manufacturers have become very selective in the types of cables which 

 they will manufacture in their plants. This is most likely due to the 

 labor situation and they have chosen to manufacture those cables which 

 are most economic to their company. An example is the British Callender's 

 and Insulated Cable Company which, at one time, was one of the largest 

 ocean cable manufacturers but now only manufactures short lengths of 

 cable for river crossings. Pirelli, on the other hand, has shown quite 

 an aggressive attitude in the cable market. The Japanese manufacturers 

 have been in the business only since the Second World War. This means 

 that all of their equipment and machinery is relatively new and auto- 

 mated. Also, the labor situation in Japan has necessitated automated 

 cable manufacturing. With automated machinery, cable can be made much 

 quicker, and the lower labor costs make the Japanese cables very competi- 

 tive. One American distributor for Japanese cables claims to possess 

 the entire oil industry market in the Gulf of Mexico using Japanese- 

 manufactured signal and power cables for shore-to-platform runs. 



Manufacturing Procedure 



The manufacturing of E-M cable requires several steps which are 

 basically the same for each manufacturer. Differences do occur between 

 companies production capability, such as maximum size or number of con- 

 ductors, etc., which is usually the result of the type and age of the 

 machinery used, but each company performs the following steps. 



Stranding . The stranding process in cable making consists in pass- 

 ing individual metal wires through the machine which then bunches them 

 into groups of seven or more small wires which become conductors of 

 various AWG sizes. These machines can handle various types of material 

 such as copper or aluminum or any other ductile metal. These conductors 

 are then used to form coaxial cables or they go through an extruding 

 machine which covers them with insulation materials. Some of the mater- 

 ials used for extruding insulation over these conductors are vinyl, 

 polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, rubber, neoprene, or teflon. These 

 extrusion machines can put almost any thickness of insulation on the 

 conductors while simultaneously measuring and monitoring and testing the 

 cable. 



Cabling . The next process is called cabling. The machine used for 

 this is referred to as a planetary machine in that it uses planetary 

 twining bobbins which combine the conductors into cable assemblies, on 

 some machines as great as 7 3/4 inches in diameter. Larger machines can 

 simultaneously assemble in excess of 100 concentricallv-laid conductors. 

 Some of these machines also have a step in which void filling can be per- 

 formed at this stage. Various types of void filling are available 

 depending on the type of waterblocking that is required. 



Jacketing . The iacketing process involves covering the conductors 

 with either a thermoplastic or thermoset covering, rubber or neoprene 

 which is extruded over the cable. 



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