Nitrogen is an inert, non-reactive, colorless, tasteless and odorless gas. The inert gas has many applications running across various industries. Chiefly, it is used in creating ammonia for making fertilizers, explosives and numerous other materials. For meeting industrial requirements, we use nitrogen plant and generators for generating onsite nitrogen gas.
Cable industry is of the biggest industries using nitrogen on a large scale. Wire manufacturing and cable industry are industries which require constant supply of nitrogen. This industries use N2 gas for smooth running of their production processes. No doubt, use of nitrogen plant and generators in the cable industry is extensive. There is no more reliable source of obtaining industrial nitrogen than installing an onsite nitrogen plant.
And, nitrogen is one of the most abundantly found elements comprising 78% of earth’s atmosphere. As mentioned earlier, the inert gas is used wide variety of commercial applications. However, many companies are now finding it more beneficial to install their own nitrogen gas plants than sourcing the non-reactive gas from third-party suppliers.
Why wire makers and cable industry need nitrogen?
During the manufacturing of cables, it is but natural that air, humidity and oxygen molecules will go into the coating material and the wire upon coating. So the nitrogen gas is introduced in the coating material and the wire. This creates a closed nitrogen atmosphere thereby preventing oxidation.
We know that high tension cables (33 KV-210 KV) are made with the help of a process called nitrogen atmosphere curing. Better Deal Machineries Pvt. Ltd. is one of the leading nitrogen plant manufacturing companies supplying nitrogen plants. We have supplied nitrogen plants to various companies manufacturing cables in South America, Asia, Africa and Middle-East.
Earlier, the cable industry used steam curing of electrical cables. In this process there was no way to remove moisture completely. As a result, the cable insulation was of poor quality because some moisture was always left inside the coating.
Then, steam curing gave way to the dry nitrogen curing. Now we have hundreds of cable companies using nitrogen for manufacturing of high tension cables. However, this kind of curing requires constant supply of nitrogen at 12-18 bar pressure. Better Deal Machinery has been manufacturing and supplying high pressure nitrogen generators for over 35 years for catering to such needs.
Nitrogen plants for cable industry are manufactured with the latest cryogenic technology. The plants can be set for generating nitrogen at a required pressure. And, the nitrogen gas generated in the nitrogen plant/generator is stored in high pressure tanks.
The storage tank is used for taking nitrogen for curing through an advanced pressure reducing valve. The tank will take care of fluctuating nitrogen requirements. And, it also provides high pressure nitrogen flow during purging. This application requires nitrogen to have purity of 99.9%. This level of N2 purity is deal for achieving perfect insulation. We will discuss important aspects of curing of cables in the following sections:
Tempering of Copper wires
Manufacturing of copper wires needs tempering. It is required for increasing flexibility and resistance. The process uses nitrogen for tempering process. The inert gas is put inside the stove for stopping oxidation at high temperatures. No doubt nitrogen completely stops oxidation.
Cooling and heating
Nitrogen is used for cooling and heating. Air conditioners and industrial cooling devices use copper pipes. For usage of copper wires, these devices must go through a leakage test in which we use nitrogen.
