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EuroWire – July 2008 53
taping, armouring & sheathing of cables
Taping, armouring and sheathing of cables
Tensor Machinery provides a complete armouring system for steel, aluminium and
copper tape applications from 15 to 100mm tape widths. The equipment includes tape
pay-offs, accumulators, welders, corrugators and rollforming. For the tape pay-offs
Tensor offers driven and non-driven designs, depending on the tape material and the
type of tape accumulator used. Tensor also offers up to 600 feet of tape accumulation to
ensure the line never slows down when performing a tape weld. The tape accumulator
can be designed for either smooth tape or corrugated tape.
The tape welder can weld steel, aluminium and copper tape in seconds, with a small
overlap weld. This is a resistance type welder where the tape maintains strength of
90 to 100% after it is welded. For the corrugator, Tensor provides an easily adjustable
corrugation depth using a single crank lever, giving an even corrugation across the tape
width. Both the upper and lower corrugator rollers can be driven to provide an accurate
corrugation pitch; the corrugator can be provided with a variety of corrugation pitches.
For tape forming the company suggests rollformers – a series of rollers that smoothly
form a tape into a round tube shape with a slight overlap. Tape widths as small as 15mm
can be formed into a round tube. There is virtually no friction in forming so high speeds
can be obtained without heating the tape or damaging the tape coating.
All Tensor armouring equipment can be designed to operate as a complete system or
individual components can be purchased for integration into any existing armouring line.
Tensor Machinery Ltd – Canada
Fax: +1 514 636 3288 Email: Website:
Tensor tape pay-off machine ▲ ▲ Tensor armouring equipment ▲ ▲
Rigid cage screening
Rotating cages from Cortinovis have been developed for single and multi-wire
screening of low, medium and high voltage cables with copper or aluminium.
Special low fiction pneumatic pintles permit handling of fine wires, and each wire,
from two to eight per bobbin, has individual break control.
A diving disc located at the closing point
ensures accurate spacing of the wires. A
full range of taping heads is available for
semi-conductive, non-woven and plastic tapes.
Using caterpillars for pulling, two belts with
individual motors provide electronic balance
of pull.
Cortinovis – Italy
Fax: +39 035 313211 Email: Website:
Rotating cages from Cortinovis ▲ ▲▼
Tapes and yarns
Smeets NV/SA, established in 1921, is a distributor of cable components such as woven
semi-conductive tapes, waterblocking tapes and yarns, aramid yarns, FRP strength
members, anti-fire fibreglass and mica tapes. Smeets’ high quality products are widely
used by most of the major cable manufacturers across America and Europe.
Africa and Middle East Smeets SA – Belgium
Fax: +32 2 377 24 07 Email: Website: