any special requirements of flame consistency/low smoke emission are desired, the outersheath compounds considering of PCP/CSP (in case of EPR insulation) and PVC (for rest of the insulation), are used accordingly to meet all desired specifications. Medium voltage cables having rating 3.3 KV to 33 KV are primarily used as underground cables in distribution network. Paper insulated cables and PVC

b)

insulated cables used to find usage under this category for long. Because of limitation of both the insulants, EPR insulated and XLPE insulated cables got developed for 90C continuous operation. LDPE insulated cables got used in cold countries parallely with its maximum operating continuous temp. of conductor as 70C. Today it is almost a common practice to choose between XLPE and EPR insulated cables in this category based on application needs. The countries that developed and popularized XLPE insulated medium voltage cables are France, Germany, UK, Japan, USA and Scandinavian countries. The manufacturing method and superior testing facilities developed parallely to manufacture almost defect free cables. The defect rate initially observed in these cables were due to inadequate design where use of semiconducting tape screen, insulation compound having poor watertree resistance contributed most. Subsequent design to make fully solid and continuous extruded polymeric dielectric (insulation and 2 screens) took care of all deficiencies. This experience on XLPE insulated cables was used to develop EPR insulated medium voltage cables with quick success. c) High & Extra High Voltage Cables: The experiences gained through trial and errors during development and practical field application of medium voltage cables helped to design and develop HV and EHV cables. HV cables of 66 and 132 KV grade (all single core cables) were developed after 1980s and extensively used in the developed countries. Improvement in XLPE insulation compound of higher breakdown strength, low dielectric losses, tree retardant and low sag was developed. Besides being single core construction, these cables need to be protected from traces of water ingress causing damage to the cable during operation. The ingress of water ultimately may lead to water tree formation in adverse condition. It is thus extremely necessary to design HV/EHV cables as watertight cables. Few constructions are in practice, which are quite adequate as of date in all countries. The EHV cables which have been developed and put to regular use up to 400 KV have already replaced oil filled cables and have been proved to be superior from all angles. Parallely, jointing kits and method have also been developed to prepare superior joints. 5. SELECTION CRITERIA OF POWER CABLES BASED ON APPLICATION: Selection of a cable for an intended application is generally based on the following: a) b) Exact understanding of Application. Selection of type of construction (Conductor material, insulation material, no.of cores, cross-sectional area of conductor, special requirement, armoured/unarmoured etc.)

c) d) e)

f) g) h) i)

Selection of rated voltage of the cable (nominal voltage of network, maximum operating voltage, rated lightning impulse withstand voltage, system frequency, type of current (1 ph/3ph etc.) Selection of Conductor Cross section (based on current loading during normal operation, overload condition and short circuit condition, voltage drop) Installation Condition - Length of run in ground/pipe/air/tunnel etc. - Method of cable laying - Ambient condition (ground/air) - External heat input (direct sunlight/other cables installed parallely) Current carrying capacity (normal condition/short circuit condition) Allowable voltage drop Load capacity in case of short circuit (thermal and mechanical stress) Economy

The above criteria are to be thoroughly investigated and calculations made (wherever necessary) before selection of a cable for the intended application.

CHAPTER -2 LOW VOLTAGE POWER CABLES 1. TYPES OF CABLES: The types of cables covered under this category consist of both armoured and unarmoured single, twin, three & four core PVC or, cross-linked polyethylene insulated, thermoplastic innersheathed and PVC outersheathed

10

cables for power supply. They are used on AC single phase or three phase (earthed or unearthed) systems of network and restricted up to 1.1 KV applications. For DC systems, the rated voltage may go up to 1.5 KV. 2. APPLICATION: Low voltage power cables find application for power supply where combination of ambient temperature and temperature rise due to load results in a continuous conductor temperature not exceeding (a) 70C under normal operation and 160C during short circuit condition in case of general purpose (type A, PVC compound) insulation (b) 85C under normal operation and 160C during short circuit condition in case of heat resistant (type C, PVC compound) insulation and (c) 90C under normal operation and 250C during short circuit condition in case of XLPE insulation. In all the three categories PVC outersheathing has to be done. The selection of type of insulation has to be done accordingly. Armoured cables under this category are also suitable for power supply in mines. The mining cables of this type are made out of copper conductor and are used in gassy mines, insulated with PVC or LT-XLPE material. The resistance of armour is critical in this category and cannot exceed by more than 33 percentages of that of the conductor. Proper care is taken during designing of such cables. For ease of identification, the word MINING is printed or embossed on outersheath throughout the length of cable. CONSTRUCTION OF CABLES: The cables are constructed taking care starting from selection of drawn wire for making conductor to the final finishing stage i.e. outersheathing. a) Conductor:The conductors are made from Aluminium or Copper metal and are constructed using adequate sizes of drawn wires. The geometry of conductors may be either solid or stranded circular or stranded sector shaped. Stranded sector geometry conductors are used for both 3core/4-core construction as well as 3.5 core (i.e. 3 main conductors and one reduced dimension neutral conductor) constructions. During designing the sector angles for shaped conductors are calculated in such a way that for 3 or 4 or 3.5 core construction, the cores after laying up operation become circular in shape. The norms followed for construction of both Aluminium and Copper conductors are as follows: i) ii) For 1.5 mm2 Aluminium, only solid conductors are made. For 1.5 mm2 to 6 mm2 copper and 2.5 mm2 to 10 mm2 Aluminium, both solid and stranded conductor has to be designed.

3.

11

iii)

For 10 mm2 and above upto 630 mm2 copper and 16 mm2 and above up to 1000 mm2 Aluminium, stranded conductor has to be designed.

Normally 500mm2 and above cables are designed as single core cables and hence these are made with circular stranded conductor. Reduced neutral conductor construction is generally designed from 25 mm2 up to 400 mm2 based on requirement though standard allows up to 630 mm2. a) Insulation: Once the conductor constructions and types are decided, the next step is to provide the conductor being covered with suitable insulation (Polymeric dielectric material). The insulation is provided by extrusion process. The material of insulation chosen are either PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) compound or XLPE (cross linkable Polyethylene) compound. The crosslinkable polyethylene compound based insulated cores are to be crosslinked subsequent to extrusion process. This step is not required to be done in case of PVC insulation. The insulation process should be such that the polymer compound (XLPE/PVC) fits closely on the conductor but it would be possible to remove the insulation without causing damage to the conductor (Aluminium/Copper) whenever necessary. The thickness of insulation plays a very important role since it ensures retention of dielectric strength of the core manufactured. The specification takes care of maintaining average thickness of insulation to be extruded and shall not be less than the nominal value specified in the Table against respective sizes of conductor. At the same time the specification also calls for maintaining minimum value of thickness at any point over the circumference of the conductor. If T is the nominal thickness of insulation, the minimum thickness of insulation of a core should not fall below its specified nominal value by more than [ 0.1 mm + 0.1 (T) ]. If both the average and minimum values are maintained during extrusion, the core manufactured is said to be concentric. i) Identification of Core The insulated cores need to be identified to designate phases. This plays a very important role in the cable construction. For both PVC insulated and XLPE insulated low voltage power cables, identification method for cores are mostly common. The insulation compounds are made into a homogenous colour during extrusion by adding defined colour master batches to the base compound. The resultant coloured cores formed are Red, Yellow, Blue and black up to 4-core construction. The schemes followed are as follows: -

12

For 1 core construction - Red, black, yellow, blue or natural colour insulation For 2 core construction - Red and black colour insulation For 3 core construction - Red, yellow and blue colour insulation For 4 core construction - Red, yellow, blue and black colour insulation For reduced neutral conductor Black colour insulation.

For XLPE insulated cables, instead of colouring of insulation compound, a coloured identification tape made of polyester or equivalent material may be provided on insulation. The scheme for colour identification is followed same as what mentioned above for coloured insulation compound. For XLPE insulated cables, identification of cores by number printing is also allowed. For example, printing of 0,1 for 2-core cable; 0,1,2 for 3 core cables; 0,1,2 and 3 for 4 core and 3.5 core cables. Reduced size neutral conductor is designated by printing 0. c) Laying Up of insulated core: Properly identified cores are laid up together as a step called laying up operation. Single core cable does not require this process and is applicable for multicore cables. For 3.5 and 4 core construction, the sequence is maintained so that Red, Yellow, Blue and Black cores follow in succession during laying up process. During laying up of cores, interstices are formed at the center ( in case of sector shaped cores) and also between cores( in case of circular shaped cores ). The interstices are filled up with suitable non-hygroscopic materials (like PVC, Poly propylene). Normally, the direction followed in this process is right hand lay, in which the cores remain fairly bound through selection of proper lay length. In case of sector shaped cores, predetermined lay is also incorporated during the conductor making stage. Conductors in such construction come out in a spiral form (having in built lay) instead of straight form. The laying up process is the first process of cable formation and is popularly known as cabling process. Normally, a polymeric binder tape is wrapped over laid up cores to maintain proper tightness. d) Inner sheathing: The cores laid up as above are provided with a protective covering called inner sheath. The purpose of this is to build up mechanical strength of the cable and provide bedding for the next operation called armouring. The inner sheath is applied either by extrusion process or

13

by taping process. In the extrusion process, PVC compound is pumped in such a way that it closely fits over the laid up cores, but at the same time it is easy to separate out the inner sheath without damaging the cores. Inner sheathing by extrusion is also carried out where the intersection between cores are also filled up by PVC compound. This process is called inner sheathing by pressure extrusion where interstices were not filled up by fillers during laying up process. Inner sheathing by PVC/thermoplastic tape comprises of a process where tapes are wound over wrapped laid up cores maintaining an overlap. The thickness of inner sheath as specified, has to be built up either by applying one or more tapes. Removal of tape, if required, is done by unwrapping. The thickness of inner sheath varies between 0.3 and 0.7 mm (minimum), based on the diameter of cable over laid up cores. For single core cables, normally inner sheath is not provided. e) Armouring Armouring is done on inner-sheathed cables by applying either galvanized iron wires/strips or by Aluminium wires, laying helically in succession; to cover the periphery of inner sheathed cable. Proper lay has to be selected during this process, which follows a left hand direction, so that virtually no gap is seen as well as the construction remains tight and firm. In case of double wire/strip armouring, the process is done one by one maintaining opposite lay direction. A binder tape (as cushion) of nonhygroscopic nature is provided to separate the two layers. During the process, care is taken so that neither any gap remains between armour wires/strips nor any over riding of armour wires/strips take place. The norms followed for selection of armour wires/strips is as follows: i)

if the diameter of cable below armour is upto 13 mm, galvanized steel wire is used as armour material.
ii) if the diameter of cable below armour exceeds 13 mm, either

galvanized material) is used.

iv)

steel wires or steel strips is used as armour material.

iii) if the cable is a single core cable, Aluminium wire (as non-magnetic

for mining cables, a combination of G.I. wires and tinned copper wires are used and laid together in a single process.

14

The selection of armouring material size & type can be summarized as Calculated Diameter Below armour Upto 13 mm 13 to 25 mm 25 to 40 mm 40 to 55 mm 55 to 70 mm 70 mm and above Nominal thickness of steel strip 0.8 mm 0.8 mm 1.4 mm 1.4 mm 1.4 mm Nominal Diameter of round wire 1.40 mm 1.60 mm 2.00 mm 2.50 mm 3.15 mm 4.00 mm

The above guideline is useful for cable designer for constructing power cables of any type in the low voltage category. This covers both single and multicore cables. Normally armouring is a non-continuous process unlike extrusion and requires strips/wires to be joined. The joints made by brazing or, welding should be such that between two joints there should be a gap of 300 mm. A reasonably smooth joint is made and any irregularities like burrs etc. are smoothened by filing. f) Outersheath: This is known as final jacketing and is the last and outermost component in a cable construction. Irrespective of the type of cable e.g. single core, multicore unarmoured or multicore armoured, this component is mandatory in a cable design. Normally for low tension cables, black PVC compound is applied on the semi-finished cable. General purpose PVC (ST-1 type) serves the purpose for LT PVC insulated cables unless otherwise specified. Where as for LT XLPE insulated cables heat resistant PVC compound (ST-2 type) needs to be used in the Outersheath as the insulation is supposed to withstand higher continuous conductor temperature. Similar construction is followed if LT PVC cable is designed with heat resistant PVC insulation compound. The construction is such that the Outersheath fits very closely to the component below it (e.g. insulation/innersheath/armour as the case may be) but at the same time it is possible to remove the sheath without damaging component below it, if need arises. This requirement is achieved by extruding PVC compound only (no other method is followed).

