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New sintering line for aeronautic cables

For years, WTM has been successfully proposing complete solutions for the production of special taped cables.
Recently, a new sintering line suitable for PTFE insulation has been designed and installed for a Customer leader in the production of aeronautic cables. This machine is suitable for the thermal treatment of the insulation on conductors with diameter 3-18 mm.
In order to guarantee the uniformity of the process, particular attention has been paid to the definition of the temperature profile to be applied to the cable passing through the sintering ovens. Considering the maximum cable dimension, WTM opted for the induction preheating in the first part of the equipment. The sintering process occurs successively by means of 3 infrared ovens, equipped with independent control zones, each of them with a maximum temperature of 550 °C.
The line is able to sinter up to 10 layers of insulating tape with the highest consistency, even of different type (PTFE, polyimide, PTFE impregnating fiberglass) with a total thickness up to 1,425mm.
The equipment is fitted with a central supervision system that monitors the cable dimensional characteristics: different laser gauges connected to it measure the cable diameter in the different phases.
Taking into account the wide range of cable diameters, the cable winding and unwinding units have been equipped with a double tension control: speed control through the dancer and direct tension control by torque modulation by means of load cells. Moreover, take-up and pay-off are fully traversing in order to guarantee the perfect alignment and avoid any cable bending.
The machine is equipped with a supervising PC that controls, even in remote connection, all the process parameters and manages the production reports.