WCA September 2016

Industry news

Cables to meet stringent solar requirements

RENEWABLE energy is booming. Not only single households, but more and more companies are also changing their power supply sources. Solar energy is one of the sources that is transmitted through solar cables, and these have special properties to fulfil environmental requirements: they need to be UV resistant, weather resistant and mechanically resistant, as well as offering electrical properties with an ideal lifetime of more than 25 years. RosendahlNextrom delivers extrusion technology for the production of single- and multi-core solar cables. The process covers insulation and jacketing in one production step on two extruders of a similar size. An optional stripe extruder can be included in the extruder group. The latest standard, TÜV2Pfg- 1169/08.07, also allows the process to run co-extrusion (dual-layer extrusion with one crosshead).

Some advantages with Rosendahl co-extrusion are: • Thinner walls on solar cables • Higher production speeds • Easy operation, as it is only one extruder group • Lower investment costs • Shorter line length The extrusion process calls for intense product know-how. The material is typically a polyolefin copolymer which ❍ Solar cable co-extrusion from RosendahlNextrom

is then crosslinked using either an electron beam or the Sioplas method to achieve the desired product quality. These two methods help the material attain a rigid molecular structure for chemical resistance and mechanical flexibility. The material characteristics can be tailored to suit custom needs. RosendahlNextrom GmbH – Austria Website : www.rosendahlnextrom.com