15

Keeping in mind the ultraviolet radiation resistance (UV radiation received from sun rays) of the outermost layer of a cable, a black colour PVC compound is preferred. If the condition of application changes and a specific requirement like colour coding of cable through coloured Outersheath is intended for the application, coloured PVC Outersheath compound can be designed and extruded as final jacket. The thickness of Outersheath plays a very important role from mechanical strength point of view. In an unarmoured cable, both minimum thickness at any point on the circumference as well as nominal thickness of Outersheath needs to be maintained as a mandatory requirement. For Outersheath on armoured cable, it is specified that the minimum thickness does not fall below nominal value TN by more than 0.2 mm 0.2 TN. Respective values of thickness are specified in standards for users/designers to follow. Based on the diameter of cable below Outersheath it has been found that (a) for unarmoured cables the statutory nominal values of thickness of Outersheath ranges between 1.8 mm and 4.0 mm with ascending cable diameter and the corresponding minimum value of thickness at any point on the cable circumference ranges between 1.24 and 3.00 mm and (b) for armoured cables, the mandatory minimum value of Outersheath at any given point on the circumference of cable ranges between 1.24 and 3.00 mm with ascending cable diameter. On the Outersheath, manufacturers identification is either printed or embossed. The identification contains manufacturers name and or/logo (trade mark) the word Electric or Mining based on application, HR85 to designate cables with heat resisting insulation suitable for 85C conductor temperature, BIS license No. Besides these, based on requirement of customers, more description like customers order No, name of customer, cable type, BIS logo, year of manufacturing etc. are printed/embossed. Whatever identification marking being decided, it needs to be printed/embossed on every one meter length of cable. If asked for, sequential length markings are also printed at an interval of every one meter. Clear legibility of printing/embossing on PVC Outersheath is possible and needs to be taken care of during manufacturing. It is essential to choose contrast colour in case of printing legend on Outersheath (e.g. while coloured prints of legends on a black Outersheath). 4. MATERIALS USED IN LT CABLE MANUFACTURING: Materials used for the construction of LT Power cables broadly consist of :A) B) Conductors Insulation - made of Copper or Aluminium - made of PVC or XLPE compounds

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C) D) E) F) G) H) I) J) K) L) A.

Innersheath - made of PVC or other thermoplastics like Polyethylene compound and tapes made from these. Armour - made of Galvanized Iron or Aluminium, blend of Galvanized Iron and Copper. Fillers made of PVC compound or Other suitable thermoplastic compound like Polyethylene. Colour Master - made of PVC compound + Pigments, Polyethylene batches compound + Pigments. Identification Tapes - Coloured Polyester tapes Binder Tapes - PVC/Polyethylene compound based, Plain polyester tapes Outersehath - made of PVC compounds Sequential length - Pigment based inks Marking Packing Materials - Wooden/Steel drums + Wooden Planks Marking Inks - Water and heat proof dark coloured pigment based inks or equivalent Emulsion paints Conductors: Conductors are made with either of Aluminium or Copper metal. a) Aluminium: The Aluminium metal used for Power cables is highly pure in nature and is having electrical conductivity equivalent to 61 IACS value. The purity of Aluminium is maintained as 99.7% minimum, i.e. in 100 parts, 99.7 parts are Aluminium and the balance trace elements constitute 0.3 parts ( Si, Fe, Mg, Mn, Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni etc.). The Aluminium metal thus exhibit an electrical resistivity of 0.028264 Ohm.mm2 /m (max.). With Aluminium metal having above properties, is chosen further based on its tensile strength. Two grades thus are common in conductor making H2 grade, having tensile strength between 100 and 150 N/mm2 and H4 grade, having tensile strength above 150 N/mm2. Aluminium rods are available in the diameter range of approximately 9.5 mm for above application having a specific gravity of 2.703. b) Copper: Metal copper was the earliest being used as conductor material for Power Cables. Because of its electrical conductivity and mechanical/Physical properties, copper continues to be the most suitable conductor material till date. The purity of copper metal used is 99.9% minimum for electrical application. The balance 0.1% constitutes trace elements like Se, Te, As, Sb, Fe, S, Pb, Ni, Bi, Ag, Sn etc. 99.9% pure copper exhibits a conductivity of 100%. Its electrical resistivity required is 0.017241 Ohm.mm2/m (maxi.). Besides possessing good electrical properties, copper metal having a specific gravity of 8.89 has

17

tensile strength in the range of 200 to 270 N/mm2 and elongation at break 20% minimum. There is only one grade of copper called EC grade having properties, as above, are used in the diameter of approximately 8.0 mm for power cable wire drawing followed by conductor making. B. Insulation: Insulation material used in low voltage Power cables are either (a) Polyvinyl chloride compound (PVC) or (b) Crosslinkable Polyethylene compound (XLPE). a) PVC Compounds: There are two grades of PVC compounds used in low voltage Power cables. These are designated as:i) Type A: General purpose insulation compound for maximum rated temperature of 70C. ii) Type C: Heat resisting insulation compound for maximum rated temperature of 85C. Heat resisting compound Type C is tested for thermal properties at a higher temperature compared to that for type A compound. Otherwise basic properties like insulation resistance, mechanical strength at room temperature are almost equivalent in both the grades. b) XLPE Compound: In XLPE compound, there is only one grade which gets used as insulation compound in low tension power cables. XLPE compound is basically much less compounded compared to PVC compounds and are unfilled. That makes the compound having about 65% of the specific gravity of PVC compounds. The compound is almost transparent in nature and a trace amount of colour masterbatch brings desired shade into the compound. The compound is suitable to be used for continuous conductor temperature of 90C (maximum) and exhibits superior thermal and thermo mechanical properties even compared to type C PVC compound. C) Innersheath :The materials used for innersheathing consist of thermoplastic compound, which normally are based on either PVC or Polyethylene. In case of extruded innersheath, mostly PVC compound is preferred. For taped innersheath, PVC or, Polyethylene based compounds are used. The material is designed in such a way that the thermal ratings of cables get

18

complied with. The mechanical strength of the material compares with Outersheath compound. Normally a thermal stability of more than 80 minutes at 200C coupled with minimum requirement of mechanical strength (12.5 N/mm2 tensile strength and 150% elongation at break minimum) are found in the innersheath compound. Tapes in width from 20 mm to 80 mm and thickness from 0.10 mm to 0.50 mm are made from giant rolls and appropriately chosen for a type of cable. Normally, the he tapes/extruded innersheath are of black colour. If required, specific coloured material is used without compromising on basic properties. D) Armour:Armour materials are made up of galvanized mild steel or Aluminium wires or galvanized mild steel and copper wire combination. Two types of galvanized steel armours are used in power cables. These are (a) Galvanized steel wires and (b) Galvanized steel formed wires (or Galvanized steel strips). Both are used in cables to impart mechanical strength as well as to carry fault current during short-circuiting. Besides these (c) for single core cables, Aluminium wires (H4 i.e. hard drawn) as non-magnetic material are used and (d) for mining cables, a combination of galvanized steel wires and tinned copper wires are used as armour. These four varieties mostly cover armour materials for Power cables. a) Galvanized Steel Wires (G.I. Wires):Galvanized steel wires are formed by galvanizing zinc metal on mild steel wires. The purpose for galvanization is to protect steel from oxidation. A thin uniform zinc coating is done and the surface is made free from any irregularities. Wires are used with diameter ranging from 1.40 mm to 4.00 mm. The properties which are measured for GI wires include diameter of wire, volume resistivity, tensile strength, elongation at break, mass of zinc coating, wrapping test, torsion test and uniformity of zinc coating. Governing specifications are there to take care of respective acceptance levels and sampling plan. b) Galvanized Steel Formed Wires (G.I. Strips) Galvanized steel formed wires (G.I. strips) are made in the similar way as done for G.I. wires. Two sizes of formed wires are there. One having dimension 4.0 mm x 3.40 mm x 0.8 mm x 10 mm and the other 6.1 mm x 5.3 mm x 1.4 mm x 27.5 mm. The four component dimension AxBxCxR has been standardized where A designates width of outer periphery, B designates width of inner periphery, C designates thickness of strip and R designates the radius of curvature, which is introduced in converting flat strip into formed condition.

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Formed wires of other dimensions may also be designed based on requirement. In a formed wire, the tests those are conducted against standard requirement are Tensile strength, elongation at break, dimension, volume resistivity, Mass of zinc coating, uniformity of zinc coating and winding tests. Governing specifications are there to take care of acceptance level and sampling plan. c) Aluminium wires of designed sizes are used in case of single core cables as a non-magnetic material. H4 grade Aluminium (tensile strength more than 150 N/mm2) suitable for conductor making are used. All tests necessary for drawn wire are conducted in this case also. A combination of galvanized steel wires and tinned copper wires are used as armour in case of mining types of cables, which require higher conductivity than that of plain armour. A fine coating of tin is applied over drawn copper wires to protect it from oxidation just like galvanization is done on steel wires. The size and number of tinned copper wires required to improve conductivity of total armour mass are predetermined through calculations. The final combination of G.I. wires and tinned copper wires are then decided based on the calculation. E) Fillers: Fillers used to fill up interstices of cables (say a three core circular LT Power cable) are normally made using PVC compound or other thermoplastics like PE or PP. PVC being the most economical, find wide application. Basic properties like heat stability, mechanical strength find compatible to other components used. Reasonably good surface finish is desired. Filers are normally black in colour. Coloured fillers are also used, if required.

d)

F)

Colour Materbatches: To impart specific colour to insulation (PVC/XLPE), inner and outersheath, colour masterbatches are incorporated to base compound. A colour masterbatch consists of base Polymer compound (PVC/PE) in which colour pigments are compounded. A dosage varying from 0.5% to 2% in case of PVC master batch and 0.1 to 0.5% in case of XLPE masterbatch works well to impart desired shade.

G)

Identification Tapes:

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H)

Phase identification of insulated cores, particularly for XLPE cables, is also done by the use of coloured identification tapes over or below conductor instead of using coloured insulation. Normally the tapes are made of polyester material suitable to withstand more than 90C continuous temperature and find use in case of XLPE insulation. If identification of cores are done using coloured identification tapes, then the colour of insulation remains of natural colour or colourless. For high tension XLPE cable, this practice of core identification is used almost exclusively. Binder Tapes:For firm binding of laid up cores, PVC/Polyethylene/polyester tapes are used. The tapes have basic properties to that of innersheath and are compatible in cable construction. The binder tapes on laid up cores normally remain in the cable and are not removed prior to subsequent operation. Binder tapes are also applied over armours (both single and double armour). The tape used is either of polyethylene or PVC compound based. The tape applied on the outermost surface of armour normally gets detaped prior to outersheathing.

I)

Outersheath:The outersheath of LT Power cables are made using PVC compound. There are two types of PVC compounds: i) ii) Type ST-1 : General purpose sheath intended for use in cables operating at a maximum rated conductor temperature of 70C and Type ST-2: Heat resisting sheath intended for use in cables operating at a maximum rated conductor temperature of 90C.

Type ST-1 is used for PVC insulated general purpose LT Power Cables where as type ST-2 is used for heat resisting PVC insulated (type C insulation) and XLPE insulated power cables. The properties of two grades of sheathing compounds are different as their intended application is different. Heat resisting grade ST-2 possesses superior thermal and mechanical properties compared to that of ST-1 grade. J) Sequential Length Marking:Marking of lengths on every one meter of cable outersheath is a common practice now a days. As the length markings are printed in sequence i.e. in an ascending order of meter counting, it is called sequential length marking. On the PVC outersheath, the markings are done using ink, which is compatible to PVC. A contrast colour ink is imprinted through a meter marking head the moment a cable completes one meter run. The ink is

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insoluble in water and remains visible for a long time till any abrasion effect takes place on it. K) Packing Materials:Packing materials used for dispatch of finished cable are either made of wood or steel. Normally, cables are wound on wooden drums of specific dimension (covered in relevant specification). The wooden drums are designed to accommodate smaller diameter to highest diameter of cables. Accordingly, the drum sizes vary. Reasonably seasoned wood planks are used to build a drum, which can rotate on surface taking load of cable. To withstand load, reinforcements are done with steel rods in wooden drums barrel. The wooden pieces used are cut to sizes in a uniform manner so that overall drum dimensions are maintained. The surfaces of drums are made smooth to wind cables causing no damage of those. Metal drums are equally used for the same purpose. Instead of wood, corrugated steel sheets are used in building up a drum. Metal drums are very sturdy and offer longer life compared to wooden drums. Whether a drum is made of wood or steel, the final covering of a drum, once cable is wound is done by using wooden planks of same quality as that of wooden drum. They are tied by steel strips and nails. Now a days, plastic moulded drums have also been developed as replacement of wood. Polypropylene, HDPE and glass fiber-reinforced plastic materials are used to construct such drums. L. Marking Inks: Inks are used to mark desired description on drums. Normally dark coloured inks, which are pigment based, find use for this purpose. The inks are heat and waterproof and remain visible for years on drums. Emulsion paints are now a days more used as marking inks as they exhibit sharpness as well as brightness of legends written on the drums. They last longer and are available in more number of shades. 5) PROCESSES INVOLVED AND MACHINERIES USED IN LT POWER CABLE MANUFACTURING: The manufacturing process of LT Power cable consists of operations such as (a) Wire Drawing (b) Stranding (c) Insulation by extrusion (d) Laying Up (e) Innersheathing by extrusion/taping (f) Armouring (g) Outersheathing by extrusion. For any of the operations, the requirements are machinery, manpower, raw materials, power and fuel, infrastructure and documents. A company needs to

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address these basic requirements for performing operations. Raw materials are procured and stored in godown/stores and after checking are brought near the machine. Trained manpowers are made available and also made available basic infrastructure like building and other support services like utility and quality assurance. Once the documents are made available which contains all necessary specifications, design sheets, instructions etc. an operation can start. Prior to that the process or operation is clearly documented. Having ensured availability of the resources as described above, the first operation of the cable manufacturing process is conducted and the other operation continues in sequence to complete the manufacturing cycle. Let us elaborate operations one by one. a) Wire Drawing:This operation requires a heavy duty machine called Wire Drawing machine along with its supporting auxiliary components like bobbins, bobbin take up stand, traverse unit, Pay off base stand, rod pointing machine, coolant tanks and circulation arrangements, lubrication unit, dies etc. Aluminium and copper rods are converted into drawn wires, which are used for making conductor. The metal rods are passed through a series of reduction dies (dies which reduce wire diameter) in a descending order of diameter. The dies are mounted on die boxes and are in a continuous circulation of coolant. During drawing of wire from higher to lower diameter, heat is generated, which is dissipated by circulating coolant. The dies are made of either tungsten carbide or, diamond to take care of abrasive action taking place during drawing. Selection of pre polished dies are made to get desired diameter of wire at the end of operation. The drawn wires are wound systematically on metal bobbins, which are then used in the next operation. b) Stranding :The stranding operation is also known as conductor making operation. This process is required for stranded conductor and not for solid conductor. In this process, the machine used consists of a number of carriages placed one after the other in one line. A carriage can accommodate bobbins containing drawn wires. Size of a carriage depends on how many number of bobbins it can accommodate. As the conductor construction follows configuration such as 1+6+12+18+24+30, accordingly carriages are also made in similar capacities and placed in this sequence. Compaction dies and sector rollers (for shaped conductor) are placed after carriage to impart desired shape. The carriages feed wires which sit in layers in predefined lays. The formation of layers take place in opposite directions through predefined direction of movement of carriage, which are controlled through selection of appropriate gears and movement of motors. So, if a layer is formed with right hand lay, the next layer formation will take place with left hand lay. Lay charts are normally available on machine and lay lengths are selected with proper selection of lay control gears.

