Students’ Project Helps to Protect the Ground Wire of the Power Line

14:31, July 19, 2018

The team is testing the technology of applying anticorrosion and anti-ice lubricant

The application of an anticorrosion and anti-ice lubricant to a ground wire is an urgent task for all electric grid companies. In the Far Eastern regions of Russia, ice is added to the problem of corrosion: in winter, with high humidity, an ice cake is formed on the wires, which can cause wire breaks.

‘Ground wire is a steel rope most often with a diameter of 9-11 mm. The lifespan of such a rope is 25 years according to regulatory documents. During installation, the wire is covered with a special lubricating coating, which protects it from corrosion and contamination. However, it lasts only about 5 years,’ said the head of the start-up Alexander Lemekh.

The students of Ural Federal University solved the problem. Members of UrFU startup "Laboratory of the Future" developed a special lubricating device and built it into the robotic complex "Kanatohod" (Ropewalker). The lubrication device is able to work with the entire range of lightning protection cables used on power lines up to 330 kV. Also, the adjustment to the ground wire diameter allows to work with larger wires to apply other types of coatings on them.

The process of the applying the lubricant is the following: the drone takes off, land on the ground wire, moves along it with the help of rollers and applies a lubricant layer evenly from all sides of the line.

Possibilities of the developed technology were confirmed during independent tests on the stand: the coating is applied evenly around the circumference of the rope section, the thickness of the freshly covered coating is about 1 mm.