2017 Yearly Overview | Prysmian Group

69 More HV power, less weight Increasing monitoring activity Advancement in building cables and wires Important innovation in fibre producion New technology added to O&G Density of fibre increased yet again Industrial products improved Accessories developed for FTTH connectivity In the development of very-high voltage cable systems, new prototypes for 525 kV HVDC systems insulated with proprietary P-Laser technology have been produced. The conductor section –3,500 mm2 – is the largest produced to date in Prysmian, while the choice of conductor material – aluminium – made it possible to limit the weight of the cable. The industrialisation of production technology for our newgeneration of accessories dedicated to EHVDC applications continued, while in the field of future UHV applications in alternating current the development of materials and technologies suitable for use with voltages up to 800 kV has started. The development of monitoring systems has become increasingly crucial because constant network monitoring helps optimise management and enables rapid identification of any related problems, minimising the risk of faults. In 2017, greater attentionwas paid to measurement systems for partial discharges as well as for temperature, strain, vibration and radiation, with the development of both sensors and monitoring equipment and systems. As part of our PRY-CAM services, which aim to obtain real-time information on the conditions of cables or network components, our PRY-CAM Cable was developed to achieve supply and data collection for distributed systems of this type. 2017 marked the entry into force of the European standard for the homologation of cables – the Construction Products Regulation (CPR). Prysmian’s in-depth activity over the previous years to adapt our products to this forthcoming legislation has meant that from the outset, various companies within the Group have been able to maintain an influential position in several local markets. Work towards completing the range and optimising costs will continue throughout 2018. Even those several product families destined for applications not regulated by the CPR standard will be adapted to meet the same safety standards, intensifying our R&D focus in that direction. 2017 saw fibre manufacturing improvements in the USA and Brazil, where autonomous production processes are now operational. Production capacity of BendBright-XS fibres has increased through process improvements. This fibre has been much welcomed by the market thanks to its high flexibility and ductility, especially after the enforcement of the G657.A1 standard. Another important innovation concerns the use of few-mode fibre (FMF) technology, which allows digital information to be transmitted using a limited number of ‘modes’. The Group added a new technology to umbilical cables called ‘Steel Tube’ for dynamic applications. The O&G market crisis has oriented all Core Cables development activities towards the optimisation of design and production costs, and towards introducing alternative products to the market. The introduction of the CPR standard in the Transport and Installation (T&I) field is also attracting the interest of oil companies, requiring further developments for this family of products. We’ve continued to increase the number and density of fibres contained in a single cable. The latest design houses 3,456 fibres , organised into 6 elementary nuclei of 576 fibres each in a single cable. It uses BendBright-XS fibres with a diameter of 200 μm to promote miniaturisation without compromising sensitivity to bends. Increased density is also the main objective for the development of cables suitable for installation by means of the blowing technique. These so-called ‘mini’ and ‘nano’ cable families include drop cables with up to 24 fibres and a maximum diameter of 3 mm, alongside multi-loose cables with up to 288 fibres and a maximum diameter of 8 mm. Intense development and improvement of products for the industrial market has continued, including a vast and varied number of applications. Our specialisation in some of these sectors, developed at some of the Group's units, must often be transferred to other units due to the increasingly frequent requests for localisation of markets in emerging countries, making it possible (thanks to the transfer of know-how and technologies owned by the Group) to penetrate new markets. Prysmian has continued to develop new accessories for use in FTTH, focusing on ‘cabinets’, with the development of optical distribution switches, joint boxes for the splicing of cables, and termination solutions for customers with wall-mounted boxes. A family of multifunctional joints has also been launched in several countries, with special characteristics to adapt to various platforms thanks to a number of innovations.