Sensors help create world's longest submarine cable

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March 2006 Sensors & Transducers

ABB's cable factory in Karlskrona, Sweden, has received an interesting order for a 750 km long submarine cable which will go between Norway and Holland.

The manufacturing process consists of a large rotating table, where the cable is spooled out and guided to 17 different spinners which are protected by a total of 68 Eden sensors. Each spinner rotates around the cable and has 16 paper rolls which are all simultaneously rolled out overlapped onto the cable. The cable is then coiled up in an intermediate storage facility where it awaits to be spooled into an oil bath. After this the cable is inserted into a lead pipe which is then sealed and reinforced.

The manager responsible for the machine safety on the NorNed project at ABB HVC is Jan Olof Sandberg who has discussed and reviewed different safety solutions together with Jokab safety. Jan Olof knew from earlier experience that the Eden safety sensor was a suitable sensor for use on the older spinner lines at ABB HVC. This is why Eden and Tina products, which are monitored by the Pluto safety PLC, were an obvious choice for monitoring the old machines and at the same time use new technology in an easy way.

Jan Olof himself would take care of the design work and the programming of Pluto at the same time as managing the installation work. In order to achieve this, Jan Olof attended a one-day Pluto training seminar at Jokab Safety to obtain basic programming knowledge. He also received an introduction on how to best use the Pluto system. The knowledge obtained by Jan was sufficient for him to be able to program the entire safety system. To prevent problems and possible future errors the program was reviewed by Erik Cascalheira from Jokab Safety's Pluto support team.

In South Africa, Eden sensors are available from Tec Electrical Services, which offers the Vital/Pluto range of safety devices and safety PLCs. The offering includes gateways for bi-directional communication between Pluto safety PLCs and other Fieldbus systems. Supported protocols include Profibus-DP, DeviceNet and CANopen.

For more information contact Andrew Hughes, Tec Electrical Services, 021 557 3102, [email protected]

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Sensors & Transducers

Sensors help create world's longest submarine cable

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