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A formed conductor passes through a capstan to maintain proper tension. From the capstan the conductor is wound on steel drums. This is now ready for the next operation called insulation. c) Insulation by Extrusion:Conductors made through stranding process are insulated to form cores. The process of insulation by either PVC compound or XLPE compound is done using an extruder along with auxiliary machines. The entire line is called an extrusion line. An extruder basically is a machine consisting of a cylinder in which a screw of proper geometry freely rotates. Plastic material, which is fed from one end of the extruder, undergoes physical work by means of temperature and pressure and conveys through the rotation of screw on its axis. There is a small gap between the flight of the screw and inner side of the cylinder (barrel) through which molten plastic flows. Finally the molten plastic comes out of the die, which is fitted on the cross head (T-head) and forms a layer of predetermined thickness covering the moving conductor. The movement of molten plastic from extruder on conductor is at a 90 angle and the combination looks like a T. Hence the head which consists of the die for polymer flow and core point for passing desired size of conductor is called a T-head or, crosshead. The crosshead also contains breaker plate (a steel plate having perforations) and steel wire mesh for generating additional backflow (resistance to positive flow of polymer) on the molten polymer to ensure its homogenous mixing and defect free output. The conductor on steel drum is mounted on a stand called Pay-off stand. It reaches core point and die (fixed in the crosshead) through maintenance of proper tension by means of a caterpillar. The insulated conductor (core) moves out of crosshead assembly at a high temperature (suitable to uniformly melt polymer). The core passes through a water-cooled trough long enough to ensure proper cooling of core to room temperature. It is again passed through a caterpillar (which maintains proper tension) before winding on a metal drum loaded on a stand called take up stand. Just prior to take up stand a spark tester (on line HV fault tester) is placed to ensure defect free core getting wound on metal drum. For different phase identification either coloured cores are made one by one or coloured polyester identification tapes of desired colour are fed one after another over conductor (for transparent insulation in case of XLPE). The LT XLPE cores are crosslinked in an atmosphere of steam within 2 to 3 hours at 80C. For PVC insulated cores, this process is not necessary. The colour identified cores are ready for the next operation called laying up process. d) Laying Up:-

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The laying up is an operation which combines the different coloured cores in sequence to form a multicore laid up cable. The machine consists of 3 or 4 carriages into which metal drums containing cores are loaded. The loaded drums are locked while they are in their respective carriages for safety. The machine also contains provision for loading fillers wound on bobbins so that the fillers can parallely move longitudinally while occupying the gaps between cores called interstices (both at the center and in side wise). The fillers may or may not be used and are decided based on the requirement. The carriages of laying up machine rotate in predefined lay (adjusted by selecting proper gear assembly at the cater pillar) to form multicore laid up cable. The cores sit tightly and uniformly in such a way, that the circularity of cable gets ensured. The laid up cores pass through taping heads where binder tapes or innersheath tapes get wound over the laid up cores. Tape rolls are loaded on taping heads and adjusted to release tapes at a speed to maintain desired overlaps. A taping head may accommodate more than one tape rolls. Taping ensures proper binding of laid up cores. They are then wound on metal drum placed over take up stand. A cater pillar placed between taping head and take up stand ensures proper tension on the laid up cores and pulls the cores at the same time. For single core cable laying up operation is not required. e) Innersheathing:Inner sheathing is the next operation done on laid up cable. This can be done either by extrusion of PVC compound or by the application of PVC or other thermoplastic tapes. If it is done by extrusion, then the process as done during insulation is followed. In this case, instead of conductor, laid up cable is fed from Pay-off drum on which PVC compound is extruded through extruder. The crosshead is so designed with core point and die that smooth extrusion takes place maintaining a low but uniform thickness of PVC layer. Finally, the inner sheathed cable passes through cold-water trough and is wound on metallic drum loaded on take up stand. If the inner sheathing is done by taping, then thermoplastic tapes are wrapped on laid up cable during the laying up process itself. The selection of tapes and their overlap has to be done in such a way that uniform and desired thickness of innersheath is achieved. f) Armouring: Armouring is the next process in which G.I. wires or strips for multicore cables, Aluminium hard drawn wires for single core cables and a combination of tinned copper wires and G.I. wires are wrapped on inner sheathed cable to cover its periphery.

25

The process requires a machine called armouring machine. It resembles stranding/conductor making machine in its feature. An armouring machine also consists of number of carriages placed in succession in a single line. Each carriage can accommodate number of metallic bobbins filled with wires/strips. The capacity of carriage also increases in succession following configuration as 6+12+18+24+30.. Auxiliary machines like wire/strip rewinders are used to evenly wind wires/strips from coils. The evenness in winding eliminates chance of wire/strip breakage during the process. An inner sheathed cable is passed from pay-off stand. The cable runs through the center of each carriage in a pipe and is taken on capstan to hold tightly. Wires/strips from the bobbins mounted on each carriage forms a helical layer once they are passed through a final perforated plate, called lay plate. For maintaining lay, the gear combination is selected appropriately in both carriages and capstan. The selection is done such that the strips/wires remain tight on inner sheathed cable at the same time they cover the periphery without any gap being practically visible. The armoured cable passes in turns through a capstan and finally gets wound on a metal drum loaded on take up stand. Binder tapes are provided to hold the armoured cable before being wound on take up stand. g) Outersheathing: The final process of cable manufacturing is called outersheathing. This process is done by extrusion as followed in case of insulation and innersheathing. Similar arrangement of extrusion is done on armoured cables/unarmoured cables as the case may be. The armoured/unarmoured cable is fed from pay off stand and through caterpillar it enters the crosshead of the extruder. Suitable grade of PVC compound (with predetermined colour) is pumped through the extruder and it forms a layer of PVC compound on the semi-finished cable. Before the cable enters cooling trough, an embossing wheel presses the imprint on hot cable, which after cooling in cooling trough forms a visibly clear and permanent embossing at every interval of one meter. The finished outer sheathed cable after enough cooling by sprinkling water on the moving cable is subjected to hot sequential mark printing (if required) by a printing machine placed after the caterpillar. The caterpillar pulls the cable, which finally gets wound on take up drum (wooden/metal) loaded on take up stand. The cable is now ready for testing of properties at the finished cable stage.

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CHAPTER - 3 HIGH VOLTAGE POWER CABLES

1. TYPES OF CABLES: Majority of modern high voltage Power cables are made with Cross-linked Polyethylene insulation (XLPE) and hence this chapter is confined to cables manufactured using XLPE technology. More or less similar technology is adopted for EPR (ethylene propylene rubber) insulated cables, which constitute hardly 10% (maximum) of the high-tension cables made in the world. The cables are sheathed with PVC material. The types of cables

27

covered under this category consist of (a) single core unscreened, unarmoured (b) single core screened, unarmoured (c) single core armoured with Aluminium (non magnetic) wires screened or, unscreened and (d) Three core armoured, screened or unscreened cables suitable for voltage grades (Uo/u) as follows; i) for earthed system 1.9/3.3 KV, 3.8/6.6 KV, 6.45/11 KV, 12.7/22KV & 19/33 KV.

ii) for unearthed system - 3.3/3.3 KV, 6.6/6.6 KV and 11/11 KV 2. APPLICATION: High Voltage XLPE insulated power cables are suitable for use where combination of ambient temperature and temperature rise due to load results in conductor temperature not exceeding 90C under normal operation and 250C under short circuit condition. Crosslinked polymer based semiconducting compounds are extruded as conductor and insulation screens. Also metallic screens like copper tape or copper wires or combination of both are applied over cores (all in case of screened cables). Wherever armoured cables are needed Aluminium wire Armour in case of single core cables and GI wires or, strips are used as armour in case of multicore cables. PVC compound is used as inner and outersheath to take care of all types of application requirements. Multicore armoured cables upto 11 KV grade specified in this standard are also used for power supply in mines. Specifically copper conductors are to be used as well as a combination of copper wires with steel armour is designed to take care of specific requirement of armour resistance. For ease of identification, the word MINING is printed or embossed on outersheath throughout the length of a cable.

3. CONSTRUCTION OF CABLE: The construction of HV XLPE insulated cables consists of all components of cables starting from conductor to final outersheath. a) Conductor: The conductors are made of Aluminium or Copper wires and are constructed from 25 mm2 to 1000 mm2 in case of Aluminium and 25 mm2 to 630 mm2 in case of Copper. The shape of conductor is circular for HV cable and is constructed from drawn wires in a defined configuration to form a circular stranded compacted geometry. The surface of the conductor is very smooth and polished. b) Conductor Screening: HV Power cables rated above 3.3/3.3 KV is provided with conductor screening. Semiconducting tapes (made of terrene, paper, other polymers) or extruded polymeric crosslinkable

28

semiconducting compound is applied over conductor to provide a smooth finish. The material is compatible with XLPE insulation. The thickness of conductor screen is decided during cable design. Normally a thickness of 0.5 mm and above is used based on voltage grade of the cable. c) Insulation: In the next step an extruded polymeric (XLPE) insulation is applied over screen. The thickness of insulation varies with voltage grade and increases as voltage grade increase. The thickness of insulation is measured after the crosslinking operation is over. Both average thickness and thickness minimum at any point over the circumference of extrudate are mandatory and are specified. If T is the nominal thickness of insulation, then the minimum thickness shall not fall below its specified nominal value by more than [ 0.1 mm + 0.1 (T)]. Insulation thickness is irrespective of size of conductor but is specific to a voltage grade of cable. Having maintained the thickness the insulation extrusion is done so that insulation closely fits to the layer below this but can be removed, if necessary, without damaging the conductor. The nominal insulation thickness varies from 2.2 mm to 8.8 mm as voltage increases from 3.3 kv to 33 kv. d) Insulation Screening: All HV power cables rated above 3.3/3.3 KV are provided with insulation screening. Unlike conductor screening, the insulation screening consists of two parts non-metallic screening & metallic screening. i) the non-metallic screening is done in the same way as followed for conductor screening. The material used must be compatible with insulation (XLPE). The thickness of nonmetallic screen is decided during cable design and normally varies between 0.5 and 1.0 mm based on voltage grade of cable. If it is necessary to remove the insulation screen, this is possible without affecting the surface finish of insulation layer below it. ii) metallic part of insulation screen consists of non-magnetic material like copper tape or copper wire or a combination of both or a braid or in rare case, an extruded metal sheath. The metallic part of screen fits closely on the non-metallic part and is also possible to remove, if required, by de-screening without damaging layer below it. e) Purpose of Screening: The purpose of providing non-metallic semiconducting screen over conductor and insulation is because of two reasons:
1) To impede the ionization of the air which otherwise would be found between the metal conductor and the insulating material (corona effect). The semiconducting layer forms a single body with the insulation and does not separate from it even when the bends to,

29

which the cable may be subjected and constitutes the conductors true equi -potential surface. Any possible air space remains below this surface and thus away from the action of electric field.

