EoW January 2013

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News
Technology
January 2013 31
The cleanliness of PE material is gaining
in importance at higher cable voltage
classes. In particular, alternative wind
energy generation in the off-shore
area requires a cable network with the
minimum number of joints. In order to
achieve this goal, long production cycles
should be run. Where production lines
formerly ran from Monday to Saturday,
now a continuous production run of 10 to
20 days is common.
Long production cycles are achieved,
for example, by leaving out the screens
before the crosshead in order to ensure
a constant material flow. However, the
manufacture without screens also results
in contaminations passing directly
into the cable insulation rather than
being caught. Hence there is the need
for other measures to detect possible
contamination in the pellet and to
remove them.
A special challenge is the contaminated
pellet itself. Contaminations are most
often not only on the pellet surface, but
they are also melted down in the pellet.
By means of optical testing systems these
contaminations cannot be detected.
That is the reason why Sikora is currently
developing a completely new system
that differs in two ways from existing but
flawed solutions: The Sikora system is
based on X-ray technology and detects
also contaminations in the pellet. The
smallest detectable particle size is 50μm,
at a throughput of up to 500kg/h. Higher
throughputs are possible by installing
several units in parallel.
In addition, the pellet inspection is
installed directly in the joint tube
between the silo/octabin and the
extruder. The system is consequently
hermetically sealed and there is zero risk
that dust particles get into the material
flow.
The Sikora solution for pellet inspection is
perfectly suitable for both manufacturers
of energy cables and pellet manufacturers
within the plastics industry.
Sikora AG – Germany
Website:
A clean business: Development
project for pellet inspection
▲ ▲ Sikora’s development project “Pellet Inspection”
ensures flawless pellets before starting production
While some spring manufacturers struggle with the complex shape of double torsion
springs, William Hughes has invested in the latest CNC technology machines to fully
automate the production process.
For many applications, double torsion springs perform better than single and as a
result, they are widely used in the automotive industry. Typical applications include
door handles, seat adjustment mechanisms and console lids.
When a manufacturer of seat and car interior parts needed a double torsion spring
for the door handles of a popular small car, it approached William Hughes as one
of its preferred suppliers. The application engineers at William Hughes used their
knowledge and expertise to design the spring to meet the exacting specification of
the car manufacturer, whilst ensuring that the spring would be easy to manufacture
using its CNC machinery.
The spring is used inside the car to return the handle to its normal position and is
specially designed to make assembly into the car mechanism easy. Despite the
complex shape of the central section of the double torsion spring, very little tooling
was required.
By making the spring in two fully automated stages, the difficult central section
was easily formed to provide a spring that is compact, cost effective and which
encompasses the right performance characteristics and durability. The final stage of
the process is to finish and protect the springs using an organic and environmentally
friendly anti-corrosion paint containing zinc flake.
William Hughes Ltd – UK Website:
The iiM software ProCable is a compact
CAQ system – especially developed for
the requirements of cable producers.
With the CAQ system ProCable test plans
can be developed, orders administrated
and the received test results can be
archived with corresponding additional
information into the databases. ProCable
generates a list of results from the
measurements according to the applied
test plans. Afterwards the test results are
deposited, structured and accurate.
ProCable adapts test results with the test
plans. Possible exceeding of tolerance
limits will be shown to the user at once
who can then repeat the measurement
or be forced to comment the exceptional
circumstances.
iiM AG – Germany
Website:
CAQ-system
lProCable
lespecially for
lproducers