1. Issue N°25: 27 OCTOBER 2010
“The weakest link in the chain or cable is a place to start innovating.
Fix that vulnerable point and you add value.” Jorge Cofre
Breaking the vicious circuit
To ensure the safe operation of feeding cranes, shovels
and dredging machines, newer and tougher insulated
ground-check conductors are bundled within SHD-GC
power cables to “check” that equipment is fully-grounded. If
the ground-check cable or the regular ground/earth cable
breaks, the machine stops.
Core of strength
Subjected to excessive stretching, bending and impact in
mines, long power cables often failed because the ground-
check conductor itself was damaged. This new design uses
an aramid core as a central member which has a breaking
strength of about 3900 N, protecting the flexible stranded
copper bunch which carries the one amp security circuit.
Longer lifespan
an easy way to keep up with company innovations
Reinforced ground-check conductors for safer mining
ForInternaluseonly
Innovaction, an easy way to keep up with company innovations. contact: editor.innovaction@nexans.com
About this innovaction: Unit: Nexans Chile Contact: jorge.cofre@nexans.comCat.: Product
Longer lifespan
This solution will increase the lifespan of ground-check
cables by 50% which in turn protects the power cable. Mine
operators will appreciate added safety (machinery fully-
grounded), fewer stoppages, longer cable life, and lower
maintenance, repair and replacement costs.
Quite a yarn
Nexans was approached by the Codelco Chuquicamata
copper mine to increase the strength of ground-check
conductors without sacrificing flexibility. They proposed a
steel core, but we remarked that this would greatly
compromise flexibility. Our suggestion was extra-strength
yarn, and the customer agreed. An aramid supplier was
contacted, and within three weeks, tests were evaluated in
our laboratory in Santiago. Next, the NRC-Lyon was
involved, since they had a long experience with BUFLEX®
for both mining and material handling applications. A
prototype is now being evaluated by the customer.
Other applications
Although especially developed for mining, this cable could
be used wherever heavy electrical machinery is operated
at a distance from the power station.