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wiredInUSA - July 2013
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A technical paper presented by Martin Tennie,
manager of R&D and technical support for the
Creasorb
®
business of the Evonik Corporation, was
awarded Best Presentation to Subcommittee A
(cable construction and design).
Mr Tennie’s paper, “Superabsorbent polymers as
water-blocking components in cables”, presented
new research todetermine thebest ways togauge
the effectiveness of superabsorbent polymers
(SAPs) as water-blocking materials.
The announcement was made at the ICC Spring
2013 meeting held in Pittsburgh. Bobby Mitra,
business director at Creasorb-Nafta, accepted
the award on behalf of Tennie, who presented the
paper at the Fall 2012 meeting of the IEEE Power &
Energy Society’s insulated conductors committee.
Noting that the current body of material
specifications as well as performance standards
for dry water-blocked power cables focus on
the rapid swelling reaction and high absorption
capacity of SAPs in their “dry” state, Mr Tennie
presented test results that not only reinforced
the findings of a previous study demonstrating
that the long-term stability of a hydrated SAP is
critical to water penetration performance over
the life cycle of the cable, but also pointed to the
importance of the type of cross-linking agent, and
the modulus of elasticity of the SAP.
Test data discussed by Mr Tennie showed that SAPs
designed to optimize these properties exhibited
much improved cable penetration results,
compared to SAPs designed for faster swelling
and high absorbency.
EVONIK PAPER GETS
PRESENTATION
AWARD