2) To improve the distribution of the electric field on the surface of the conductor. This layer makes the surface of the conductor cylindrical and smooth, since it may be conceived as an integral part of it. This eliminates any possible focal points of electrical action in the insulation. Besides serving similar purpose, the non-metallic insulation screen prevents a layer of ionized layer remaining between the screen and the insulation and zones of high electrical demand in the center of the insulation. Similarly the metallic screen carry out various outstanding functions as follows: 1) Confining the electrical field inside the cable
2) Achieving a symmetrical within the insulation. radial distribution of the electrical force

3) Limiting mutual influence among electric cables 4) Reducing the risk of electrocution. The short circuit currents, which the metal parts of the screen have to withstand (electrostatic principally) depends on the total cross sectional area of the wires. Depending on the intensity, which anticipated in practical installation, the cross-sectional area is decided. f) Identification of Cores: The cores of chemically crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation is of natural colour with black colour of semiconducting compound. For the identification of the cores in three phase cables, polyester strips of Red, Yellow, Blue and Black colours are applied longitudinally below the metallic screen. Coloured/numbered strips as well as printing of numbers 0,1,2,3 are also done on cores. The colour identification is done to identify phase conductors. e) Laying up/Innersheathing/Armouring/Outersheathing: The construction followed for these processes are in principle similar to what elaborated under low tension cable. The laying up of 3 cores are done in HV cables instead of 3.5 04 4 cores. The intensities of 3 cores are adequately filled with nonhygroscopic fillers. The binders used are also similar. For innersheathing, heat resistant ST-2 PVC compound/thermoplastic compounds are used. These are applied, both taped/extruded in the similar manner as done in case of LT Cables. Depending on the

30

calculated diameter over laid up cores, the minimum thickness of innersheath varies from 0.3 mm to 0.7 mm. Armouring construction is similar to LT cables both in single and multicore variety. Depending on the calculated diameter under armour, the steel strip size varies from 0.8 and 1.4 mm thickness and wire dia from 1.4 mm and 4.0 mm with increasing diameter of cable. Outersheathing is done using heat resistant PVC ST-2 grade compound. Other principle of construction is similar to what followed for LT Cable. The nominal thickness of outersheath increases with increase in calculated diameter below outersheath. It ranges from 1.8 mm to 4.0 mm. The increment is in a step of 0.2 mm with increase in diameter. On the outersheath, manufacturers identification is either printed or, embossed. The identification includes manufacturers name or trademark, voltage grade, year of manufacture and BIS license number. These are mandatory requirement and printed at every one meter length. Other details (optional) are printed as explained under LT cable. The colour of outersheath is normally black. Other colour coding is possible based on customer requirement. These are also detailed in LT cable (under similar head). 2. MATERIALS USED IN HT CABLE MANUFACTURING: Materials used for the construction of HT Power cables broadly consist of: A) Conductors made of Copper or Aluminium B) Insulation - made of XLPE compound C) Conductor/Insulation made of crosslinked semiconducting Screen copolymer compound. Also semi-conducting terrene tape. D) Metallic screen made of Copper wires and/or copper tapes. E) Innersheath - made of PVC or other thermo plastics like polyethylene compound and tapes made from these. F) Armour - made of galvanized iron or Aluminium wires blend of galvanized iron and Copper wires (both GI Strips/Wires are used) G) Colour - made of PVC compound + pigments, Polyethylene Master batches Compound + pigments H) Fillers - made of PVC compound or other suitable thermo plastic compound like polyethylene. I) Identification - Coloured Polyester tapes.

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J) K) L) M) N)

Tapes Binder tapes Outersheath compounds Sequential length Marking Packing Materials Marking inks pigment paints.

- PVC/Polyethylene compound, plain Polyester tapes. - made of PVC compound, HDPE - Pigment based inks - Wooden/Steel drums + Wooden Planks - Water and heat proof dark coloured based inks or equivalent emulsion

(A) (B)

Conductors: Same as described under the head LT Cables Insulation : The insulation material used in high voltage power cables is cross linkable polyethylene compound (XLPE). The compound description is similar to one explained in case of LT Power cables. The difference in the XLPE compound used in LT cables against that used in HT cables lie primarily on its electrical properties. The dielectric strength, dissipation factor cleanliness are much superior as they call for requirements of a HT compound. All other physical, mechanical and thermo mechanical properties are similar. XLPE compound for LT power cables consist of a silane based composition, where the active silane group takes part in the crosslinking reaction, which is moisture, induced. Because of that, this type of compound finds application in LT cables. However HT cables restricted upto 11 KV and rarely upto 22 KV are made using an improved silane based XLPE compound, where utmost care is taken in the manufacturing process to make defect free cables. The most widely used XLPE compound for HT Power cable is made using peroxide based composition. The peroxide based reaction does not require any other chemical like moisture to induce crosslinking. The process makes pure hydrocarbon links during crosslinking exhibiting superior dielectric properties.

C)

Conductor/Insulation Screen (non-metallic) Non metallic screening material under this head consist of a copolymer compound (EVA or EEA) filled with conducting carbon black and other ingredients to make it suitable for operating temperature of the cable and compatible with insulation material. The compound gets bonded to the insulation from either side during the process of core formation. It is not necessary that the semiconducting compound to be crosslinkable, but a crosslinkable compound exhibit superior

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compatibility with insulation compound. The resistivity required for such compound at room temperature is 100-Ohm Cm maximum. In HT cables, semiconducting terene based tapes are also used as additional layer over extruded semiconducting component. D) Metallic Screen (Non-magnetic metallic screens) Metallic screens are made of copper wires and/or copper tapes. The copper wires are made from copper rods, which are used for conductor making. These are detailed under the head conductors in LT power cables. The copper tapes are made from equally pure copper and matches the conductivity/resistivity requirements of those used in conductor making. The tapes are of thickness varying between 0.05 mm and 0.1 mm and width between30 mm and 50 mm. The cross section (width X thickness) is selected based on the calculation of current to be carried and also the size of core on which it needs to be applied. The tapes are annealed and have very smooth surface. The edges are cut perfectly to avoid any damage being caused during usage. The tapes are available in the form of a roll. E) to N) The rest of the materials are common for LT and HT power cables and are described under LT Power Cable Section. 3. PROCESSES INVOLVED AND MACHINERIES USED IN HT POWER CABLE MANUFACTURING The manufacturing process of HT Power Cable consists of operations such as (a) Wire Drawing (b) Stranding (c) XLPE screening and insulation by extrusion (d) Metallic screening by Copper taping (e) Laying up (f) Innersheathing by extrusion/taping (g) Armouring (h) Outersheathing by extrusion. The manufacturing process described elaborately under LT Power cable chapter takes care of all common operations other than c) and (d) as above. Hence these two processes are described below: C). XLPE Screenings and insulation by extrusion : Conductors made through stranding process are subjected to this operation to form cores. The process requires three extrusion operations, which are done simultaneously using three extruders but a common head. The core consists of three concentric layers of extruded material. The first is a layer of black semiconducting compound formed over the stranded compacted conductor using the first extruder. Just on top of this a layer of white insulation compound is extruded to form the second layer and finally through another extruder a layer of black semiconducting compound is extruded over insulation layer. The semiconducting layer formed over conductor is called conductor screen

33

and the one over insulation is called insulation screen. The three layers i.e. conductor screen, insulation and insulation screen are formed through a common head known as triple head. The extrusion process as such is similar to the one explained under insulation by extrusion step in LT-Power Cable manufacture chapter. The only difference here is that three layers are to be formed concentrically over a moving conductor using three different extruders but one common crosshead. Other components like breaker plates and wire meshes required for smooth extrusion remain common in this process also. The entire operation as a whole consists of (i) a pay off from which conductors roll out (ii) a conductor welding machine to ensure continuity in feeding conductors for continuous operation (iii) a conductor accumulator consisting of 2 multigrooved capstans fixed on a structure. One of the capstans move to and fro while the other remains fixed. The multigrooved conductor accumulator serves mainly two purposes one to maintain proper tension to the conductor and the other, to accumulate sufficient quantity of conductor and continuously
feeding that to the extruder crosshead while allowing a conductor joint being made in case it is required. The conductor runs from the ground floor of a 3 storey building in which extruders are placed on the 2nd floor. It is important to ensure feeding of a clean, tightly held conductor to the crosshead of extruder for a smooth surface of extrudate. To ensure further firm feeding of conductor, a second capstan is mounted on the top floor prior to extruders. Polymeric semiconducting and insulation material boxes are kept on the first floor. Clean boxes are lifted by elevator to the material room situated at the first floor. The material room consists of 2 separate compartments in which semiconducting and insulation materials are kept. The enclosures are totally dust free and are maintained at a positive pressure to atmospheric pressure by using blowers. This eliminates further chances of dust flying in the atmosphere. The materials are sucked from respective boxes into a dehumidifier and then to the hopper of the extruders. The process is fully mechanical and no need of manual transportation/handling is necessary. Extreme cleanliness in handling and transportation is necessary for raw materials used in HT cable making as otherwise it may have impact on electrical properties. Once extrusion of core is found to be alright ensuring concentricity in the 3 layered extrudate, the core is subjected to crosslinking operation. The crosslinking is on line for HT XLPE cable. The core after extrusion enters the crosslinking tube (called CCV tube i.e. Continuous catenery vulcanization tube). The CCV tube is a long tube having length of more than 100 mtrs. The tube has two sections called heating section and cooling section. Each section is roughly equally divided. The heating section of the tube gets heated electrically to 400C (maximum) and an inert Nitrogen (N2) gas is pumped into

the tube to generate a pressure of approximately 10 Kg per Sq. Cm. The combination of pressure and temperature causes crosslinking reaction of the semiconducting and insulation layers. The uncrosslinked core travels through the tube at a predefined speed to ensure uniform crosslinking. The screws of individual extruders rotate at predefined

34

speed to pump requisite quantities of polymer materials, which ultimately form screen and insulation. Depending on the voltage grade the thickness of insulation changes and increases with increasing voltage grade. The tools required for extrusion are selected based on the voltage grade and cross section of conductor to be covered. The process of extrusion and cross linking needs utmost care and skill so that perfect core making becomes possible. The uncrosslinked cores consist of highly viscoelastic polymers bound on a conductor. The bound polymers will have a tendency to sag downwards till it is crosslinked. The cross linking reaction thus has to take place fast to avoid sagging phenomenon. The heavy core practically hangs on the cross linking tube till touch down point is reached. To avoid touching of core at the bottom of tube before and immediately after cross linking, the design of tube is made such that it is not horizontal, rather it is having a calculated catenery angle. Hence the process is known as continuous catenery vulcanization (CCV) process. Other technique followed is known as vertical cross-linking tube. In this method the cross-linking takes place in a vertical tube instead of catenery tube. Extra high-tension cables, where wall thickness of insulation is very high are made by this process. Another technique adopted by some manufacturers involve use of long land die (where the die length is more than 3 meters) and a horizontal curing tube. This technique eliminates any chance of sagging of cores in case of EHV cables. The CCV process is the most common amongst all and is used for both HV and EHV cable manufacturing safely upto 132 KV. The crosslinked cores after passing through the hot tube enters cold part of the tube. Here water at high pressure is pumped from the rear end of the cold tube. The core comes out of cold tube in a homogenously crosslinked condition and is allowed to cool further at air or in an open water trough to attain room temperature. The core is collected in a metal drum loaded on a take up stand. XLPE core thus manufactured is taken for the next process called copper taping process. d) Metallic Screening by Copper taping : In this process, a non-magnetic metallic tape is lapped over the cross linked core (XLPE core) using a taping machine. Just like lapping of polymer tapes over laid up cores, in this process a metal tape (copper tape) is used. The taping head (the unit used for holding and unreeling tapes) is situated between pay-off and take-up stands. In the taping

35

head, one or more copper tape rolls are loaded. The head operates in such a way that it can release tapes from rolls and cover the running XLPE core in a predetermined overlap ensuring perfect coverage. From a separate stand, coloured polyester tapes (used for identification of phases) are unreeled and placed longitudinally below copper tape. The taping machine produces smooth metallic tapped cores, which are collected in a take up drum. The copper tapped drums are sent at this stage to high voltage test laboratory for conducting partial discharge test (PD test). This test qualifies electrical healthiness of a core to be taken for next operation called laying up operation. If in a construction, it is necessary to provide copper wire screening then the same is done using a stranding or armouring machine. Very often the wire screens are required to be covered with a copper tape running helically over copper wire screen maintaining a gap. A stranding or armouring machine having taping head serves the purpose of copper taping over wire screen in a single process. In such a construction, it is not necessary to use a copper taping machine. The screened cores made by this process go for PD testing at QC followed by laying up process. The subsequent operations i.e. laying up of cores, innersheathing, armouring and outersheathing take place in sequence as found under LT Power cable chapter. 4. CROSSLINKING OF HIGH TENSION XLPE CORES USING EITHER OF DRY CURING SYSTEM OR WET CURING SYSTEM. The technologies used for crosslinking of high tension XLPE cores involve systems known as (a) Dry curing system (b) Wet curing system. The two systems are adopted by manufacturers of high tension XLPE cables all over the world. The features of both the technologies are described below: A) Dry Curing System: i) The chemistry of crosslinking leads to C-C linkage ii) No Wet atmosphere (Water/Steam) is there till the cores are crosslinked. iii) Post extrusion to cooling, the cores remain in enclosed tube. iv) On line crosslinking v) Possibility to manufacture cores continuously for days without lot changing vi) No manual handling of cores till crosslinking and cooling are over. vii) Uses a very expensive manufacturing plant and needs to be imported

36

viii) Losses are more in case of malfunctioning of equipment/process problem ix) Requires huge space to install the plant x) Cure simulation is required to satisfy co-crosslinking of three layers xi) Chances of void formation is very negligible for 33 KV and above ratings of cables. xii) Required to install a Nitrogen gas generating plant to feed Nitrogen gas for curing xiii) Possible to manufacture 33 KV and above ratings of cable having desired concentricity and extent of crosslinking. xiv) Curing is done in a pressurized tube, calling for additional safety measures to be taken. B. Wet (Steam/hot water) Curing System : i) The chemistry of crosslinking leads to C-Si-O-Si-C linkage ii) The cores are cooled in water post extrusion iii) The crosslinking takes place in a wet environment iv) Curing is done by batch process v) Because of batch process, there is a limitation to drum length of cable. vi) The plant and machinery are not very expensive vii) Losses are less in case of equipment/process malfunctioning viii) Does not require very large factory space ix) Required an associated curing arrangement in the form of steam chamber or water tank etc. x) Curing is restricted to insulation only, semiconducting layers are of thermoplastic compound based xi) Because of batch curing, extremely difficult to crosslink the cores beyond 33 KV. Chances of non-uniform crosslinking cannot be ruled out. xii) Maintenance expenses are comparatively lower. Other Systems: Other systems like (i) irradiation technology remained confined to thin wall crosslinking and could not be extended to thick wall crosslinking because of poorpenetration of irradiation energy into thick mass. (ii) the pressurized liquid salt curing system for both sulphur based and peroxide based compounds remained restricted to elastomer based HT Cables. The probable reason is that the curing line is horizontal which cannot ensure sag-free (concentric) XLPE cores.

C)

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CHAPTER 4 EXTRA HIGH VOLTAGE (EHV) POWER CABLES 1. DEVELOPMENT: High Voltage Cables having voltage ratings of 66 KV and above are generally termed as extra high voltage cables. As long as oil filled extra high voltage power cables were in use, cables having a voltage rating upto 132 KV used to be designed and installed. The trend continued until 1970. With the increasing power demands in cities, towns and industrial premises, demands of EHV power cables increased rapidly for underground installation. The problems of oil leakage leading to fire hazards associated with oil filled cables coupled with its maintenance problems became points of concern. All these could be overcome with the advent of XLPE insulated EHV cables. Cables designed and manufactured upto a voltage grade of 400 KV and are successfully being used worldwide. The majority of EHV cables have been installed for 66 and 132 KV systems. Experimental length of cables have been made beyond 400 KV are in service to evaluate their performance. Higher dielectric strength, lower dielectric losses, higher thermal endurance during continuous operation, short time overload and

38

short circuiting, higher flexibility, improved deformation resistance, higher impact resistance, easier installation, superior jointing, availability of longer length of cable to reduce number of joints, free from fire risks, easy maintainability, lighter weight and longer life of XLPE insulated EHV cables have practically replaced oil filled cables across the world. 2. CRITERIA OF EHV CABLE DESIGN: Unlike HV XLPE cable, the EHV XLPE cables are designed for a single core construction exclusively instead of 3 core construction. As the insulation thickness is quite large, the core diameter become proportionately larger, making a 3 core cable practically very difficult to handle and transport. The cable looses flexibility, drum length gets limited thereby increasing number of joints. A single core construction thus became popular and subsequently standardized. The factors which need to be considered while designing an EHV XLPE power cable is as follows: System voltage, maximum fault level, load to be carried, extent of electrical stress likely to be generated, impulse breakdown stress, installation condition, water-tightness requirement (to avoid ingress of water penetrating in cables), expected life of cable, maximum bending radius desired (to decide the construction of water tight cable). CONSTRUCTION OF EHV XLPE CABLE AND THE MATERIALS USED: The construction of EHV XLPE cable is more or less similar to HV XLPE cable other than the features introduced to take care of water tightness property. The conductor and conductor screening are exactly similar to HV XLPE cable. The insulation material is a super clean low melt flow index (MFI) grade XLPE compound specially formulated to meet requirement of superior electrical properties and possibility to extrude a higher insulation thickness having good concentricity (no sagging of insulation prior to cross linking). Maintenance of perfect thickness (eccentricity not exceeding 10% and ovality not exceeding 2%) of insulation (both nominal and minimum at a point) is desired. The guideline formula for minimum thickness in relation to nominal thickness being same as in HV XLPE cable. The thickness (nominal) of insulation varies from 11 mm to 24 mm for 66 KV to 220 KV range. The thickness increases further for still higher voltage grade cables. The basis of deciding higher insulation thickness depends on two factors (i) higher service voltage withstanding capacity and (ii) the permissible electrical stress at conductor surface. The permissible electrical stress at conductor surface is 4 KV/mm for 66 KV and it goes upto 7KV/mm for 220 KV cable.

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Just like HV XLPE cables, the insulation screen of EHV cable also consists of two parts (a) Non-metallic semi-conducting XLPE compound extruded over insulation surface. This follows a layer of semi-conducting water swellable non-woven tape serving the purpose of water swellability as well as providing a cushion for the metallic screen. (b) Metallic screen consisting of a combination of copper wires and tape. Above the metallic screen, a layer of non-conducting water swellable nonwoven tape is provided, which again acts as a water swellable component. A layer of Polyethylene- Aluminium-Polyethylene Laminated water blocking tape is provided longitudinally with an overlap and the same is sealed in the overlap portion. Application of this combination of non-woven water blocking tape and laminated Poly-Aluminium-Poly tape protects the cable from radial and longitudinal entry of moisture. By preventing the ingress of water in the core the chances of water tree formation is totally eliminated. The next operation is application of a medium density polyethylene layer by extrusion. The polyethylene layer of laminated tape below this layer forms a firm bonding ensuring further water tightness in the cable. Application of Aluminium wire (non-magnetic material) armour over the innersheath is done in the next component. The function of metallic screen and Aluminium wire armour is : (i) to provide a path for dielectric charging and leakage current (ii) to act as a return conductor for earth fault current. Finally an extruded PVC or HDPE outersheath is provided over the armour for overall protection of the cable. A black outersheath to protect the cable from UV radiation is preferred. A layer of graphite is applied on the outersheath, which enables the cable to be tested after installation to check any damage occurring on the sheath. 4. PROCESSES INVOLVED AND MACHINERIES USED IN EHV POWER CABLE MANUFACTURING: The manufacturing process of EHV power cable consists of following operations a) Wire drawing b) Stranding c) XLPE screenings and insulation by extrusion d) Semi-conducting water blocking tape application followed by

40

copper wires and helical copper tape application followed by plane water blocking tape application in a single process using a stranding machine having multiple taping heads, e) Application of polyethylene-Aluminiumpolyethylene laminated tape prior to innersheath application by extrusion f) Aluminium wire armouring and h) PVC or HDPE outersheathing by extrusion followed by application of graphite based conductive paste over outersheath. The stepwise manufacturing process has been described in earlier sections of LT and HT cable manufacturing. Special care has to be taken during the processes so that the minimum chance of any contamination and moisture entering in the cable get eliminated. As far as possible manual handling during CCV process is avoided till the crosslinked core come out of CCV line. Application of water blocking tapes and metallic screening are done in a wirestranding machine having multiple taping heads. This single operation consisting of many components is done taking utmost care to produce defect free screens. The need that water swellable tapes do not undergo undue frictional work is a key factor. The method involved in applying longitudinal Poly-Al-Poly laminated tape uses a metallic cone through which the laminated tape passes and form an overlap which gets heat sealed during extrusion of polyethylene innersheath on that. The cone unit is kept after the pay off stand and before entry into crosshead of the extruder. The setting of laminated tape has to be done skillfully so that desired overlap is formed once the cable comes out of cone and gets perfectly heat sealed longitudinally along overlap. The other process unique for the EHV cable is the application of conductive paste over outersheath. The extruded, cooled and dried outersheath passes through a small trough containing the conductive paste. The paste gets embedded on the dry outersheath surface. The viscosity and composition of the paste is such that it covers the whole surface forming a thin layer, which gets quickly dried prior to cable getting reeled on the take-up drum.

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CHAPTER - 5 CONTROL CABLES: Control cables are generally PVC insulated multicore copper cables. They are used for powering control equipments and tools located either in dry, damp or wet location. Based on specific application, the cables with elastomer insulated/sheathed as well as XLPE insulated/PVC sheathed are also manufactured. Whenever there is a need to use the cables at 90C or in 115C application, special insulation based on XLPE or EPDM rubber is designed. But such an application is very rare. A control cable insulated with HR PVC compound suitable upto 85C continuous temperature serves almost all special application. Hence the design and manufacture of control cables resemble LT power cables in almost all aspects, other than the fact that number of cores may be as low as 2 cores to as high as 61 cores. The conductor normally used is made of copper metal. The sizes are normally two viz. 1.5 sq.mm and 2.5 sq.mm. Both solid and stranded construction of conductor is followed as per requirement. For a multi strand conductor, number of strands is three in a conductor. Nominal thickness of insulation is 0.8 mm for 1.5 sq.mm conductor and 0.9 mm for 2.5 sq.mm conductor (both solid and stranded). For insulation, either Type A, Type C or XLPE compound is used. The cables are rated for 1.1 KV applications. For control cables having four cores, the core identification is done by colouring of cores. For 5 cores and more, either colour coding or number printing is done on cores for PVC insulated cables and colour coded for XLPE insulated cores as per the guidelines provided in relevant standards. Either taped or extruded innersheathing is done with thickness of sheath ranging from 0.3 to 0.4 mm. Normally for cables having 6 and more core construction, tapped innersheathing is preferred as otherwise, the flexibility of the cable may get affected. For armoured cables, steel round wires of size 1.4 mm find use in comparatively lower diameter cables and for higher diameter cables flat GI strip armour of size 4 x 0.8 mm is used. The outersheath is made of PVC compound whose minimum thickness varies from 1.24 mm to 1.56 mm as size and number of cores increase. The design, construction, materials used and manufacturing processes are common as in LT-Power cables are not detailed again. The guiding specifications of control cables are same as those of Power cables. CHAPTER 6

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QUALITY ASSURANCE AND TESTING OF CABLES 1) PURPOSE: The broad purpose of quality assurance and testing of cables is to assess whether the manufactured product possesses requisite characteristics or properties as visualized/intended. This cannot be done by testing the cables at the final finished stage alone and hence it calls for a systematic quality assurance plan right from checking at the raw material stage, extending the checks at various processes during the manufacturing and finally conducting tests on the finished product. 2) QUALITY ASSURANCE PLAN AND TYPE OF TESTS: Quality assurance plan is made which includes : a) tests to be conducted on major raw materials at the incoming stage and the respective acceptance norms. This plan is drawn considering the various characteristics of raw materials, which will affect on the performance of finished cable. A strategic sampling plan ensures conformity to characteristics of a representative lot. b) tests to be conducted on a cable undergoing manufacturing during all major processes. The processes have been explained in the chapter covering manufacturing of cables. The purpose of conducting tests during progress of a process is to ensure : i. the desired characteristics are being met in the product as designed and ii. the performance of the process as standardized. The tests conducted under this category cover physical, mechanical & electrical tests as required. The type of tests and their acceptance norms normally fall in line with the requirements at final stage. By conducting checks at in process stage, as it is commonly called, any deficiency or deviation may be corrected at this stage itself. An appropriate corrective action will eliminate chances of its recurrence in subsequent lots. In-process inspection is a powerful method to assure desired quality in cables. c) tests conducted on the completed cables known as testing of finished cables. The tests to be conducted, their norms, sampling plan, acceptance criteria etc. are normally decided based on the guiding standards (like Indian standards/International standards) and customers specifications. On the completed cables the required tests are conducted to assess conformity. Any non-conformity reported at this stage calls for an immediate disposal action to prevent non-conforming product getting shipped to customers. An efficient quality assurance plan and following the same in real spirit can reduce occurrence of non-conformity being reported at the final stage. A standard quality plan is annexed to understand the subject more easily.

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3)

TYPE OF TESTS CONDUCTED ON FINISHED CABLES: The tests conducted on finished cables are categorized into four categories a) Routine Tests b) Type tests c) Acceptance tests d) Special tests. a) Routine Tests: Routine tests are tests conducted on each and every finished length of a cable. Routine tests mean tests conducted on a cable to assess its suitability during routine service condition. Electrical tests such as conductor resistance tests to confirm the desired size of conductor and the purity of conductor material used in one of the tests. The other being high voltage test conducted to assess the capacity of the insulation material to withstand service voltage as well as any defect in the insulation. For high and extra high tension cables, Partial discharge (PD) test is also conducted on the drum length of finished cable as a routine test. This test helps to assess whether any void or contamination is present in the insulation, which may cause failure of cable at a later date while in service. b) Type Tests: Type tests consist of a number of tests conducted on a piece of cable (not on the entire drum length) cut from a finished cable drum length. The purpose of these tests is to confirm the suitability of a cable against the type, which has been constructed for a particular application. The sample taken for type tests represents the entire lot of cable manufactured of a particular type. The package of type tests comprises of tests on each component of the cable and covers physical, mechanical and electrical tests both on material and cable. The tests are mostly destructive in nature. Few mechanical and thermal tests are covered under type test programme which are called accelerated ageing tests and are long duration tests requiring as high as 2 weeks of testing time. The accelerated ageing tests are conducted to have an estimate of the performance of the cables whose life varies from 10 to 30 years and beyond. In electrical tests also, the test voltage, time, temperature, testing cycle etc. are chosen which are much beyond the conditions those prevail during normal operation. On successful (approximately characteristics also validates application. completion of type tests on a particular cable length 20 meters) the cable is understood to possess desirable to perform during service condition. This the construction of the cable designed for intended

c) Acceptance Tests: Acceptance tests also consist of a number of tests conducted on few pieces of cables drawn from a manufactured lot. These tests are

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conducted during clients witness of test programme on a manufactured lot in order to decide about the lot to be shipped for usage or not. The test programme is a blend of routine and type tests and comprises of about a dozen of tests to be conducted on samples. These include physical, mechanical and electrical tests. Long duration tests do not fall within the scope of acceptance tests. On successful completion of acceptance tests, the clients representative can be sure of the cables having desired characteristics necessary to perform during operation and can release the lot for shipping to destination. All routine, type and acceptance tests are supplemented by relevant test standard, test methods, sampling plan, acceptance criteria and are applicable for all types of cables.
d) Special Tests

