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Rugged cable gains acceptance

A jacket material originally designed for use on shovels in openpit mines has garnered acceptance in longwall mines.

Angie Tomlinson

The Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) jacket was developed by Arkansas-based Cable specialist AmerCable. Following tests and time in the field, the company found the TPU jacket to be extremely rugged and abrasion-resistant and introduced it to underground mines, particularly for use on the shearer cable.

The physical properties of TPU in crush and cut-through resistance far exceed those of common thermoset rubber jackets, AmerCable said.

“These superior mechanical properties improve productivity levels for all mining applications.”

The internal components of AmerCable’s Type SHD-GC cables are comprised of flexible tin-coated annealed copper stranding, extruded strand shielding, Ethylene Propylene Rubber (EPR) insulation, copper/nylon braid shield, two grounds, and one ground check.

All conductors are cabled together with rubber fillers and a separator tape overall. This taped core can have reinforcing webbing over it.

The TPU jacket is extruded in a single pass to meet the standard diameter and wall thickness of the Insulated Cable Engineers Association for Type SHD-GC cables. Thermoplastic Polyurethane is also easily colored without any loss of physical properties. It is currently available in black, blue, green, yellow, red and orange.

In addition to Type SHD-GC longwall cables, AmerCable also offers a full line of SHD-GC and SHD-CGC cables in voltages from 2kV to 25kV. SHD-PCG with TPU jackets is available in both 2kV and 5kV for longwall applications.

AmerCable stocks a complete line of mining cables for room and pillar mining and surface mining equipment.

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