The 35^th General Meeting of the Intercable International Association

The 35^th regular general meeting of the Intercable International Association (Intercable IA) was held on 10-11 June, 2008 in Bulgaria (Sunny Beach). 134 company representatives from 14 countries took part in the work of the Association. A scientific and technical symposium

“Cables rated for 10 – 500 kV: the current state and development prospects, manufacturing equipment, measuring devices and materials” was held within the framework of the general meeting.

The participants of the symposium made 15 reports and presentations. The reports presented by JSC VNIIKP (Russia) and TELEFONIKA Kable S.A. (Poland) were directly devoted to cable and wire. The VNIIKP report covered the questions of medium and high voltage cable development and production on the post-soviet territory. The TELEFONIKA presentation was devoted to the new design of a high voltage power cable incorporating a fiber optic tube module serving a distributed temperature sensor along the cable line route. A number of presentations dealt with manufacturing equipment used for medium, high and extra-high voltage cable production. The representatives of SKET GmbH (Germany), SEECO BARTELL Products (USA), Caballe S.A. (Spain), Gauder Group (Belgium-France), O.M. LESMO S.p.A. (Italy) made reports on current-carrying conductor manufacturing equipment. The Maillefer S.A. (Swezerland) and Troester GmbH (Germany) presented improved designs of catenary and vertical continuous vulcanization lines for cross-linked polyethylene insulating compounds. Nexans GmbH (Germany) made a report dealing with metal sheath welding equipment for high voltage cable production.

New materials used in medium, high and extra-high voltage cable constructions were presented by the world-renowned companies Borealis AG (Austria) and Dow Wire & Cable (Switzerland). Both reports placed emphasis on the necessity of degassing of high voltage and extra-high voltage cable polyethylene insulation and described the degassing methods.

The manufacturing technology and finished product quality control is an important aspect of cable production. The representatives of Zumbach Electronic AG (Switzerland) and SIKORA AG (Germany) presented information about special types of measuring instruments used in catenary and vertical continuous vulcanization lines. Haefely Test AG (Switzerland) made a report about the methods of partial discharge test of high voltage cables performed to reveal possible insulation defects and the methods of determination of the susceptibility threshold while measuring the partial discharge value.

New full members of the Intercable Association were announced during the General Meeting: ZAO “Unkomtech” (Russia), incorporating “Kirskabel” and “Irkutskkabel” plants; ZAO “Trade House VNIIKP” (Russia); O.M. LESMO S.p.A. (Italy). Dow Wire & Cable (Switzerland) was admitted as a member supporting the work of the Intercable Association.

The topic of the scientific and technical symposium to be held within the framework of the 36^th General Meeting of the Association was agreed upon and approved - “ Improved fire safety cables: state and development prospects, manufacturing equipment, measuring devices and materials”.

The 36^th General Meeting of the Inercable Association will take place in Switzerland on 8 – 12 December, 2008.