Special tests are those tests which do not get covered under routine or type or acceptance tests. Generally special tests are conducted to assess a particular property or a set of properties, which have been built in the cable to exhibit during its operation. Customers while placing an order to the manufacturer ask for special requirements and the associated tests to be carried out either forming a part of type or acceptance tests. A few examples areshort time current tests on conductor/screen, load cycle tests, flammability and fire retardancy tests as per various national and international standards, ultraviolet radiation resistance tests, resistance to fuels tests, water tightness tests (for water tight EHV cables), fire survival tests etc. These tests, like type tests are conducted taking one sample from the lot manufactured and may form a part of acceptance tests. When any such special requirements are sought by the customer, adequate care is taken to design the cable for the intended application, followed by manufacturing and testing. Some times, a special requirement may call for usage of a new material and/or selecting a special construction of the cable. The requirement is translated into cable design and a quality assurance plan is devised for the customer to approve. 4. MAJOR TESTS CONDUCTED ON CABLES: Major tests, which are conducted on cable, are summarised below. Three categories have been found to distribute the tests. These are (A) Electrical tests (B) Physical tests and (C) Flammability and other tests. A. Electrical Test i) Conductor Resistance Test

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It is conducted on both drum length and on approximately 5 m length of conductor. By connecting to a resistance measuring bridge at ambient temperature, reading of resistance is noted. Care is taken to minimize contact resistance and ensuring that during measurement current is controlled and heating up of test specimens do not take place. The measured resistance is corrected for the standard temperature (by applying temperature correction factor) and standard length. The calculation is done using the formula R = L Rt x K X 1000 Ohm/km at 20C

Where R = Conductor resistance Rt = Value of resistance as measured by the instrument K L = Temperature correction factor = Length of test specimen in meters

For details, to refer Indian Standard IS: 10810 (Part-5) ii) High Voltage Test This test is conducted on full drum length of cable (during routine test) or on a minimum3 m length of cable as type/acceptance test. A high voltage source is used as the apparatus for applying high voltage. The high voltage source is connected to the conductor of the core being tested. The other cores, screens and armour are connected to the earth terminal. For unarmoured/unscreened single core cable, the test is conducted by immersing the cable in water. After homogenization, high voltage is applied on the conductor and water is earthed. The voltage is raised slowly @ 2000V/second (max.) to the test voltage and retained for the specified time. The voltage is decreased rapidly after the elapsed time. If it is necessary to conduct the test at elevated temperature, in that case, the water temperature in the bath is raised prior to applying high voltage. After the test the circuit is properly discharged. The test does not need any calculation to determine the results. If there is no breakdown during the test tenure, the cable is considered to have withstood the requirement.

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For details, to refer Indian Standard IS:10810 (Part-45) iii) Partial discharge test: The test is conducted on full drum length or on a sample of cable 10 m or more long. In this test partial discharge occurring in a screened HT cable because of voids/occlusions/contaminants present in the insulation is measured using a discharge measuring instrument. The measurement is very sensitive and hence the test is conducted in a shielded room which can isolate external signals/noises which otherwise interferes with the measurement. The method of test used high voltage power supply, Resonance transformer, coupling capacitor, high voltage voltmeter, measuring impedance, variable resistance, isolation transformer, discharge detector with Oscilloscope, calibration pulse generator, screened enclosure. A calibrating pulse of predetermined magnitude is injected to measure and compare partial discharge detected in a cable core. The magnitude of the calibrating pulse can be varied. As a procedure, a pulse having 20 PC magnitudes is used for calibration, as the same value is considered as the maximum acceptance limit for this test. To enable accurate measurement of partial discharge in a core, proper cable end termination is a prerequisite. To avoid ionization of air at the point where high voltage is applied, which may affect proper detection of partial discharge, an oil or water termination is used to immerse the cable ends into it. Under the influence of applied high voltage in a core, the voids present get ionized and is detected as partial discharge on the detector and oscilloscope. A digital discharge detector helps to read the level of discharge on it. No calculation is thus necessary to find out the level of discharge. As a method, the test voltage is applied between conductor and screen. A test voltage equal to 1.75 Uo(1.75 times of phase to earth voltage) is applied and held for maximum 1 minute. The voltage is then reduced to 1.5 Uo at which measurement of partial discharge is done and noted. For a multicore cable, the same is followed one by one for all the cores. After the completion of test proper discharging of circuit is done. For details, to refer Indian standard IS 10810 (Part 46). iv) Dielectric Power factor test The test is a type test and is conducted on a 10 m long piece of HT cable. Power factor of a dielectric should be as low as possible in order to reduce the heating of the dielectric material and to minimize its effect on the rest of the network. The power factor is dependent on voltage and temperature and is checked in a high voltage cable to measure the effect

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of any voids or impurities or any mechanical imperfection present in the insulation. Like partial discharge measurement, this test is also very sensitive test and needs to be measured very precisely. The equipment involved to measure power factor of a dielectric material are power factor measuring set (called schering bridge), standard capacitor, current loading transformer, high voltage source, temperature measuring equipment and a shielded enclosure (preferably). On a sample, which is properly insulated from ground, the conductor is connected to the HV terminal and the screen/armour is connected to the Schering Bridge. The power factor is measured at 0.5 Uo, Uo and 2 Uo. At Uo, the capacitance of the sample is also measured. For measuring power factor at maximum conductor temperature, the conductor is heated to attain and stabilize at the temperature. The power factor is measured as above but at 2 KV and reported. The obtained values of power factor at specified voltages as well as the difference in power factor between two voltages are reported and checked with respective acceptance norms to verify compliance. Relevant standards, including Indian Standards are there where acceptance criteria are defined. For details, to refer Indian Standard IS 10810 ( Part 48 ) v) Impulse voltage withstand test This test is conducted as a type test on a 10 meter long cable. Insulating materials designed to be used in HV/EHV cables need to be checked against transient over voltages resulting from lightning stroke. Successfully withstanding such lightning impulse voltages for a very short duration establishes the reliability of the cable insulation material selected as well as over all design of the cable. The instruments used for the test includes impulse voltage generator with sphere gaps, current transformer, thermometer, Oscilloscope, barometer, humidity meter, voltmeter, computer with printer, voltage divider etc. The cable is heated at a temperature 5C more than its rated maximum temperature. At different settings of the spheregaps, the impulse generator is calibrated for both positive and negative polarity. The spheregap settings are so adjusted that their 50 percent flash over voltages are approximately 50, 65 and 80 percent of the test voltage level specified for three different spheregap settings. A preheated cables both ends were connected to the impulse generator. A straight line curve with charging voltage vs spheregap flash over voltages is drawn and extra polated to determine necessary

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charging voltage to apply impulse voltage on cable. voltage divider selected is fixed for the test.

The ratio of

With the above settings, the desired peak voltage is applied so that no flashover occurs across the gap. The cable is maintained at set temperature. Ensuring every time that the impulse generator is fully charged, 10 positive shots followed by recalibration and 10 negative shots are applied on the cable. Clean, undistorted wave forms are recorded on the oscillograms. The cable is required to withstand specified impulse voltages. For details, to refer Indian Standard IS 10810 (Part 47). vi) Insulation resistance test: The test is conducted either on full drum length of cable or on a sample length of cable comprising of minimum 3 meters length. The insulation material used in cable is to insulate the conductors from one another and from ground. It is thus necessary to measure the insulation resistance property of the insulated core, which is desired to be as high as possible. The equipment used for this test consist of an electronic million megohmmeter, thermostatically controlled water bath and power supply source. The test specimen is a cable. The conductor is connected to the high voltage terminal of the meter (500 50 V dc), the screen/armour or water bath is earthed. Once the supply is given for 1 minute, the specimen gets adequately charged. The reading of insulation resistance is then taken either at room temperature or at elevated temperature based on requirement. The volume resistivity or insulation resistance constant is calculated from the observed value of insulation resistance by using respective formula
Volume resistivity = 2 LR x 108 Loge D d ohm.cm

Insulation resistance constant = Where R L D d = = = =

LR Meg ohm Km 1000 Log10 D d Measured resistance (M ) Length of cable (m) Diameter of insulation (mm) Diameter of conductor (mm)

For details, to refer Indian Standard IS 10810 (Part 43)

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vii)

Load Cycle Test This test is conducted on sample length of 10 m as a type test on EHV cables. The purpose of this test is to assess the strength of insulation material under the application of high voltage simultaneously when the cable is undergoing repeated heating and cooling cycles. It is a long duration high voltage test in which a voltage of 2 Uo is applied on the cable for a time span, which consists of 20 cycles of heating and cooling at the rate of 5 cycles per week. Each cycle of 24 hours consists of 8 hours of heating of the cable at 90 C followed by 16 hours of cooling at ambient temperature. The requirement is that the cable must withstand the voltage applied. The cable is then subjected to a partial discharge measurement. Compliance of this test is also a necessity. A high voltage test set up, a partial discharge test set up and a current transformer, other than 10 to 15 meters of cable are required for this test.

viii) Short Circuit Current Test

This test is conducted on a cable sample of length 10 m. During short circuit there is a sudden increase of current may be 20 times more than the rated current, which happens for upto 3 seconds. The conductor needs to withstand this current which otherwise would cause high thermo-mechanical and electromagnetic force leading to damage to the system. The short circuit current carrying capacity for a XLPE insulated Aluminium conductor based cable is calculated as follows:Ish = 0.094 x A T

Where Ish = Short circuit current in KA, A = Area of cross section of the conductor is Sq.mm, T = duration of short circuit in seconds, 0.094 = a factor for XLPE insulated cable. The effect of application of short circuit current is seen in terms of following phenomena a) The conductor temperature should not go beyond 250C from 90C b) The pre and post short circuit testing of partial discharge, conductor resistance and routine high voltage tests must be complied with. c) There should not be any physical damage to the cable.

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In short circuit current test, a very high current is passed from a current generator to the conductor of the cable forming a loop. The duration normally varies from 0.2 second to 3 seconds based on requirement. The conductor temperature is increased and maintained at the maximum rated temperature prior to application of current. To meet the requirement of short circuit, primarily calculation of proper conductor cross section is necessary. The ratings of screens, armour and the basic construction of cable is adequately calculated and designed.
B) Physical Tests: i)

Measurement of thickness/diameter of components: In a cable construction, thickness or diameter of a constituent is specified considering its effect during end use application. Whether it is the thickness of insulation or sheath and the diameter of a wire or core, accurate measurement is necessary to verify the specified parameters. For example, the thickness of insulation or sheath is specified on the basis of voltage stress and/or mechanical forces the component (as well as the cable as a whole) is required to withstand in service. Accurate measurement of thickness ensures whether the cable is likely to withstand the intended voltage to be applied on it. The measurements are taken by using either of a micrometer, vernier calipers, graduated magnifying glasses, microscope or a profile projector. Least count and magnification should be adequate for measurement. Measurements are taken at several equidistant points on the periphery of insulation or sheath. Both minimum value and average values are reported. Normally a sheath is circular in nature and hence measurements are taken on circumference. But insulation and innersheath are not always circular. For details, to refer Indian Standard IS 10810 (Part 6).

ii) Tensile Strength and Elongation at Break Tests: These tests are conducted on conductor material as well as on insulation and sheath materials. A cable is subjected to tensile stress both during manufacturing and during laying in the ground. A tremendous pulling force becomes necessary to be applied. The conductor and insulation/sheath must withstand the force safely. The principle of this test method calls for pulling a properly prepared sample (circular/dumb-bell shaped) by holding it in the

51

jaws of a tensile testing machine. One of the jaws is stationary and the other moves at a specified speed by firmly gripping the sample till it breaks. For determining the elongation at break, the ratio of increment in length to the original length (marked by gauge marking) as a percentage is found out. Tensile strength is calculated as the ratio of breaking load to the area of cross section of the sample and the result is reported as N/mm2. For details, refer Indian Standard IS 10810 (Pt.7). iii) Ageing Test Polymeric insulation and sheath materials need to remain exposed to heat in presence of air during service. Changes in physical and chemical characteristics are likely to happen due to the exposure. The extent of changes depends on the nature of exposure and the duration. To assess the changes, an artificial accelerated exposure conditions are created and samples are subjected to this. At the end of exposure, which is called ageing, the samples are subjected to tensile strength and elongation at break to assess the changes in physical/mechanical properties and physical weighment to assess the changes in weight. Ageing oven is an instrument in which cells are there. The cells are heated externally and a forced air circulation is created. A polymer sample in a cell experiences the ageing atmosphere for a specified duration after which the changes in properties are measured. For details, to refer Indian Standard IS 10810 (Part.11)

iv) Hot Set Test Crosslinked polymers are used as insulation in many cables. By Crosslinking a thermoplastic material gets converted to a thermosetting material. The hot set test is a mean to verify whether cross-linking has taken place properly. This is a very significant test for crosslinked polymer based insulation, since crosslinking imparts enhancement in characteristics of material from its uncrosslinked state.

