wiredinUSA July 2013

EVONIK PAPER GETS PRESENTATION AWARD

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.

wiredInUSA - July 2013

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