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By hot set test, thermo mechanical properties are measured. A sample under stress in a heated oven for a specified period is required to retain desired strain (elongation) at the end of the period. At the same time, once the load is removed and the thermal shock gradually withdrawn, the sample is required to recover its dimension (length) to the desired extent at room temperature. These two phenomena are named as hot set elongation and permanent set respectively. For details, to refer Indian Standards IS 10810 (Part 20) v) Shrinkage Test When a polymer compound is extruded at a high temperature on either a moving conductor/laid up cable/armoured cable and immediately cooled, it is likely that the extrudate retains a residual strain. The triple action of heating, pulling and cooling may result into developing an extent of strain in the polymer. On further heating, the polymer gets rid of this strain and regains its original state in which the residual strain is negligible. The effect of this is seen as the polymer compound shrinks (gets reduced longitudinally). This phenomenon is called shrinkage. In an extruded cable an extent of shrinkage beyond a specified limit is harmful as it may affect the termination when the cable gets heated during service. In a shrinkage test, an extruded portion of cable is heated for a specified period and cooled to attain room temperature. A measurement is done to check the longitudinal reduction in dimension of the extrudate and calculated in terms of percentage shrinkage. For details, to refer Indian Standard IS 10810 (Part 12) vi) Heat Shock, hot deformation and thermal stability tests. Thermo plastic materials, particularly PVC compound based insulation and sheaths are often subjected to heating load either alone or under mechanical pressure. Such a condition may arise due to overload or, short-circuiting in cables. Thermo plastic insulation and sheath must withstand severe thermal load and are not supposed to crack, degrade or deform. Cracks and degradation spoils the material and these may lead to cable failure at any time. Deformation causes identification on insulation and sheath and the respective thickness get reduced. If the reduction happens beyond a certain limit, the cable becomes vulnerable to failure.

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The above tests are thermal shock tests in nature under different conditions and simulates real field conditions in which an insulation and sheath are likely to be subjected to. Successful qualification of these tests is necessary for the thermo plastic materials to be suitable for use in cables. The tests are conducted at different temperatures and time periods. For example, heat shock is conducted at 150 degrees for 15 minutes, hot deformation at 80 degrees for 6 hours and thermal stability test at 200C and the material is supposed to withstand for 40 minutes to 100 minutes depending on the type of compound used. For details, to refer Indian Standard IS 10810 (Part 14, 15 and 60) C) Flammability and other tests i) Oxygen Index and Temperature Index Tests These tests are applicable to fire resistant cables. A fire resistant cable is designed such that its outersheath (also sometimes innersheath) compound is having a high oxygen and temperature index. It means, a cable with fire resistant outersheath/innersheath should not catch fire at normal atmospheric condition in which the level of oxygen in air is 21% maximum and temperature is 27C(approx). Higher Oxygen index means an oxygen level in air more than 21% and a higher temperature index means, for a cable sheath to burn at air, (having 21% oxygen) the atmospheric temperature should be more than 27C (or, other prevailing atmospheric condition at the time of test). Sheath compounds are designed which will not normally burn at an oxygen level of less than 29% (balance Nitrogen & other gases) at normal atmospheric temperature and in otherways if it catches fire at normal level of oxygen (i.e. 21%) present in air then the atmospheric temperature should be more than 250C. A sheath compound meeting above requirement is must. In laboratory, an apparatus having a burning chamber in which percentage of oxygen and nitrogen can be varied to create artificial atmosphere is used. A sheath sample is subjected to burning for a defined time under changing oxygen content and temperature to effect candle like burning. A sample is declared pass/fail noting the oxygen content (for oxygen index test) and temperature of atmosphere (for temperature index test). ii) Smoke Density Test When a polymer sheath burns in the event of fire on a cable, dense smoke is generated making it very difficult for the fire fighters to do their job. The smoke contains corrosive acid fumes, which is harmful otherwise. The sheath of a fire resistant low smoke (FRLS) cable upon

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burning generates a lesser dense smoke, which will not obstruct the visibility of fire fighters in the event of fighting fire. The corrosive gas content is also low which do not harm the fire fighters and other persons present in the vicinity of fire. By doing smoke density test, the smoke generation pattern of a FRLS sheath is determined. The test allows a specified size of FRLS sheath sample to burn totally under flame. During every 15 seconds of a 4 minute test, optical smoke density reading is noted and a graph of smoke density vs time is plotted. From the area under the curve, quantum of smoke density rating is calculated. On a scale of 100, if the smoke density rating is calculated to be 60 (say), then the light transmission is calculated to be 100- smoke density rating (60) = 40. For details, to refer ASTM D 2843 standard. iii) Acid Gas Generation Test: When particularly PVC based sheath burns under fire, it liberates dense smoke containing corrosive hydrochloric acid (Hcl) gas. This corrosive gas not only affects the equipment in its vicinity but also causes harm to human being. In a fire resistant low smoke (FRLS) sheathed cable, there is a maximum limit permissible for Hcl gas to be generated when a sheath compound is totally decomposed to ashes. The principle of acid gas generation test involves a measured amount of sheath material to be decomposed in an electrically heated furnace under a controlled heating environment. The liberated gas is collected in an alkaline medium followed by titration to determine the quantity of Hcl acid gas present in the sheath. Two aspects are being emphasized in this experiment. One being to ensure total decomposition of sheath followed by collection for titration and the second being conducting accurate titration process to do accurate measurement. For details, to refer IEC-60754 Part-1 test standard. iv) Flammability tests on complete Cable. On complete cables of Fire resistant /Fire resistant low smoke category, there are flammability tests being conducted as per specifications such as Indian Standards (IS 10810 Part 53), IEC 60332 Part 1, IEC 60332 Part-3, IEEE=-383 and Swedish standards (SS-424-14-75). The Swedish Standard calls for cable to be burnt by applying liquid flame (Alcohol based) which is subjected to the cross section of a cable . The other standards call for applying a mixture of LPG and air as fuel for burning and are applied on the sheath of a cable. The flame may propagate to the other components of the cable under fire or may

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propagate upwards to affect more length of the cable with the passage of time during testing. The purpose of the tests is to simulate various fire conditions as rigorously as possible to determine the performance of the cable in an event similar to the one. Two characteristics are normally measured (a) the affected portion of test length and(b) period of burning after removal of flame. For details, to refer above standards. v) Fire Survival Test Special control and instrumentation cables are designed with a specific intention that the cables must survive the fire conditions and continue working even if it is under fire. If the cable continues to work then the control and instrumentation equipment will also function which will enable to fight fire more efficiently and help to avoid an otherwise big disaster. The test called fire survival test is a simulation of a control/instrumentation cable being subjected to fire when the cable is live having 3A fuses on each circuit. A flame consisting of mixture of LPG and air is subjected straight on a cable and is continued for 3 hours. During the test the circuit integrity of the cable is to be sustained, which is concluded by observing the status of 3A fuses connected to each core of the cable. The test is declared successful if any of the 3A fuses do not blow off during the test. For details, to refer IEC 60331 Standard. vi) Water Tightness Test This test is conducted on extra high tension XLPE cable, which are mostly of single core construction. EHV cable construction is designed to prevent water penetration both radially and longitudinally. The entry of water is restricted by practicing a good laying operation underground. Even then if by any odd eventuality, water makes an entry into the cable, the water tightness construction prevents entry of water to the core. The watertight barriers possess the capability to swell 5 times or more of their volumes within a span of one minute, thus preventing any trace of water reaching the core. By successfully performing this test future probability of water tree formation in cores is avoided. The test comprises a watertight barrel filled with cable test piece and water. A 10mm wide ring is cut on the cable to expose above outer semiconducting screen layer. A water head in a tube is maintained at 1.3 m height. 10 consecutive thermal cycles are applied, each 8 hours duration. Each 8 hours comprises of 4 hours of heating cycle at 100C followed by 4 hours of cooling cycle. At the end of the 10 cycles, it is to

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be observed that no leakage of water is visible at either end of a 3 m long cable. 5. TEST CERTIFICATES: Test Certificates form a part of cable testing. Test certificates are issued to customers after successful completion of test programme on cables as agreed by cable manufacturers during acceptance of a cable order. The test certificates are mainly of 3 categories e.g. (a) Routine Test Certificate (b) Type Test Certificate and (c) Acceptance Test Certificate. Routine and type test certificates are mandatorily to be provided by cable manufacturers irrespective of client inspection being conducted on cables or not. The certificates normally contain a brief description of the construction of the cable, its type, size, voltage grade, cable length (in case of routine test certificate) in each drum/coil. Customers purchase order reference, embossing details on cable outersheath etc. also form part of a certificate. Besides these, the tests conducted, their specified values and observed values are listed on a certificate based on the type of certificate. For example, a routine test certificate will consist of these tests only which have been conducted as per standard under the category Routine tests. Routine and type test certificates are authenticated by cable manufacturer whereas the acceptance test certificates are jointly authenticated by manufacturer and clients representative as witnessing authority. Any special tests as agreed by manufacturer and customer are conducted under any of the above classification of tests and certified accordingly. Otherwise the tests are categorized as Special tests or Additional tests and separate test certificates are made and authenticated. The test certificate form a part of cable dispatch document.

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CHAPTER 7 PACKING AND DISPATCH OF CABLES 1) STORAGE OF CABLES The cables which have been duly tested and found complying with specified requirements are stored systematically in the defined dispatch yard. Material handling equipment like forklift and cranes are used to handle heavy cable drums. Adequate care is taken during handling so that the cables do not get damaged during transit. Cable ends are sealed with end-caps and tightly wound and tied on drums. Such sealed and secured drums are stored in the dispatch yard. During storage, care is taken to ensure that the flange of one drum remains in straight line with the flange of subsequent drum. There are enough space maintained between drums to facilitate ease of packing and handling. 2) STENCILING, PACKING AND LOADING OF DISPATCH DRUMS Every cable length is identified as per specification, with respect to its size, type, voltage grade, length in a drum, name of manufacturer & its location, Purchase Order No., Customers Name and destination, year of manufacture. These details are carefully collected and stenciled on each drum covering the 2 faces of flange. The stenciling is done neatly using a paint having contrast colour to the one applied on flange. Besides these, other details like BIS mark, BIS Specification number, BIS license number, Gross weight and net weight in Kgs. and direction of rolling etc. are stenciled on each drum containing specific cables. The neatness and perfection in the stenciling job is equally important as the manufacturing of cable. The stenciled drums are taken for packing. The integrity of end caps sitting tightly on cable ends is ensured. The two flanges of each drum are covered with wooden planks sitting one after the other being

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nailed on flanges. Care is taken to see that there remains practically no gap between two planks. Mild steel straps are then laid over the planks to secure them tightly over flanges so that a single plank does not get dissociated. The sizes of planks are kept uniform and they do not protrude out of the flange surface. Metal drums are also packed similarly. Once the packing is over, the cable drums are loaded on trucks/trolleys by using forklifts and cranes. Parallely all relevant dispatch documents are kept ready. The details are checked to ensure proper marking, planking and dispatching right cable to right client at the right destination. 1) DISPATCH DOCUMENTS: The documents, which are essentially associated with dispatch of cables to customers, are as follows: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) Dispatch advise received from customer Test certificates received from Quality Assurance Department Excisable material outward gate pass Material invoice Delivery challan Lorry receipt received from the transporter Any other documents decided by customer Instruction for the handling, storage and site inspection on cables.

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CHAPTER 8 STANDARDS FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF CABLES/CONDUCTORS Normally Indian and IEC Standards are followed for manufacturing Conductors, Power and Control Cables. A concise list of the same is as follows:1. IS 694 voltages - Specification for PVC insulated cables for working upto and including 1100 volts.

2. IS 1554(Part-1) - Specification for PVC insulated (Heavy duty) electric cables for working voltages upto and including 1100 volts. 3. IS 1554 (Part- 2) - Specification for PVC insulated (Heavy duty) electric cables for working voltages from 3.3 KV upto and including 11 KV. 4. IS 7098 (Part-1) - Specification for Crosslinked Polyethylene insulated PVC sheathed cables for working voltages upto and including 1100 volts. 5. IS 7098 (Part-2) - Specification for crosslinked Polyethylene insulated PVC sheathed cables for working voltages from 3.3 KV upto and including 33 KV. 6. IS 7098 (Part-3) - Specification for crosslinked Polyethylene insulated thermoplastic sheathed cables for working voltages from 66 KV upto and including 220 KV. 7. IS 9968 (Part 1) - Specification for elastomer insulated cables for working voltages upto and including 1100 volts. 8. IS 9968 (Part-2) - Specification for elastomer insulated cables for working voltages from 3.3 KV upto and including 33 KV. 9. IS 9857 - Specification for welding cables.

10. IS 4289 (part-1) - Specification for elastomer insulated flexible cables for lifts and other flexible connections. 11. IS 4289 (Part-2) - Specification for PVC insulated circular flexible cables for lifts and other flexible connections. 12. IS 14255 - Specification for aerial bunched cables for working voltages upto and including 1100 volts. 13. IS 398 (Part-1) - Specification for Aluminium Stranded conductors for overhead transmission purposes.

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14. IS 398 (Part-2) - Specification for Aluminium conductors, galvanized steel reinforced (ACSR) for overhead transmission purposes. 15. IS 398 (Part-4) - Specification for Aluminium Conductors(AAC) for overhead transmission purposes. Alloy Stranded

16. IEC 60502 - Power Cables with extruded insulation and their accessories for rated voltages from 1 KV upto 30 KV - Pt. 1 Cables for rated voltages of 1 KV and 3 KV - Pt. 2 Cables for rated voltages from 6 KV upto 30 KV

CHAPTER 9 LICENCES PERTAINING TO STATUTORY AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

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A power cable manufacturing unit obtains and maintains licenses of various Statutory and Regulatory requirements. Quality Management System Certificates as per ISO regulations are also being maintained. A list of very important licenses/certificates is produced below:

1. BIS licenses for all the products being manufactured and sold 2. ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System certificate 3. Factory licenses covering the factories act 1948 4. License for excise registration 5. License for Sales Tax registration 6. License pertaining to Indian Boiler Act, 1923 7. Licenses pertaining to the Indian Electricity Act 1910 and Indian Electricity Rules 1956. 8. Certificates pertaining to Pollution Control Act, 1981 9. Certificates pertaining to the Petroleum Act 1934.

CHAPTER 10 HANDLING, STORAGE, ERECTION & COMMISSIONING OF CABLES 1.0 UNLOADING 1.1 1.2 Do not drop the cable drum/coil from height Roll the drums/coils from wagons/trucks/trolleys over a ramp/slope/(with gradient of 1:3 or 1:4) preferably in the direction of rotation marked on the drum.

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1.3 2.0

Alternatively, lift the drum/coil with a crane and gently put on the hard surfaced ground.

CABLE DRUM STORAGE 2.1 The stored cables should have cable end caps fixed securely on both the ends of the cable. Incase the end caps are removed for meggering/issuing part quantity of cable, the balance cable in drum shall be refixed with end caps to avoid ingress of moisture/water entry. The cable drum storage site shall be firm/concrete/asphalted surface not to cause the cable drums to sink in the ground due to its dead weight. The storage surface shall be well drained to avoid water logging. The site should be reasonably leveled. Cable drum should not be stored on a slope or highly uneven surface. Firm ground is necessary to facilitate cable drum movement. The cable drum should never be stored flat with the drum flanges horizontal. Adequate space should be available between two adjacent drums/rows of drums to facilitate air circulation and movement of personnel to check drum marking before issuance of cables. It is a good practice to store drums on battens placed directly under the flange to reduce the possibility of drum sinking in the soil. During prolonged storage the drum should be rolled by 90 once every three months. If due to rotting of wooden drums during prolonged storage or any other reason, it becomes necessary to rewind the cable on another drum, the barrel diameter of the new drum shall be in no case less than the barrel diameter of the original drum. While rewinding the cable, ensure that the outersheath of the cable is not scratched/damaged due to protruding nails from wooden drums. Overhead coverage of the storage space is not necessary unless the cable drums are stored for a very long period. The cables should be protected from direct sunrays by retaining the outer lagging of the drum or providing sun shield. If the cable drum storage yard has large number of wooden drums (thereby increasing fire hazard), keep provisions for initial fire fighting like sand buckets, fire extinguishers etc. The isles/gangways should be broad enough for easy movement of fire tenders. It is a good practice to sprinkle pesticides in cable drum storage yard at suitable intervals to keep it free from termites and rodent attack. PRE-ERECTION CHECKS 3.1 Selection of the route should be first decided keeping in view the immediate and ultimate use of the cable. 3.2 Before transporting the cable drum to work site, it is necessary to check the road condition. Attention should be paid if any obstruction which fall enroute.

2.2

2.3 2.4

2.5

2.6

2.7

2.8

3.0

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3.3 The cable joint pit should be with sufficient dimensions so that jointer can work with as much as freedom of movement. Joint should be near the pipe end or at the bend. 3.4 After removing the drum planking, examine the cable for external damage on outer sheath if any. 3.5 Check endcaps marked Torrent and factory seals (crack back sticker) on both the end to ensure length supplied by the company. 3.6 Before laying of cable, conduct Insulation Resistance test on cable on the drums as follows: 3.6.1 Remove end caps from both ends of the cable. 3.6.2 Remove outer sheath, armour and inner sheath from both ends for about 150 mm for screened cable and about 50 mm for unscreened cable. 3.6.3 Separate out all the core 3.6.4 Remove the copper tape screen (for screened cables) from all the cores upto about 100 mm at both the ends. 3.6.5 Remove semiconducting layer (for screened cables) of insulation screening thoroughly with the help of a glass piece or semicon remover for about 75 mm from all the cores at both the ends. 3.6.6 Clean the exposed insulation surface. 3.6.7 Measure Insulation Resistance between conductor against screen and armour for screened cable and between one core against all other cores and armour for unscreened cable. 3.6.8 After completion of test, cut the ends, refix the end caps and tie the ends on the drum. 4.0 4.1 ERECTION

DEPTH OF LAYING Minimum depth of laying from ground surface to the top of the cable. LT Power cable & Control cable : 0.75 m Cable at road crossing : 1.00 m Cable at railway level crossing : 1.00 m (measured from bottom of sleeper to top of pipe) 3.3 KV to 11 KV grade cable : 0.90 m 22 KV to 33 KV grade cable : 1.05 m 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Consider possible diversions due to unforeseen conditions and extra cable length at termination ends, while measuring the actual route length. The drum is mounted on cable stacked with strong spindle to fit in braking plank, so that drum would not revolve unevenly. Always pull the cable from the top of the drum and place the drum such that the direction of painted arrow remains in the opposite direction of pulling. Lift the drum with drum axle or hydraulic device. Provide suitable braking arrangement for cable drum to avoid rolling, consequent buckling of cable while sudden stop. A simple plank may be used as a drum brake.

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4.7 4.8

Do not pull the cable across hard and sharp objects to avoid damage to the outer sheath and the insulation. Cable rollers can serve the best to avoid the same. Avoid sharp bends and maintain minimum bending radius as given below. Voltage Rating PVC & XLPE CABLES Single Core Multicore Up to 1.1 KV 15D 12 D Above 1.1 KV to 11 KV 15D 15 D Above 11 KV 20D 15 D Note : D is outer diameter of cable. At terminations, under onerous site conditions, if the bending radius is to be reduced, special precautions should be taken to avoid damage to cable. Do not bend the individual cores at joints and terminations with bending radius less than 12 times the diameter over the insulation. CABLES LAID ACROSS ROADS, RAILWAY TRACKS AND WATER PIPE LINES. 4.11.1 Steel, Cast Iron, Plastics, Cement or earthenware ducts or cable ducting blocks should be used where cables cross roads and railways tracks. 4.11.2 Spare ducts for future extension should be provided & sealed at both ends. 4.11.3 Ensure smooth entry of cable without undue bending. 4.11.4 The duct/pipe joints should be covered by collars to prevent settlement in between pipes. 4.11.5 The diameter of the cable conduit or pipe or duct should be at least 1.5 times the outer diameter of cable. The pipe/duct should be mechanically strong enough to withstand forces due to heavy traffic when laid across road/railway tracks. 4.11.6 The cable entry and exit should be through bell mouth or padding. 4.11.7 The bending radii of steel or plastic ducts should not be less than 1.5 m. 4.11.8 Single core cables should not be laid individually in ducts, but all 3 cables of the same system should be laid in one duct.

4.9 4.10 4.11

4.12 CABLE OVER BRIDGES 4.12.1 Cables to be supported on steel cable hooks or clamped on steel supports at intervals. 4.12.2 Cable lay out design on bridge should consider expansion of bridge due to changes in atmospheric temperature. 4.12.3 Cables on rail-cum-road bridges are subjected to vibrations. For such conditions, round wire armoured and lead Alloy B sheath cable are preferred (in case of PILC cables). 4.12.4 Cables can be laid on bridges duly suspended at regular intervals from galvanized catenary wire of adequate strength & of stranded construction.

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The catenary wires, in suitable spans, are connected to rigid members of a bridge by turn-buckles. 4.12.5 Cable is suspended on Steel/Aluminium/Leather suspenders connected to the catenary wire by dropper wires. The type of installation takes care of expansion of bridge and vibration problems. 4.12.6 Cables laid in bridges may be provided with sunshields to protect cables from direct sunrays. 4.12.7 Road bridges are provided with built-in-cable ducts. 4.13 CABLES BELOW RAILWAY CROSSING 4.13.1 Cables when laid under railway tracks should be laid in reinforced spun concrete/cast iron/steel pipes. 4.13.2 The pipe should be laid at a depth of not less than 1 m measured from the bottom of the sleeper to the top of the pipe. 4.13.3 In case of single core cables, the pipe should be large enough to contain all the three single core cables forming the circuit, in the same pipe.

4.14 CABLE LAYING ON RACKS IN AIR 4.14.1 The vertical distance between 2 racks shall be minimum 0.3 m. In cases of wall-mounted racks, the clearance of the first cable from the wall shall be 25 mm minimum. The rack width should not exceed 0.75 m. 4.14.2 Each tray should preferably contain only one layer of cables. Stacking cables one above other in 2 or 3 layers on one rack, reduces current carrying capacity to a large extent. 4.14.3 Only single core cables laid on horizontal racks should be clamped at suitable intervals. Multi core cables may not be clamped. 4.14.4 The distance between vertical clamps should not be more than 2 m. 4.15 LAYING OF CABLES ON J HOOKS MOUNTED ON WALL 4.15.1 Where more than one cable has to be supported, either use separate J hook or a strip with multi-tier projections in the form of J can be provided. 4.15.2 When there is a change in direction of the wall, J hook should be provided near the turning on both sides. 4.16 MINIMUM CLEARANCES 4.16.1 Power cable to power cable: Clearance not necessary, however larger the clearance, better would be current carrying capacity. 4.16.2 Power cables to control cables: 0.2 m. 4.16.3 Power cables to communication cables: 0.3 m 4.16.4 Power cables to gas/water main : 0.3 m Note: Inductive influence on sensitive control cable on account of nearby power cable should be checked. 4.17 Provide identification marking with strips/tags with cable particular, 8 m to 10 m apart, if several cables are laid in parallel. 4.18 Make joints of cable, after laying the cable.

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4.19 Earth the metal screen (if any) and armour at both ends of cable. Earth single core cables are recommended in IS:1255. 4.20 Provide bed of riddled earth or river sand. 4.21 Use protective cable warning covers. 4.22 Do not give any instruction to back fill the trench, until the entire length is protected by cable cover, checked and tested. 4.23 Leave a crown of earth not less than 50 mm in the center and tapering towards the sides of the trench to allow for settlement. 4.24 Backfill the trench without heavy stones under close supervision.
5.0 TESTING AND ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENTS OF CABLE INSTALLATIONS

5.1 Insulation Resistance test on newly installed cable before jointing. 5.1.1 All new cables should be tested for insulation resistance before jointing. 5.1.2 Only after satisfactory results are obtained, cable jointing and termination work should commence. 5.1.3 Insulation resistance test (at site) gives only approximate insulation resistance & test is meant to reveal gross insulation fault(s). 5.1.4 A fairly low insulation resistance reading (at site) compared to the values obtained at factory testing should not be a cause of worry, since insulation resistance varies greatly with parameters such as length & temperature. This is more pronounced in PVC cables. 5.1.5 The voltage rating of the insulation resistance tests for cables of different voltage grades should be chosen from the following table. Voltage Grade of Cable Voltage rating of IR Testing

1.1 KV 500 V 3.3 KV 1000V 6.6 KV 1000V 11 KV 1000V 22 KV 2.5 KV (See Note) 33 KV 2.5 KV (See Note) Note: For long feeders, motorized insulation resistance tester should be used. 5.1.6 More accurate insulation resistance value can be measured by a portable resistance bridge. 5.1.7 In the unscreened cables, the IR of each core is measured against all the other cores and armour connected to earth. In screened cable, IR of each core is measured against all other cores and the metal screen and armour connected to earth.
5.2 CONDUCTORS RESISTANCE (DC)

5.2.1 Conductor resistance is measured by a suitable bridge. 5.2.2 Conductors at the other end are looped together with connecting bond of at least same effective electrical cross section as conductor. 5.2.3 The contact resistance is kept to a minimum by proper clamp or bolted connections.

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5.2.4

With properly installed and jointed cables, values thus measured and corrected to 20C are in general agreement with values given in Test Certificates.

5.3

CAPACITANCE 5.3.1 For unscreened cables, capacitance is measured for one conductor against others and metal sheath/armour connected to earth. 5.3.2 In case of screened cable, capacitance is measured between conductor and screen. 5.3.3 Capacitance bridge is used for this purpose. 5.3.4 This measurement may be carried out in case of cables above 11 KV. Alternately, values given in product catalogues to be considered. 5.4 HIGH VOLTAGE TEST 5.4.1 Cables after jointing and terminating are subjected to d c high voltage test 5.4.2 The recommended values of test voltages (dc) are as follows:Rated Voltage of Cable Uo/U(KV) 0.65/1.1 1.9/3.3 3.3/3.3 3.8/6.6 6.6/6.6 6.35/11 11/11 12.7/22 19/33 Test Voltage between Any Conductor Conductor to and Metallic Conductor(for Sheath/Screen/ unscreened Armour (KV) Cables (KV) 3 3 5 9 9 9 10.5 18 18 18 18 30 30 30 37.5 60 Duration

(Minutes)

5.4.3 The leakage current shall also be measured & recorded for future reference. 5.4.4 Generally dc test should be preferred as test equipment required is compact, easily portable and power requirement low. 5.4.5 The cable cores must be discharged on completion of dc high voltage test and cable should be kept earthed until it is put into service. 5.4.6 DC test voltage for old cables is 1.5 times rated voltage or less depending on the age of cables, repair work or nature of jointing work carried out etc. In any case the test voltage should not be less than the rated voltage. 5.4.7 It may be noted that frequent high voltage tests on cable installations should not be carried out. This test should be carried out only when essential. 5.4.8 During the high voltage test, all other electrical equipment related to the cable installation, such as switches, instrument transformers, bus bars etc

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must be earthed and adequate clearance should be maintained from the other equipment and frame work to prevent flash overs. 5.4.9 In each test, the metallic sheath/screen/armour should be connected to earth. Reference : IS-1255:1983

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